Troops deployed to the
Middle East, their families
and congregation members
find strength in prayer

Her gesture demonstrated the nurturing support that military members get from the congregation of Cornerstone Fellowship in Mililani Mauka, support that is echoed in other island churches.

Wild's name is on the list of church members who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. And it's one of a few with a handwritten postscript: "Back Home PTL." PTL is shorthand for "Praise the Lord."

Wild, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, is one of many returning servicemen for whom prayer was part of life in the battle zone.

"All of my team prayed. I really felt God's hand on us as he protected us," said Wild, now in the 68th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) of the 25th Infantry at Schofield Barracks. He returned last year from Afghanistan. "Personally, I wasn't always walking the way I should. He was there to guide me. In a combat zone you can numb your mind, harden your heart. We leave the Lord; he'll never leave us," Wild said.

"I would say that prayer is power," said Marine Sgt. Mark Vierig, who was in Al Anbar province near the Syrian-Iraqi border. A dog handler with the Military Police Company, Headquarters Battalion, at Kaneohe, he returned in October from assignment with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

"I feel the prayers of others helped me," said Vierig, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kailua Second Ward. "I definitely prayed every day not only for myself, but for all the Marines.

"I knew my family was scared for me, my wife, Kristen, especially. I wished they could feel the way I felt," Vierig said. "When we crossed the line and we could hear mortar explosions, I knew I was going to be OK. I felt calm, I felt that peace. I could feel my family's prayers."

He added: "There was one particular time when a bomb went off 15 yards from me. Ten people got hit, three before me and three behind me. It missed me, and my dog was not even touched. I'm not saying it was because I was more religious, not at all. People came up to me and said, 'Someone was looking out for you.'"

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Iraq veteran Army Pfc. James Bohms holds his 4-month-old daughter, Alexis, while attending Sunday service at Cornerstone Fellowship church in Mililani with his wife, Kristin.

Marine Sgt. Joseph "Bobby" Goodrum was baptized by a chaplain in Iraq last September, marking his Christian commitment that grew during two tours in Iraq. "I had been baptized as a child, but the whole point is to tell Jesus, 'I accept you and know that you died for me.' I wanted to truly express that," he said. "I wanted a relationship with the Lord."

Goodrum and a group of his friends from the 3rd Radio Battalion at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base are regulars at Calvary Chapel Windward's Sunday services and Wednesday Bible study.

He said his faith was stimulated by mocking challenges from an atheist that led him to read the Bible, plus the faith of Cpl. Angela Badman, who kept him on that course when he returned from the first deployment.

Badman, a Baptist since childhood, said the pair started last fall to work their way through "A Purpose-Driven Life" by Rick Warren, a 40-day course of lifestyle advice based on Scriptures. "Our relationship was growing with each other and with God," she said.

Goodrum, 22, and Badman, 21, were married on Valentine's Day by Calvary Chapel pastor Tim Newman. The wedding date was moved forward when she learned she will be deployed this spring, probably to Iraq.

Calvary Chapel members carry bookmarks with the photographs of deployed Marines, a reminder to keep praying for them, Newman said. CDs of the Sunday sermons are sent to the deployed service members.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Kaneohe-based Marines Bobby Goodrum and Angela Badman attended church services recently at the Windward YMCA. They were married on Valentine's Day, before her summer deployment, which will likely be to Iraq.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Hugh Powell, who returned from Iraq last summer, said he and another man followed the Sunday worship format of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the front.

"We shared the sacrament," he said, taking bread and water, symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus, and recalling his last supper with his apostles.

The two also shared their personal testimony about their faith, said Powell, a hospital corpsman with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, at Kaneohe. He gave testimony about his Iraq experience -- which brought him into the combat zones of Fallujah and Ramida -- to groups at the LDS Kailua Second Ward when he first returned, but, he said, he's hesitant to talk about his war experience before the congregation. His wife, Jeannette, said she and Colton, 3, received support throughout his deployment from the ward's relief organization.

"When I was in Iraq, I would pray for my family, that they'd stay healthy and safe," said Army Pfc. James Bohms, with the 84th Engineers, 25th Infantry, at Schofield Barracks. Thanks to computer camera exchanges, he could see his wife, Kristin, and children alive and well.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM More than 1,000 pillowcases made by the Armed Forces Ministry at the Cornerstone Fellowship church were distributed to military families. Among those who sent and received the cases were, above from left, Leslie, Cole, Jason and Maj. Jason Wild Sr.; and Capt. Jay and Jeanann Stewart.

And thanks to the Cornerstone Fellowship military ministry, his sons, Zachary, 4, and Reece, 2, had images of Daddy to hug each night in the form of photographs printed on pillowcases. Alexis, now 4 months old, was born while he was away.

The "pillowcase ministry" was just part of the Mililani church's program. The family of each soldier on the deployed list is "adopted" by church members offering prayers and help including baby-sitting, pet care and lawn mowing. Deployed soldiers' photos are on refrigerator magnets in dozens of homes as a reminder to pray, as well as on the children's pillowcases.

A close-up of a pillowcase is shown above.

"This is the most active military support group I've been involved with," said Wild, whose wife, Leslie, is a Sunday School teacher at Cornerstone and whose boys, Jase, 4, and Cole, 2, also slept on photo pillowcases.

"I was never worried about dying. God says you don't know your time," said Army 1st Sgt. Charles Alsleben, who returned Jan. 23 from Iraq. He is with B Company, 162nd Air Defense Artillery, which was stationed near Kirkuk. "I read my Bible, and I tried to do more active things," one of which was distributing school supplies to the local population in an Operation Crayon outreach project.

Alsleben was reserved in talking about his faith life at the front line.

His wife, Holly, got tears in her eyes when she said that she has heard from other Schofield Barracks wives that his words to his unit just before they left Kuwait for Iraq had inspired their husbands.

"He said, 'The first thing you do is make sure you're right with God. The second thing is to remember the ultimate deployment is where you're going when you die.'

"Wives told me it helped their husbands move out," Holly Alsleben said. "It was really profound."