Corporal Derrick Sharpe said he joined the U.S. Marine Corps because he wanted to “be the best of the best, be the first to fight.” “I don’t have a very good, happy kumbaya story. I grew up really poor and all I knew how to do was fight and take a beating, so I joined…
Hope for Wounded Lives and Marriages
As his unit rolled out on regular patrol that day, Army Specialist Marco Fernandez took his position in the mounted gun of a Stryker armored vehicle. They were transporting an officer to another base and then checking out Iraqi villages to look for potential threats. As Marco’s convoy sped past a town on that sunny…
Discipleship, Education & Training
We Remember 9/11 and How God Is Healing Our Heroes
Each year in September we’re reminded why the United States is at war—why so many of our military men and women have been deployed into combat zones over the past 18 years. The world-shifting events of September 11, 2001, launched our nation into a global war on terror that continues to this day. Since 2012,…
Faith Restored
The two Army medics were ready to quit their marriage and had a hard time remembering why they’d bothered applying to go to Alaska with Samaritan’s Purse. Just a couple weeks before Army Sergeant First Class Jason Smith and Army Specialist Amy Smith were scheduled to leave for Operation Heal Our Patriots, they delivered the…
Our Ministry
Warrior Ride
11th Annual High Country Warrior Ride Saturday, May 21, 2022 – Rain or Shine! Register Now Come show your support of Operation Heal Our Patriots with a scenic ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Escorted by local law enforcement and the Boone chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, the 80-mile ride is a privately organized fundraiser to send…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Love Restored, Hearts Made New
Nearly every day for several months of his deployment, Army Sergeant Jake Southern’s unit came under enemy fire or were blasted by a roadside bomb. “It was nonstop, every day. The violence was increasing,” Jake said of the wartime situation in Afghanistan during 2009. Back at home, his wife Susan was raising their baby boy…
Reconnecting in Alaska
Army Sergeant Omar Cortes served in the military for 15 years and was deployed twice to Iraq. He was medically retired in 2013 due to his combat injuries. After returning home to Puerto Rico, Omar and his wife Heidy started growing apart and desperately needed to reconnect—not only with one another but with God. Omar…
Health & Medical Ministries
Bringing God’s Word to the Hurting
Nurses and doctors gather for chapel early one Wednesday morning before they start their day in the ward treating ailing patients at Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi. Sunshine pierces through the window slats, illuminating the pulpit engraved with the phrase “a happy heart is like good medicine” in the local Chichewa language. In this bright scene,…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Vera’s Journals: Seeing God on the Frontlines
As our partners go into Ukraine’s red zone delivering aid on behalf of Samaritan’s Purse, Vera accompanies some of them to translate. Excerpts of her journal entries, which follow, show the horrors of war yet illustrate how God is present and active even where the battles rage. November 4, 2022 A stream of light breaks…
Health & Medical Ministries
The Power of Being Present
Anyone who has survived medical school knows the experience can feel like a perpetual marathon—a grueling four years of mental and physical weariness—followed by another round of three to seven years of residency training. So when Dr. Daniel Dyer needed a break from the books, he looked for a place where he could put his…
