“Not my scheduler?” the stunned congressman replied. “She’s seven years older than you are.”
“Well, Dad, she’s a godly woman, and she’d make a really good wife even though she’s seven years older,” Perry responded.
Congressman Akin agreed. His scheduler eventually became his daughter-in-law. After finishing the Naval Academy, Perry entered the United States Marine Corps.
“He went through basic training, contracted mononucleosis somehow, was sicker than a dog, and finished his training in spite of it. He was still recovering from mono when he went to Camp Lejeune. Even being under the weather, Perry succeeded in passing the Marine life-saving training. (Because this experience is so hard, a small percentage of people ever pass the test.) He’s very self-disciplined,” Akin described with fatherly pride.
As the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Congressman Akin was well-briefed on Iraq. “Then in January 2005 came the biggest news of all: Perry was being shipped to Fallujah. His mother and I were concerned because we kept reading in the newspaper about Marines who had died while there.”
Perry’s maturity was evident as he reassured his parents of his faith in God and reminded them to acknowledge the Lord in all circumstances. “You know, my days on this earth are exactly as long as the Lord allows them to be. Nothing I can do can make them grow shorter or longer. It is all in the Lord’s hands.”
“So we put our trust in God. Perry reminded his mother and me of the Lord’s direction as he went to serve,” Akin said of his resolution to trust God while his son was in Iraq.
From the choices we make to the uncontrollable conditions we face, God reminds us to trust in him and not in our own understanding.
Thank you for reminding me to turn to you in trust and faith, especially when life brings surprising news.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)
February 22
WORK LEFT TO DO
Lt. Perry Akin’s first great challenge came within days of arriving in Fallujah in January 2005. One responsibility was looking for IEDs. Perry just about found one in a puddle on a road in the rainy season, but he looked at it and concluded that it wasn’t an IED. A short time later, a Humvee drove over the road, and to the dismay of Perry, there was an IED in that puddle. It destroyed the Humvee, but fortunately, did not kill the driver.
“It was a place where an enemy was sitting with a detonator; he could have easily pushed the button when he saw Perry standing and looking at that puddle,” Akin noted of the close call.
The next great challenge came a few months later when Perry was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant. About this time Congressman Akin was part of a Congressional delegation to Baghdad. Akin received permission to meet with Perry while in Fallujah, his gunny sergeant, the major and lieutenant colonel in charge.
Less than twenty hours later, Akin was on a plane returning to the United States. About the same time, Perry and his men were constructing a roadside guard station. Suddenly mortar rounds started coming in; numerous troops were struck with shrapnel. Perry ran for cover with his gunny when a 120mm mortar round landed ten feet from them. That mortar was the size of a cantaloupe, Akin said, using his hands to illustrate the size by making a circle.
“If it had gone off, I would have been in tiny little pieces, but the round was a dud,” Perry said. Perry’s own words “that his days on earth were exactly as long as the Lord allows them to be” brought comfort. They allowed Congressman Akin to make sense of the miracle.
“It wasn’t God’s time to take Perry. My son had a sense that God had a purpose and a time for all things,” Akin said, reflecting on Ephesians 2:10.
Survival is a mystery. Why do some die while others survive? It’s the question and mystery of the ages. Yet God reminds the living that he has work for them yet to do.
I praise you for those miracles, the blessings of the battlefield. May they remind me of my own purpose, the one you have given especially to me.
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)
February 23
A CONGRESSMAN’S QUESTION
When Congressman Akin visited his son, Lt. Perry Akin, in Fallujah in March 2005, he asked many questions about the leadership in Iraq. One answer shocked him.
When I talked to the major in Fallujah I asked, “Now, if there were one or two things that I could do to help you, what would they be?”
“I’d like more up-armored Humvees,” the major replied.
“You got to be kidding me? We’ve had this controversy for two years. We are shipping up-armored Humvees into this place (Iraq) like it’s going to sink,” Akin said in disbelief.
“What do you mean you need up-armored Humvees?” Akin asked, astonished.
“Well, we don’t have enough, Sir. We don’t have as many as we need,” the major replied.
As the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Akin was quite familiar with the up-armored Humvee controversy. Because of the enemy’s increasing use of IEDs and mortar attacks, Humvees needed additional armored protection.
“So I go back here (Washington, D.C.) and have the staffers do some digging. We discover that the up- armored Humvees are going to areas around Iraq where there’s almost no violence, but the Marines in Fallujah were getting a limited amount of the up-armored Humvees. So we changed where the up-armored Humvees were going. Within a month or two, up-armored Humvees were flowing into Fallujah,” Akin said.
Akin didn’t know at the time that his “good work” would soon affect someone close to his son. Congressman Akin was visiting Perry at Camp Lejeune about a year after he’d been in Fallujah. Perry’s best friend from the Naval Academy walked out the front door of this little bungalow where second lieutenants live at Camp Lejeune and greeted Congressman Akin.
“Congressman Akin thank you for saving my life. I was driving one of those up-armored Humvees and hit an IED. It totally destroyed the Humvee but I walked away from it,” the Marine explained.
“That was one of those special moments for me when the Lord made this connection and ended up saving the life of this young man,” Akin said.
Whether serving in Congress or the community center, you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in advance to do good works (see Eph. 2:10). Even when you don’t see the fruits of your labor, you can trust in God’s might and firmness in his purpose for your life.
