As Americans celebrate freedom on Independence Day, couples are experiencing liberty for their lives and marriages in Alaska through the hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024. It’s a day that Ruth Szymansky will never forget.
A few days prior, Ruth and her husband, Matt, a retired Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant, arrived at Samaritan Lodge Alaska for Week 4 of the Operation Heal Our Patriots summer season.
Matt and Ruth Szymansky experienced the healing hand of Jesus Christ for their life and marriage during a week in Alaska.
Ruth applied to the program after stumbling across a mention of it on Facebook. She did some online investigating and liked that the program was Christ-focused, even though she wasn’t a Christian and Matt had walked away from the church decades before.
“I knew I would be welcomed,” Ruth said. “I don’t always feel like that. I felt the people here would be open, and I could find a place where I belonged.”
Matt served in the Marines for 26 years, from 1988-2014. He was deployed multiple times, including to Iraq. He suffers from PTSD and was seriously wounded when a suicide bomber exploded near him. Respiratory issues also plague him from months of breathing the heavy toxic smoke billowing from a massive nearby burn pit in Iraq.
“I was in a really bad place mentally when I got out,” Matt said. “I was drinking pretty heavily at the time. I just got out of rehab last December. I kicked the habit. I’m much more clear-headed now.”
But problems in Matt and Ruth’s marriage persisted. Making matters worse, Matt isolated himself from everyone.
“We didn’t know how to communicate,” Ruth said. “Our communication consisted of me slamming a door and him going to sleep in his recliner. That was it. We never talked about our issues. Never.”
When Matt learned they were going to Alaska, he thought it would be cool to go fishing and bear viewing, and do lots of other adventurous stuff. He thought of the marriage-enrichment classes as “the price we have to pay to go have fun,” he said. “But when we got here, my attitude quickly changed. The classes are what we needed. Everything else is gravy.”
Feeling God’s Presence
Through the classes and time spent in counsel with our chaplains, Matt and Ruth learned to better communicate and solve conflicts in a healthy way. Ruth also began to feel God’s presence.
The Biblically based marriage classes were pivotal in how they began to see God and each other in new ways.
“I thought more about the Lord after arriving at camp,” she said. “Just seeing the staff calling each other brother and sister meant a lot. I loved the comradery they had and that I knew they were all children of God.”
But Ruth never thought she would know Christ personally. She grew up with an atheist stepfather who wouldn’t allow her to attend church. “So, I just accepted as fact that I wasn’t going to know the Lord because it seemed that was just the way it was.” As for Matt, he grew up attending church “whenever the doors were open,” he said. “But when I left home and went into the service, I was done with church. It had been forced on me. I pushed it away for a long time.”
“It’s a Day I Will Never Forget”
Then, on Wednesday, June 19, Matt and Ruth accompanied a few other couples on the Operation Heal Our Patriots Jay Hammond fishing boat on Lake Clark. The boat stopped at White Sands Beach. While some fished and explored the area, Dana, one of our female guides, asked Ruth if she knew the Lord. Ruth said she didn’t but would like to. A chaplain then shared the Gospel with Ruth, and she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Ruth received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior during a fishing excursion, and the couple experienced renewed hope for their future in Him.
“I was ready,” Ruth said. “I had thought about it for a long while. This was the right time.”
Seeing Ruth come to Christ awakened Matt’s long-dormant faith. “Now, I’m onboard to find a church,” he said.
Later that night, Matt and Ruth learned that their fifth grandchild had been born. Ruth and her new granddaughter now share a birthday—one physical, one spiritual. “It’s a day I will never forget,” she said.
A New Chapter
On Friday, shortly before leaving Samaritan’s Lodge Alaska, Matt and Ruth renewed their wedding vows and committed their marriage to Christ.
“We’re going to go home and start a new chapter in our lives,” Ruth said. “Things are going to be different because we now have the tools to make it happen.”
They also said they would encourage other military couples who are struggling to apply to Operation Heal Our Patriots.
“We’ll recommend it because it changed our lives,” Ruth said. “It’s made a huge difference in the way we think about each other, in the way we talk to each other, and it’s the place where I found God. This has been a life-changing experience.”
They recommitted their marriage in Alaska and returned home with a renewed joy about the years ahead.
Please pray for the 180-plus couples who will attend Operation Heal Our Patriots this summer in Alaska for once-in-a-lifetime wilderness adventures and Biblically based marriage-enrichment training.
