Captain Sam Brown 

     Heard of him? We'll let him tell his story.

     "Raised in a military family, I wanted to serve in the U.S. Army. After witnessing the 9/11 terrorist attack, that desire hardened into an ironclad resolve. I was accepted into West Point. 

     "I deployed to Afghanistan. In 2008, I was responding to a distress call from one of my West Point classmates when my Humvee drove over an enemy IED. The bomb exploded under the fuel tank, leaving me soaked in diesel, engulfed in flames. I knew that I would die.

     "One of my men extinguished the flames. I went from certain death to the realization that Jesus had planned a life for me. Still, that life was hard to accept at first. 

     "As I recovered in the burn unit and endured dozens of surgeries, I truly thought I'd rejoin my men on the battlefield. But my military career was over. I felt like a leader without anyone to lead...a servant without anyone to serve. 

      "In the hospital, I had two guardian angels. We (Brown and his mother) found special meaning in Romans 5:3-5: we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character; and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."

Second "angel" tomorrow