My Miracle Marine

This is the story of Lcpl John McClellan, a three time Purple heart recipient. It is a story of the amazing power of prayer, a mothers enduring faith, and God's miracle working power.



In June 2005, 19-year-old Marine Lance Corporal, John McClellan, was deployed to Kunar Province, Afghanistan. In October 2005, while on duty as a machine gunner, Lcpl McClellan earned his first two of three purple hearts when he was shot twice in the same arm -- in the same week!

The injuries he sustained were viewed as miraculously minor. The first, an enemy AK-47 bullet, ricocheted off the humvee turret on which he was the gunner. The bullet fragment embedded in his right wrist.

Within three days, Lcpl McClellan was back in the turret. Three days later, he was shot a second time. Again, an enemy AK-47 bullet penetrated the upper portion of his right arm. This time the bullet entered the front and exited out the back. But it didn't hit and it didn't hurt -- anything!

Within two weeks, he was again back in the turret!

On September 11, 2006, McClellan was deployed to Haditha, Iraq. Fifteen days later on September 26 while on patrol, he was shot in the head by an enemy sniper. The phone call received by his parents at midnight that night was every parent's worst nightmare. Immediately after receiving the devastating news from the hospital in Balad, Iraq, John's mother, Connie McClellan, sent an e-mail to her e-mail address book leading and asking for prayer. Her only child had been shot in the head and according to the doctor in Balad, "If he survives the brain swelling, he will never be the same and will probably be a vegetable."

That e-mail was the first of more than 150 e-mails that Connie McClellan sent to her prayer network during the 15 months following John's head injury. The journal created by the daily e-mails is a fascinating account of the 24 miracles that God performed on John, now referred to as "My Miracle Marine" by his parents, family, friends and community.

Please visit the My Miracle Marine web page for information about the book and pictures of this young man's miracle recovery.

Links provided by The Laura Ingraham Show.

Thank you for your service John. Welcome home!

Semper Fi Marine.

Does It Really Matter?

Sometimes a person needs to sit back and think about the things that upset us in life and say, "Does it really matter?".

I was discussing an annoying person in a BTR chat room with the host of the show, and realized that I'm not going to lose any sleep over people like IGMR (don't ask, it doesn't matter).

This person seems to be out to just get on people's nerves, and it works pretty well at least to some. I could insert several different nics into the name slot and they know who they are and what they do.

But the bottom line is this, IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER!!!

Here's things that might cause me to lose sleep, but I do my best just to turn these type problems over to God, cause I sure can't really help in the long run:

There's this little boy Jacob who came to our Youth Groups last night for the first time. I talked with the kids briefly about the "family of God". When I finished, Jacob (a 3rd grader) was crying hysterically.

Little did I know, Jacob's daddy committed suicide - hung himself - 2 years ago and my talk about God being our Heavenly Father, caused him to cry his little eyes out.

Mrs. CP and I sat down with this youngster, talked with him, prayed with him, and finally got really good hugs from him.

If I was going to lose sleep over someone, it would probably be Jacob.

Or maybe it would be Ricky. Ricky and his brother and two sisters have been coming to our church for close to 5 years. There's lots of problems in this family, and we consider them like they are our own children.

Ricky has been complaining for a couple of weeks about a spot on his shoulder. His mom took him to the doctor yesterday, and they did several blood tests, scheduled a CT scan and a biopsy. No diagnosis has been made yet, but it doesn't take a genious to figure out what the doctor is concerned about.

Or maybe it would be Jonathan, who at 19 was healed from Hodkins Lymphoma only to have it come back at 22. Now half way through his chemo treatments, the doctors are suggesting a procedure that will keep him in the hospital for 6 weeks, and then there is still no guarantee the procedure will be successful (of course God can heal him again as he has already done it once).

So at the end of the day, which it is right now, the way trolls and moonbats behave really don't matter me- but Jacob, Ricky, and Jonathan all do!