Category: forgiveness

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When Will The Storms Stop?

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 3,625 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000.  Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 5,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

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Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It will be reaching out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.  

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If you follow Twitter, join me by following @heavenencounter. Many veterans are starting to follow and we hope to have many more to share thoughts and ideas with. You can also connect with my on Facebook by putting my name in the search area.

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I see it has been almost three months since I last posted here. I have spent my whole summer battling an infection in my spine. I am just starting to feel well enough to be able to stop the daily IV doses of antibiotics.

I missed so much because of this. My family went on summer trips, but I couldn’t go because of the IV treatments everyday.

I wasn’t able to drive because the effects of the antibiotics made me drowsy and sleepy. So, not only was I in severe pain, I also was grounded and sent to my bedroom like a disobedient child.  I spent three weeks staring out my bedroom window hoping some birds or squirrels might come by for me to see.

This is a pretty sad story so far.

I want you to know something. I never faltered. I never cursed God. I never gave up my positive attitude.

I could have given up and let the dark side have its way.

It reminds me of when I was in a huge battle with depression while in the military, and beyond. I spent many days wondering what the world was all about, and if I wanted to be a part of it.

In 2001 I actually was sitting in my Ford Explorer thinking of checking out of this hotel called earth.

God woke me up that day. He stopped me in my tracks. He had plans for me, and it wasn’t my time to leave this earth. So now I am writing this post to you to share hope.

I also share hope on my blog at www.dailysignsofhope.com. As the title states, you get daily signs of hope. Check it out and join me there as well. Find out why 94,000 people are subscribers to the blog.

I have been labeled as the “hope whisper.”   I go to writer’s conferences and people address me with that name.

Why? Shouldn’t I be angry at the world? I had over ten years of serious ailments including five surgeries. This latest trial has been one of my hardest to accept.

I don’t feel anger. I don’t think this world is an awful place to be.

I have learned that we will all face trials and storms. Some will be raging storms. I have also learned that each time I make it through the storm I am a little stronger. I even learned that I can use my adversity, pain, and suffering to help others who may be going through the same things.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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More Military Veteran Interviews

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 3,300 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2015. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000.  Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 6,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It will be reaching out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics. Doug sent off his mini proposal to an agent who is very interested in his concept. We will update you when we hear more. 

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On my last post below I started sharing a few of the interviews I am doing for my new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.”

This book is reaching out to all the veterans who may be suffering after or even during their time in the military. It covers PTSD, deployment, loneliness, depression, domestic violence, spouses left behind, etc. It even has some humor of when I was in the military.

Today I am going to share a couple more interviews. In the last post I said that I would only be sharing a little part of each interview. I will continue that here. To see the entire interviews you will need to get the book. (This is called a hook in the writing community.)

One interview I had was with a Vietnam veteran. It wasn’t planned interview. I happened to be at a fast food restaurant and saw him sitting alone staring out the window. I could tell he was a veteran by his Vietnam hat he had on.

He finally got up and I saw that he had a cane. He hobbled over to the trash bin and then started to leave.

I asked him if he would sit with me for a while. He hesitated until I told him I was a veteran as well. Here is the conversation we had. It really wasn’t an interview. I didn’t want it to sound that way.

Me- “What unit were you in?” Veteran-“I was on a ship off the coast of Vietnam, and we had a helicopter unit that went in to rescue soldiers, bring in supplies, and did humanitarian help for some of the starving people.” Me- “What was the worst moment you had in the military?” Veteran- “I saw my best friend and the rest of his crew take off in a helicopter and suddenly crash into the ocean. They never recovered the bodies because it was too deep.”

There was much more talked about, but this was the most heart breaking part.

Another interview I had was with a Vietnam medic. He had some horror stories which I won’t share here but will be in the book. Here are some highlights:

Me- “Was being a medic a tough job?” Veteran- “Of course it was. To see young men with their legs gone, or near their last breath was extremely hard.”  Me- “Did you have some special moments?” Veteran- “Yes, I was caring for a soldier who couldn’t have been much over eighteen. He asked me if I was scared. I said yes. That seemed to calm him down a lot knowing that someone felt the same way as he did, but was still trying to help him anyway.”

I will have many more interviews in the book, and the book will be full of hope, and showing veterans ways to cope in the world we have to live in after we hit the private sector.

A word to all veterans…

You are a special person. You went out of your way to serve you country. God loves as you are, warts and all. You are a hero to not only me, but many other people. Never be ashamed of what you did. Never feel your time was wasted. Never allow others to degrade you for what you have done for your country.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

 

 

 

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Two WWII Veteran Interviews

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful .  We just past 3,300 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2015. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000.  Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 6,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It will be reaching out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics. Doug sent off his mini proposal to an agent who is very interested in his concept. We will update you when we hear more. 

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Sorry… it has been a while since I last posted. been some illnesses, other commitments, etc.

Things are happening with my new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.”

On my blog http://www.dailysignsofhope.com. People have been coming in by the thousands to read my excerpts of interviews I have done with veterans. I had one high day of 5,879 hits in one day.

That tells me people are interested in anything that supports our military. I am blessed to be a veteran, and through my interviews I can see that we need to reach out to anyone who is a veteran. As I mentioned in the introduction section, there are 22 veteran suicides a day!

That is not acceptable. I will share here some a couple of the interviews I had with you here, and you can go to my blog at: http://www.dailysignsofhope.com to see others.

One interview I had was with a WWII veteran. He wasn’t too excited to talk about his time during the war, but he did share this:

Me- “What unit were you attached to?” Veteran- ” I was part of the tank Corp.” Me- “What was the worst moment you had during that time?”  Veteran- ” We were stopped to look out over a field ahead of us. We had the top open. A Japanese soldier dropped a grenade on us, and it killed my best friend to my side, and all of the rest of us were wounded.”

This veteran received to Purple Heart, and a Medal of Honor. It was difficult for me to go through the interview with this man. The reason was, he was my Uncle. I had known him from me birth, but didn’t know this story until the interview.

Another WWII veteran I spoke to is still alive today. He is ninety-two years old:

Me- “What branch of the Army were you in?” Veteran- “The infantry.” Me- “What was you worst moments during that time?” Veteran- “During a battle, I was wounded. I had to lay on the battle field pretending I was dead while the German soldiers came through to check the bodies.”

This Veteran also nearly broke my heart, because he also is my Uncle, and I didn’t know his story until I interviewed him.

Those are very shortened versions of the two interviews I had with these men. I also had interviews with a WWII nurse, three Vietnam military, and a couple Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. I am searching for more interviews, so if you are a veteran and are open to talking to me about your experience, leave a comment below and I will get back to you. No one has to have their name mentioned in the book.

I want you to know something right now. If you are a veteran or a family member/friend of a veteran, know that someone cares. You are not alone. You are not forsaken. You are not unloved.

One last plea is that you never, ever, give up!