God, Our protector

[Johnny55]

Hello Everyone. Hey, I wanted to jump in here and tell everyone how God has protected me over these many years and give HIM all the glory, and just maybe it might inspire you to trust in and know Him yet a bit more in your own life. First off, I was not raised in a Christian home as a kid. I was raised in a U.S. Navy house that was regimented and strict. Oh we had our disciplines, but in a different way than the church folks. My father was a Navy man. He was stationed on board the USS WASP aircraft carrier and was a Naval frogman "back in the day". So my religious background is quite varied at best. All of my family, well, almost all, were military at one time or another. Many survived battles and had fought in certain theaters of war. I also served and had been in the field of logistics. I got out of the Army back in 1997. In the military, I was stationed overseas a bit, and even though I was not following God at the time, He still covered me by His mercy and grace. One such incident happened in downtown Panama City, Panama. A gentleman introduced himself as me and two of my "battle buddies" squad team members, he approached us and was an American in the most unlikely place you'd find well, an American. He warned us to get back to post A.S.A.P.! My buddies and I all felt inside of us what he was saying, oddly enough. I sensed all kinds of major red flags as there had just been Operation Just Cause the year prior to this. I thanked the man, and we RAN, did not walk, to the nearest cab and got back to post PRONTO! When we got back to our company area, and in the barracks day room, on TV they were watching a news program that showed an anti-American major protest numbering tens of thousands of Panamanians right where we had just been! It was getting loud and quite, shall I say Heated! Violent even. We all sat down on the chairs and sofa there, and one of our other guys looked at us and asked, "Weren't you guys just there?". We nodded yes. He then responded, "Man someone upstairs likes you guys.". Again in Panama, I was on duty on a patrol, doing guard duty around a complex of buildings. Sometimes, even while on duty, I got to see some of what I thought was the beauty of nature and felt fascinated by it. All of a sudden I saw the brightest orange frog I had ever seen in my life! "Hmm an orange frog, this is different." I was with one other soldier, and he turned to see what was holding me up. I bent down out of sheer curiosity and reached to pick up the frog. As I did, my fellow soldier hit my arm, batting it away from that frog screaming, "You don't want to do that!". I shot back up and stood there, rather dumbfounded for a second. "Why?" I asked. "See those orange colored pods on that frog in a circular pattern?". I peered down and investigated further. "Yep, sure do." "That's the most toxic poison known to mankind! Man, you get that on you and even on your skin, there's no cure for it. You're dead.". "OH!!! Wow, um, thanks man!". Oh, and I can not forget this last one for now. Same three soldiers, we had traveled across the canal zone to the other side on our days off for fun. On our way back at night on the public transportation bus, our driver made a sudden jolting stop! Suddenly, we soldiers and everyone on the bus heard shots ring out! Then I hear people wailing! Not weeping but wailing like you have NEVER heard a human being wail before in your LIFE! We piled out of that bus, and it was dark, but I saw "shadows" lying on the sides of the road and in the middle of the road. Someone or a group, I didn't know who, had just opened fire on a group of people, and these "shadows" were these people now deceased. The driver yelled something in spanish and one of my guys understood and said; "Get back on the bus! We gotta get out of here!". That driver high-tailed it and got out of there PRONTO! Yet again God had protected us.