My name is Mark Stach. I am a soldier in the Illinois Army National Guard. My unit was called to active duty in October of 2003. We spent almost a year in Iraq and returned home in March of 2005.

I was fortunate to have the internet in my living quarters and in June or July of last year, I ran across Genelle's site. I was particularly impressed with the patriotic section of the website. I sent her an email to thank her for the support she provides through her patriotic theme pages and she has become a critical link to the prayer support that I asked for to provide safety for myself and the rest of the soldiers in my unit.

Prayer was absolutely critical for our daily activities in Iraq. I fully believe that it was this prayer support that kept us in God's hands during some very dark times. We suffered our share of injuries but we made it through without a single soldier getting killed. This is unheard of given the number of mortar attacks, car bombs, roadside bombs and ambushes that we experienced. I truly believe that it was God's hand and the promises of the 91st Psalm that kept us alive.

On January 23rd, 2005, I experienced a particularly eye-opening event that proved to me that faith and prayer are essential to every day safety. We had been guarding a police station in Tarmiyah, Iraq for a few months and this was to be our last night there before we would start to pack and get ready for the trip back to the United States.

As night began to fall, I took my equipment and blankets out of our vehicle and started to get ready to make my sleeping arrangements. I left all of my equipment next to the rear tire of our humvee and I noticed that four of the puppies that I had befriended over the previous weeks were making themselves comfortable on my blankets. The mother of these puppies had given birth to them underneath an abandoned car and that¹s where they had been living. I sat with them and played with them until I got very tired and decided to slide underneath the blanket and sleep next to them. They ended up sleeping on top of me and next to me. I laid awake that night thinking about my dog at home and how nice it was to have these dogs' companionship in the middle of a war zone.

I ended up falling asleep and around 1 am, I awoke with a pain in my shoulder. I laid there trying to figure out why my shoulder was hurting because I hadn¹t done anything to injure it. I wanted to get up and move around but I was afraid to disturb the dogs because they had probably never been this comfortable in their short lives. I ended up sliding out of the blanket and walked around until my shoulder stopped hurting. For fear of disturbing the dogs, I sat down in the front seat of the vehicle and fell asleep there.

Just before 6 am, I was awakened by a very loud explosion. I was in a daze as the vehicle began to fill with a light layer of smoke and dirt. I realized that we were probably under attack so I grabbed my rifle and helmet and left the vehicle and headed for the police station. A few of my friends stopped me to see if I was okay and that¹s when I turned around to look at my vehicle and realized that a mortar had hit right next to the rear tire where I was sleeping a few hours before. Unfortunately two of the puppies were killed in the blast. The other two that survived had been sleeping inside of my protective vest.

I felt bad about the loss of the two puppies but I took comfort in that I had provided them some comfort before they were killed. I never really even thought about what had just happened. It was just another example of the hedge of protection that I had received during my time in Iraq. Once again, I truly believe that it was prayer and faith that got us through. Praise the Lord and please continue to pray for our soldiers who continue to face dangerous situations in the Middle East.

Sincerely,
Mark

This story is used here with Mark's permission.
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These pictures will surely touch your heart when you think this was in the middle of a dangerous war zone. Life goes on and God's Hand is ever present no matter where we happen to be at any given time. And the Lord's protection does not depend on outward circumstances.