Remembering Stan Consley - Chapter One (Revised and Updated)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  Matthew 28:19-20

Chapter One
Introduction

Through the years, I've found that maintaining a blog site has been a particular joy of mine.  Though I don't post as often as I'd like, I do enjoy taking the time to sit down and relay a story that I feel some may find interesting.  Obviously, we all hope that our stories are interesting, but the main reason I post is not for the approval of others, rather, I post stories that I want to tell, but would possibly remain silent if given an opportunity to present it in a local gathering of people.  One such blog site that I used to operate, and perhaps my most successful as far as readership goes, was "The Joy of Grace".  It was aptly named, because it allowed me to share stories that expressed my gratitude to God for the grace that He so freely gives.  I regret having discontinued that site and I now find that it's domain name is being used by someone else.  I think that is a great name for a site!

One particular post that I wrote for The Joy of Grace was about a man named Stan Consley.  The importance of Stan and the impact that he had on my life cannot be overstated.  In fact, I am a living witness to the fact that Stan took serious the charge from God to "go and make disciples".  I am indeed thankful that he was faithful!  This is the story of one such person that Stan discipled.  Follow along as I do my best to re-tell the story of my great friend and mentor.

It was around August of 1990 that I received a phone call that changed my life.  On the other end of the line was a Sergeant of the United States Air Force, who was also my supervisor.  "Sonny", he said, "you need to come on in today to process for deployment.  You're going to the Persian Gulf."  After hanging up the phone, I felt a sudden nausea deep within my stomach and I didn't really know what to think.  After all, I had enlisted in the Air Force and given my pledge to serve my country in whatever capacity I was needed.  But war?  Had I really ever given war a second thought when I enlisted back in 1985?  To further complicate matters, I was recently engaged to my beautiful wife, Karen, and she was there to question me as to the content of the phone call.  I remember telling her simply "I'm going off to war!"

Up to this point, there had been many international stories about the escalating crisis in the Persian Gulf emanating throughout the media and there was a great unknown about Iraq's Army and the consequences of the looming war.  One thing was certain, however, there was a near unanimous international resolve to remove the Iraqi army from the previously invaded Kuwait.  I was to be part of this force.