A Year of Hope

In July 2004, Pastor Mark Nuckols, also an Army Reserve chaplain, received a message from the US government informing him his reserve unit would soon be activated and deployed to Iraq. Only six months earlier, he had accepted a call to be shepherd of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. He thought of leaving family, friends, and his new congregation left him with great apprehension and concern.

Just seven months after Nuckols arrived in Austin, his family and his new flock sent him off with love and pride, albeit tears. Eager to stay connected to those he would leave behind, Pastor Nuckols began a weekly letter or epistle from the front describing his personal journey, while encouraging them to stay faithful to the Lord. These missives became a window into the realities of war, into the mission of the chaplaincy, and into the soul of a man far removed from the comforts of home and family and a loving congregation.

The letters, sent by email, were printed and distributed each Sunday to the members of Saint Paul. rough these messages of courage and faith, his readers were comforted and uplifted but also challenged to see God's work being accomplished in a distant land under diffi cult, sometimes harrowing, circumstances. As the days and months elapsed, the author found himself transformed as a year of dread and despair became a year of hope. Chaplain Nuckols was awarded the Bronze Star for his humanitarian work with the local villages in Iraq.