Saving Lives Everyday is every day.

The story below highlights a part of Sonia's daily life in Baghdad, Iraq. Some of the photos are her unit. I did not see her in the slide show. You will, however, get a graphic and bloody view of what Sonia sees on a daily basis. Thank you so much for your prayer support. It means everything.

"The link below takes you to LA Times audio slideshow on combat healthcare and features both our hospital and the Air Force one in Balad. If you see tentage instead of hard walls, that’s not us (it also helps to read the captions to understand what’s happening). This takes a while to download but it’s worth the wait. Turn on your speakers, click on “show captions” and click on “play slideshow”. This is the story of great soldiers saving the lives of heroes."

CLICK HERE

From: Doyle, Dennis D COL USA 43ASG/10CSH

Was that your smile I saw?

Was that your smile I saw
Streaming across my path
In brilliant beams of yellow warmth?
Was it your shadow I saw
Bounding across my feet
In skittish skipping shadows?

Were robins prancing in the branches
Because winters grip was gasping it’s last
And spring’s morning rise
Was warming my aching shoulders?

What kind of song is this
That the whole of earth in earnest
Yearns for the dawn of spring?
What kind of dance do branches do
When the sweet scent of dawn
Dances while their partner sings?

My dearest dove,
My heart and soul
The one I yearn for
The one I seek each morning break.

I can not help but see your heart
Every waking moment of my life
Even the birds sing your name
As our time approaches.

Yes, my dearest dove,
I yearn for the morning
When I find you resting next to me
Breathing softly in the
Early light of our passion.

Nothing can compare
To the love you share
As you breathe a prayer
Of God’s love there.

I am yours to consume
With every sunrise
As God’s mercy is renewed
And His love is freely given,
So I too imbue freely
All my passion and prose
To you,
My true heart and my song.

• to my wife and lover Sonia


• March 6, 2006

Spring Soon Will Come

My beloved dove
Friend, lover and wife
I thank God for your love
And adding so much to my life.

This morning I heard a song of spring
In the frosted air.
Was it true?
Was I dreaming?
It was a robin’s call I heard
Echoing over the snow filled steps
Across the blanketed silver streets.

I shivered with anticipation.
Was it a whisper of dawn’s early chill?
Why does my heart stop
And solo sing with vapory air?

Could it be the time
That soon will come the dawn,
When your distant call
Will be closer still?

Yes, the grip of snow has melted so
As a blanket of due drenched thaw
So now I tremble with pining breath
For the dance of your arriving call.

It's the moment of morning sun
Splashing the city with sun tipped gold.
When the sound of your voice
And the sun of your smile
Quivers across my brow.

For my love is singing
Soft and sweet.
My dove is quivering
Profound and deep.

In the embrace of our
Dew drenched dance
My arms surround your
Purpose and passion.

Yes, I hear your song, my dove
It echoes across an empty path today
Yet soon I will see you
Walking in the door singing
"Honey I’m home"
And there at home will be!

For my wife Sonia
February 16, 2006

She is a Hero of Mine

I am thankful we have nurses that can by touched by the human side of their skill. My wife is one of the ICU nurses there in Baghdad with the 10th Combat Support Hospital. In the heat of the moment you want her by your side fighting for your welfare. It does not matter who you are friend or foe, skill and daring are shared with equal parts of compassion. She is a hero of mine and I miss her dearly. She has mentioned the closeness of the medical brotherhood in that hospital. It's what keeps you sane. Still there are those quiet moments when she calls me and we pray together. The human side of my nurse mate echoes in her wavering voice as she talks about the injured children. A thousand miles can not separate us then. It is a gift of God that keeps us. We are thankful to serve together. We are blessed to share what He has given. In His Service, Brad

Never underestimate the power of your passion

Ephesians 3: 14 - 21 14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.


My beloved dove,
I tremble and weep
When I ponder the power
Of God’s love toward us.

I am shaken
To a bright realization
That God never wearies
Of our cries of repentance.

In the middle of our broken moments
His love rushes in
And pierces our soul
With a halting question.

My beloved Mrs. Hearn,
Never underestimate
The power of your passion.
The more prayer time
We commit together
The more love I sense
Flowing from the Throne of Grace.

I may never discover
Why you love me so.
I know the soil in my soul
Is hard to clean.

But God, in His love,
Reached for my soul
And gripped my heart
When I heard your “I do”

Today, at this distance,
I am more committed than ever
To nourish you and cherish you.

In my clumsy manner
God sees fit to shape
A vessel for you to drink.
I am your vessel my dearest.

Your devotion
Firms my resolve.
Your passion
Fills me to overflowing.

So as we seek His Presence
From distant shores
Allow His love to blend our hearts
Into the One Flesh vessel He needs
To quench the quest
Of this dry and thirsty land.

To my cherished wife Sonia
from her husband Brad
January 25, 2006

Awesome Opportunity to Serve

I will testify at any given moment that God has given Sonia and I an awesome opportunity to serve Him on opposite shores: I on the shores of the Potomac and she on the shores of the Tigris. (See Daniel 10:4). When I drive by the Potomac River I remember the life changing vision Daniel had as he walked by the Tigris River. Sonia can see that very same river when she peers from the windows of her intensive care unit in that Baghdad hospital.

Our joint prayer is that God will make the changes in our lives, right by the river where we stand. Changes that He purposes as we look forward to serving Him together the rest of our lives. True, there are times at night that I cry. And then I find that God was there all the time to give rest and peace in the time of trial. This year-long separation only makes our yearning more intense. I want my yearning for God to just as intense and unyielding. I know God feels the same. I long for Him with ever increasing intensity. I know this because my wife has mandated me to be ready for her coming. She wants, no commands that I loose 10 pounds and build up my stamina, because, she says, "I haven’t seen my husband in I don’t know how long, so be ready!” I not only want to be ready for her, I want to be ready for Christ’s return. I am focused on that as much as my beloved wife is focused on her return. I want to be ready.
December 30, 2005