The World According To Chris Brewer

Flashback from ‘05: Me and…our next President?

Before I begin, I would like to state that today I honor and appreciate each and every military member who gave their life for this country’s defense. Life itself is the greatest sacrifice of all…Jesus even said that no one has a greater love than to give his life for his friends — and I can imagine that includes those who die helping people they don’t know.

God bless ‘em all.

Today I’d like to share a story about how the Lord saved my life in Iraq — if it wasn’t for this and two other instances, I would be one memorialized and remembered on an occasion such as today.

I don’t normally share any stories from the war publicly. I saw enough to make anyone go insane, but with the grace of God, these memories are something that I remember yet not dwell on. Instead, I choose to remember the instances where the hand of the Lord plucked me from danger, and as such I feel okay to share one story. You should feel blessed to read this.

It was a warm day and our convoy was heading south in the daytime from Baghdad to go to Mahmoudiyah. It was a civil affairs tour, meaning the soldiers I was embedded with were going to go check the progress of reconstruction projects in the Mahmoudiyah area. The route to Mahmoudiyah from Baghdad was a heavily-traveled highway, and on this day the right lane was occupied with people proceeding south for one of their holy days.

Naturally, traffic was slow and it ground to a halt multiple times during our trip, so we would cross over the center dividers, wave off oncoming traffic and plow through. It was an amazing scene — cars scurrying off to the side while the convoy gunner waves his hand and brandishes his 50-cal. Traveling the wrong way on a one-way road normally isn’t encouraged, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

What to do? Roadblock ahead, any of these cars could be laden with explosives…

Brilliant idea! Drive into oncoming traffic!

It took us awhile to get out of Baghdad, and we made it safely to the southern portion of Mahmoudiyah, where we handed out Beanie Babies for the kids and I filmed the event for a feature story. It was great to meet the local kids and families, and we shared a few laughs over my ineptitude at soccer — seriously, these kids were gooooooood.

After the Beanie Baby handout was completed, we proceeded south past the city itself, then checked up on a rebuilt school. Everything looked okay there, so we went over to an apartment complex-type building that was being redone after insurgents had gunned down entire families. I didn’t dare venture inside, but the soldiers told me what they saw was enough to last them a few years.

On our way back into Mahmoudiyah, we traveled across a bridge, then came upon the main part of the town. Over the other end of the bridge, we felt a bump, then a BOOM. Not an earth-shattering boom but it certainly didn’t help allay my fears of riding in the convoy’s lead vehicle. The Humvee rocked a little, but we drove on.

We drove through the town and back to a small Army outpost just south of Baghdad. We chatted it up for a bit over dinner, embraced the opportunity to make new friends, got some shut eye on the floor of a tent, woke up the next morning and received our briefing for the next mission.

During the briefing, it was confirmed that we ran over a roadside bomb that had only partially detonated. How it only partially detonated, no one had a clue. I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of what would have happened had the entire IED detonated. I probably would have only been identified after a few days of searching and them poring over dental records after finding my molars.

This was taken from a point just north of where we ran over the IED.

The testimony behind all this is the fact that God Himself saved me and my friends from what could have been a harrowing incident, and I have since used this as a tool to share with others what the Lord had done for me in one of the scariest times of my life.

Initially when I realized the gravity of what happened, what could have been and what wasn’t thanks to the Lord, I began to cry and cry…I don’t think I’ve ever cried like that since. I remember being prayed for at my family’s former church here in Springfield before my deployment, and the Lord spoke to me and told me he was going to take care of me. I just never imagined he meant anything like this.

There were two other times God saved my life from certain death, and you’ll have to ask me about them sometime. Let me just say that the Lord proved Himself to me and I have maintained a strong faith in Him since…because I now know why He saved me in more ways than one, and it’s because my work here isn’t done on this earth.