In Alaska, Lorenzo and Kesha Richardson experienced renewed hope through Jesus Christ for their life and marriage.
Even from his youngest years, Lorenzo Richardson had dreamt of becoming a musician—or at least of joining his high school band in Albany, Georgia.
Then two great floods hit his hometown—both times forcing his family to evacuate.
The Richardsons came to Alaska hoping their marriage could start on the path toward healing.
“After the 1994 flood, it took us four years to get our home back. When the 1998 flood hit, we had just moved back in,” he said, beginning to explain how his early dreams of making music were replaced by a drive to defend the nation.
“So one of the things they offered that we could afford was Air Force Junior ROTC. That’s how I met a lieutenant colonel and a master sergeant and fell in love with military life in the ninth grade.”
Then, just as he was beginning college, he joined the Army National Guard. He was almost immediately deployed to Bosnia. After that, the 9/11 attacks sparked the invasion of Afghanistan. He was deployed again.
He started as a cook and later became a quartermaster. In Afghanistan he ran support and logistics operations, which meant regular long-range convoys and night-time vehicle recovery in the middle of the Afghan wilderness.
“We were shot at all the time. There were IEDs. Where we were, we sometimes slept under the stars listening to all sorts of things at night. Mortar rounds. Fire fights,” he said. “Vehicles we’d send out in the morning would come back demolished at night.”
A number of men from his base didn’t come back.
“I saw a lot of things on that deployment,” he said.
Chaplain-led marriage classes helped the Richardsons to see their relationship with each other and with God in new ways.
Tears were welling in his eyes as he told this piece of the combat story. The casualties and aftermath of an attack stuck with him. He carried this and more into his marriage with Kesha, who’d met him years after combat.
Late last year, they found themselves in a teetering marriage on the brink of collapse.
Kesha was at the point of giving up. In January of this year she prayed: “Lord, I just give him to you. I can’t do it. Finally, I was just at peace.”
Lorenzo discovered Operation Heal Our Patriots, the Samaritan’s Purse project for wounded veterans and their spouses, in a desperate Google search for anything that would help.
Starting Anew With God
They were accepted into the program, and went to Alaska this month. At Samaritan Lodge the couple learned to enjoy each other away from distractions. They went on rainy fly-fishing hikes to Tanalian Falls. They cruised together on fishing expeditions on Lake Clark. They got to see the brown bears at Katmai National Park. And they made new friendships with other military couples during their week.
Lorenzo experienced God’s forgiveness. He started to follow Jesus as his Lord and Savior and was baptized by chaplains.
Most important, they experienced God in new ways, learning what He envisioned for the future of their marriage. Through Biblically based marriage enrichment classes and counseling with chaplains, Lorenzo said he began to discover what was missing from his life and marriage.
“I haven’t been able to love her the way that I feel that she needs to be loved,” he said. “I knew I had neglected her and broken her trust.”
To love her well, he needed to receive the love and forgiveness of God. In answer to nine years of prayers by his wife, Lorenzo received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of his life and marriage.
On Friday the couple joined five other couples in rededicating their marriages to God. Shortly after, Lorenzo joined seven other participants for baptism. Four other people received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that same week.
“I dedicated my life to Jesus on July 17,” he said to the couples, staff, and volunteers gathered around Lake Clark to celebrate professions of repentance and faith. “This has been an eye-opening week. I believe we were all brought here for a purpose. So, I truly believe that. For me, it has definitely been an eye-opener. This week was a blessing brought to us from God.”
Kesha said God also worked in her heart, teaching her to forgive Lorenzo for what she’d been harboring. She’s also grateful for a new start.
“I realized I had to let go of things. To be able to accept him and meet him where he is,” she said. “I learned I have to actually forgive him. I can’t just say ‘I forgive’ but still harbor. So I’m learning to forgive and today our triangle is finally complete now because we have God and we can start anew.”
The couple recommitted their marriage to God and are hopeful for their future now built on a foundation of Jesus Christ.
