Captain Tim Wilson (center)
with Captain Jeff Vanantwerpe and Captain Eric Joyce


   
                    U.S. Army Chaplain Captain Tim Wilson
       prays with some of his soldiers before a mission in Iraq




      Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say Rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known unto all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything of excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. And the God of peace will be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. That now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want. For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry. Both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. Philippians 4:4-14 

      If you have studied the life of the apostle Paul and the book of Philippians, you know the situation Paul was in when he was writing this letter. It’s ironic, in light of his circumstances, that he talked so much about joy and peace and that he was encouraging the church of Philippi to rejoice. Paul was writing this letter from jail, and this was not the first time that he went to jail.
       If he had known, at the beginning of his ministry, what he would go through, I can’t imagine that he would have been so excited about his ministry. He was in jail most of his ministry. He was beaten on many occasions, sometimes almost to the point of death. He knew what physical pain was all about. The Scripture tells us that he knew what financial prosperity was like, and he also knew what it meant to be poor and hungry. The Scripture says that the apostle Paul was a Pharisee. It was probably a requirement for a Pharisee to be married, but his letters say that he was a single man. So, either his wife died, which would have been very unfortunate, and he knew what it was like to lose a spouse through death, or, after he became a Christian and was no longer following the Jewish faith, his wife might have said, “This is too much for me. I’ll see you later.” 
      He knew what it was like to go through so many difficulties, so many bad circumstances. In the midst of his pain, in the midst of the trials and tribulations that Paul went through, he came to understand the power of Jesus Christ, and that power became a reality in his life, not just some type of religious phrase. This was his life. This was his power source. This was his all. This was the foundation on which he built his life. 
      For many of us in the Christian community, Philippians 4:13, which says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, has become a catch-phrase, but the power of Jesus Christ and this phrase does not become a reality in your life until you struggle, until you go through hurts and heartaches, until you’re broken down to the point that He is all you have. That’s when the reality and the power of Jesus Christ become evident in your life. 
      My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected through your weakness. 
      God’s priority is not in making us comfortable and happy, but in making us holy, just like Him. He has trials and tribulations for us to go through in order to make us into the person that He wants us to be. 
      If you had told me, when I surrendered to go into the ministry, that, at some point in my life, I would be suffering as a chaplain in the United States Army, I would have laughed at you. That was not part of the plan. That was not what I was trained for. That was not my background. I respect people in the military, and I have had relatives who were in the military, but that was not part of my plan. When I surrendered to go into the ministry, I thought that, at some point in time, I would be pastoring a church and I would stay at that church for the rest of my life. That was my dream, my goal. 
      Things were going well. I enjoyed pastoring at Parkwood Baptist Church in Anderson, South Carolina. They were wonderful people, and it was a great opportunity. And then 9-11 changed things for all of us. We all had to reevaluate our priorities, and ask ourselves the question: ‘What am I supposed to do?’ 
      The majority of the people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today raised their right hand after 9-11. They weren’t drafted. They volunteered to do what they’re doing for their country. That’s amazing. 
      ‘What am I supposed to do in response to 9-11?’ That stayed in the back of my mind for awhile. I prayed for the soldiers. I prayed for our country. Then, in May of 2002, I had the opportunity to go on vacation with Steve and Suzanne Peck. Steve was talking to me about his ministry and talking about the area where they live, and he said, “Tim, I want to throw an idea out at you. Tell me if you’re not interested, and I won’t mention it to you again. Have you ever considered being an Army chaplain?” I laughed and said, ‘No.’ He asked me, “Will you pray about it?” At first, I wanted to say, ‘No, I’m not interested.’ But I said, ‘Yes, I’ll pray about it.’ 
      I talked with my wife, Becky, about it, and the Lord continually brought it to our mind and to our heart. Before I knew it, I had received a direct mission to be an Army chaplain. I resigned my position as Pastor at Parkwood, and, the next month, I was at Fort Jackson in Chaplains Officers Basic Course. 
      The Army culture was, and, in some ways, still is, very foreign to me. It was a total culture shock, but, through the training leading up to Iraq, the Lord reminded me of some of my prayers. As I was growing in my walk with Christ and preparing for ministry, one of my prayers was, ‘Lord, how can I relate to a lost culture? How do I get my foot in the door to an individual or family who is lost, so that I can share the Gospel with them?’ During one of our training exercises, I was walking around one night, because I couldn’t sleep. And the Lord said, “Tim, you’re living among them now. I called you to be here because they need Me, not you. They need Me. You wanted your foot in the door. Now, you’re living in the same room with them. Take advantage of that opportunity.” 
      We got to Iraq in October, 2004. Within an hour, we were receiving mortars on our forward operating base. We were in the bunkers, and I was thinking, ‘What in the world have I gotten myself into?’ But praise the Lord they couldn’t aim, and I pray they’ll continually not be able to aim. 
      Our soldiers were going out on missions, and I had many opportunities to go with them. Things were good for about a month. My battalion commander, Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, is a believer in Jesus Christ. He regularly attended my chapel services and was very supportive of the ministry within our battalion. After each mission, he would come to me and say, “Chaplain, I don’t know how you’re praying, but you continue to do so, because we’re really doing good. Nobody has even gotten hurt yet.” That gave me the ‘big head’, and I would think, ‘Wow, I must be like Moses or something. God is listening to me. This is good. If you have any problems, just come and talk to me. I can pray and fix it.’ 
      Then, November 11 came. We had a huge battle with the insurgency. I was riding in one of our medical strykers, and the call came over the radio that Specialist Tommy Doerflinger had been hit by a sniper. He had severe head trauma and was brought into the stryker. 
      I became a chaplain and a medic at that point. Sgt. Simmons and Sgt. Evans and I were doing our best to bandage him up. I was praying for the medics, praying for the stryker, praying for our guys as we were going to the combat surgical hospital. 
      He died before we got there. I had never seen anything like that before, except in movies or on television. I didn’t like it. In fact, I walked away for a few minutes after they pronounced him dead. I said, “Lord, I didn’t sign up for this. I don’t like it. If it be Your will, I’d like to go home right now. I can’t do this. There is no way, within my own strength and own power, I can help these guys. They don’t need me right now, and, unless You intervene, Lord, I’m not going to make it.” 
      The Scripture tells us, Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That was another memory verse that I had studied, but I hadn’t had to deal that much with anxiety, up to that point. But that became a reality to me. I can’t explain it. I experienced God’s peace like I had never experienced in my life, from that point on. I wish I could say I wasn’t scared, but, in my heart and in my mind, I experienced God’s peace from that point forward. That became real to me as I was thinking about this Scripture. 
      Every time someone goes into a forward operating base in Iraq, soldiers are at the gate. They check your identification, they make sure nothing is in your vehicle, and they let you go. They’re standing on guard, and, unless the guard lets you through, you’re not getting on base. That’s what the apostle Paul is talking about in that verse. God’s peace is going to stand at guard. He’s not going to allow anyone or anything to your heart or your mind unless it passes through God’s peace. 
      The apostle Paul experienced this in his life. And many of you have experienced God’s peace, also, through the struggles and trials that you have gone through. Only through my relationship with Jesus Christ did He give me and many other soldiers strength to deal with what we went through. 
      On the 21st of December, a suicide bomber blew himself up in our dining facility. I enjoy eating, and, if I would not have been on mission that day, I would probably had been in that dining facility, eating my second plate. But, for some unknown reason, I was out on a mission with my battalion commander that day, and the mission just happened to go longer than it was supposed to go. We received word over the radio that something had happened in the dining facility. 
      We went to the combat support hospital, surgical hospital, and it was a mess. Four of my soldiers were killed that day. I think we had a total of 28 killed in the dining facility, and scores of others were injured. It wasn’t just our battalion, but so many other battalions were using that dining facility. My job that day was to divide my time between ministering to the soldiers who were hurt and then, with NCO’s, First Sergeants, or Platoon Sergeants, going through body bags to help them find their soldiers. God gave me strength through that difficulty. 
      On December 29, we lost another soldier to a suicide bomber whose vehicle hit one of our combat outposts. 
      In January, we lost another soldier, and, while we were doing the memorial ceremony for this soldier, someone came in and said, “Chaplain, we need you at the hospital. Someone else was killed.” 
      Then, in February, we lost two more. 
      In April, we lost six more. 
      By the time we got back home, we had lost 16 soldiers, and 183 of our soldiers received Purple Hearts. 
      I wish I could put into words all of the crazy circumstances that we went through. But, in spite of all of those trials, God was still working, providing peace, comfort, and help to me and to other soldiers within our battalion. 
      One of the responsibilities of an army chaplain is to provide counsel to the soldiers in the battalion he is attached to. I was counseling 8, 10, 12, sometimes 15 soldiers a day. I didn’t have a lot of words to tell them at first. They just needed a safe person to talk to, somebody who would cry with them, somebody who would pray with them and lead them in the right direction.
       There is a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes, and that’s true. Many men and women in situations like that realize that they’ve never been that close to eternity. Some soldiers would come to me and say, “I’ve never been in church. I’ve never been a religious man. But can you talk to me about what it means to be a Christian?” 
      I had the opportunity to lead 30 people to a relationship with Jesus Christ. I had the opportunity to baptize 20 of them. And I had the opportunity to disciple them. I would ask that you continue to pray for them as they grow in their relationship with the Lord. 
      Before we left for Iraq, the Lord gave me an opportunity to meet Sgt. Kevin George, a medic within our battalion who is very musically talented. I asked him if he would help me with chapel. He had a knack with soldiers. He has wonderful people skills and was able to lead our chapel in worship and in song. I was in charge of the Protestant chapel, and I got several key leaders from different denominations within that chapel. I said, “We have the opportunity here in Iraq to have a kingdom service.” Because of the circumstances, we were able to worship the Lord and didn’t have time to argue about the minute details of worship and doctrine. 
      In our first chapel service, we had 12 people, and it continued to grow as the year went along. Before long, we were filling up our 55-seat chapel. 
      We didn’t have to have a building program. My battalion xo (executive officer) was attending the service and knew what was going on. I told him, “Sir, we need some more space.” He said, ‘You’re right, chaplain. Here is some more money. Get some of the civilian workers to build us a bigger chapel.’ And so they built us a bigger chapel. 
      By the time we left, we were averaging more than 85 people in our chapel service, which is huge for a battalion chapel service. It was incredible the people who were coming—not just soldiers. 
      On our forward operating base, civilians were working for companies that were providing services for the soldiers. And we had Turkish workers, many of whom were of the Muslim faith, but they were curious about what was going on, and so they started going to the services. 
      There was a little restaurant outside our civilian area which served Turkish food. I had the opportunity to talk with the workers there, and they started coming to the service. One of them, a young lady named Yelda who had grown up in the Muslim faith, made a commitment to Christ while we were there. A Christian lady working in the battalion ministered to Yelda, and Yelda prayed to receive Christ. She started bringing people from the restaurant to our services. 
      Some wonderful, incredible things were going on there. It was interesting to see how people of faith, who have a relationship with Jesus Christ, reacted to the trials and tribulations that we went through in comparison to the people who were making it on their own. 
      One soldier in particular, Lt. Scott Smiley, one of our platoon leaders, was severely injured when a car bomb ran into his stryker. Shrapnel went through his protective goggles, and he lost his eyes. While he was in the combat surgical hospital, in the midst of all of the injuries and the pain that was on his face, there was peace there. He asked me to pray with him. 
      He doesn’t know the direction his life is going to take, because it has been drastically altered. He had planned on being an Army officer. Now, because of his injuries, he doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to continue with that. But he’s going from church to church, telling how God gave him peace in the midst of the difficulties and trials that he went through. 
      I have told you all of this to help you understand this one point: In your life, the pain is just as real, isn’t it? You face trials. You face tribulations. You face difficult circumstances. It could be relational. You could be having problems in your marriage or with your children. It could be vocational. It could be something you’re facing on the job. You don’t know how you’re going to handle it. It could be financial, and you don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet. 
      Because God’s Word is true, but also because I’ve experienced it, I tell you that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. 
      That doesn’t mean that Christ is going to be a side dish on your platter in life. Many of us want that, don’t we? We want Jesus to be a part of our life, but we don’t want Jesus to be our life. Do you recognize the difference? Jesus doesn’t want to be a side dish. He wants to be the main course. If you want to experience the power that the Scripture talks about, you can’t just have Jesus in your life. He needs to become your life. You need to allow Him to be your Lord. You need to allow Him to be in control. You need to quit kicking against Him and against His authority in your life. You can’t do this on your own. You weren’t even designed to do this on your own. He wants to help you. That’s why He’s called the Good Shepherd. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength—even face death and the pain that goes along with that. 
      Even as a Pastor and as an associate Pastor, I never experienced death like I experienced it in Iraq. It’s tough doing a memorial ceremony for people if you don’t know about their relationship with the Lord, and you don’t know where they’re spending eternity. But, even though it was tough, because I missed those who did know the Lord, it makes such a difference. It makes such a difference. 
      One soldier, Private First Class Nils Thompson, turned 19 on August 3 and was killed on August 4. 
      One of the things about Nils—if he was not on a mission, he was at the chapel. He loved Jesus, and he wanted to hear about Him. 
      He talked to me about his relationship with Christ. In fact, the Monday before he was killed, he came to the chapel. He said, “I was talking to my roommate. He’s never read the Bible before. Chaplain, I gave him a Bible. Please pray for him. He’s starting to read the Bible. Please pray for him.” 
      Four days later, Nils was killed. 
      I want to see him again. I’m going to have the opportunity to see this man again. His family is heartbroken, because they miss their son. But we’re all in agreement that we know where he is, and that brings peace. 
      Even in the face of death, you can have peace. 
      It hurts, yes. You’re sad, yes. When you lose someone, or even when you’re at the point where you might be facing death, it’s scary because of the unknown, yet we know the One who has gone before us, don’t we? He conquered death and hell, so we don’t have to be afraid anymore. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. 
      Do you know that you have that ultimate freedom? That one day, when this life is over, you’ll be able to be there, with our Lord and our Savior, to see Him face to face, and to hear him say to you, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”? 
      Do you have that relationship with Him? In the experiences that you’re going through right now, do you know God’s peace which surpasses all understanding? Do you know that He is the one who can strengthen you? If you don’t, you can come to know that today. 
      You don’t have to be afraid of life, and you don’t have to be afraid of death. That’s why He died for us. That’s the message of the Gospel. 
      If you’re willing to admit your need for him, admit that you’ve got problems, admit that you’ve messed up and need a Saviour, if you believe that Jesus is the Saviour of this world and, more personally, your Saviour, if you believe that He is the Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay the wage for your sins and that He rose from the dead, if you’re willing to turn from living life your way, to turn to Him, commit your life to Him, you can experience the peace the Bible talks about. And one day, when this life is over, you can experience the ultimate freedom.