By Bob L. — Communications Team

After the last baptism weekend at Heartland, a staff member told a pretty interesting story about one of the people who was baptized. I thought it was compelling enough to follow up for you. Let’s set it up with a little baptism background provided by Julie…

“No, you wear those shorts!”

Not something you expect to be spouted out to a soon-to-be baptized new believer, especially since I sounded like a mother scolding her daughter. But you had to be in my shoes 45 minutes earlier to understand. Melanie had checked in with me before services to put her change of clothes for baptism in the women’s restroom. I overheard her tell her friend that she was going to wear the shorts she was given the day the Air Force saved her, the only piece of clothing left from that horrific day. I couldn’t help but ask her about it. All she stated was that she was saved that day by the Air Force after her convoy had been bombed and after they had cut away her burning uniform, they had put the shorts on her.  “Now today is the day Jesus is saving me”.

Fast forward in service, Breaux asked that those who wanted to be baptized to meet him at the pool. Melanie had come to change her clothes first but she stopped at the rack of extra clothes we make available for those who decided during services to be baptized. I looked at her and asked what she was doing and she said she wasn’t comfortable showing her legs, she thought she would put on pants. And here’s where I say “No, you wear those shorts!”

Baptism weekends at Heartland are my favorite. It’s where we as staff get to see the fruits of our labor in ministry. Now, I’m not a ministry leader or talented communicator and they sure don’t want me on the worship team…I work behind the scenes. I get to hear about the lives being changed in the ministries we have at Heartland but sometimes I am in the right place at the right time and this is not where the story ends…

So here is a condensed version of the hour and a half conversation Julie and I had with Melanie.

A Broken Childhood

She was raised in an abusive home with parents from different church backgrounds, so religion was off the table as far as conversation was concerned. When that marriage ended and her mom let a boyfriend into their home, what became normal for Melanie was the sexual abuse that began at age three and continued for 10 years. She called it a “broken childhood.”

Her Mom met a great guy who became Melanie’s step Dad and he was wonderful. To this day she thinks he is an amazing man. The family moved to another state when she was 17, but she didn’t want to stay there. So she came back to the place she knew. She met a boy and at age 18 and they decided to move again, this time to the south. This time to get married.

Almost immediately the abuse started. Again. He would beat her, and the next day bring her flowers and apologize. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t feel like I was worth anything,” she told us. The marriage lasted two years.

She had no goals, no dreams, nothing; and was pretty close to taking her own life. She went to the mall to get out of the house and away from him. There she met an Army recruiter. “You guys will take just about anybody, right?” she asked. “Come on in,” he said.

Twenty years old, divorced, and through with basic training, she was deployed with her unit to Baghdad right after the terror attacks on 9/11. The Army was proving to be a band-aid for her inner pain. Finally, she belonged. She had friends and became best friends with Anna.

She was exhausted after pulling an all-nighter on duty, and was scheduled for a convoy that morning. In the Army, there’s no such thing as a 9 to 5 day. Anna saw just how tired her friend was and offered to take her place on the convoy. It wasn’t long and Melanie got the call. Anna’s truck hit an IED, flipped over, and killed her. Losing her best friend was a major body blow, and she was numb as she put her friend into the body bag to send her home. “That should have been me,” Melanie said. “I should have been in that truck!”

Back in the States, Melanie had to stop the pain, somehow. So she drank. A lot. So much so that her commander told her to get to AA. And she did. Things slowly began to improve but then…

Back to Baghdad

Her unit was deployed again. And this time she was doing better. She met and married a man who was an infantryman in the Army. Camp Anaconda was better and she made several new friends. Heading out on convoys was something that she didn’t complain about. It was part of her job.

The lead driver saw it before she did. A dead animal on the side of the road. They knew that explosives were often stuffed into carcasses, and detonated by the enemy when convoys passed. The first vehicle made it past just fine. The next thing Melanie knew was that her vehicle was flying upward and then crashing down, damaging her spine. There was shrapnel in her stomach and she felt like she was on fire. She passed out only to come to on a helicopter bound for Kuwait. “I’m going to die!” she thought. But she didn’t. From Kuwait she was flown to Germany, where Doctors used 27 staples to close her stomach.

In the hospital back in the States she missed her husband and her friends. They were important to her and she was conflicted about being home. “I am all alone, again.” She thought. “If there really is a God, I wouldn’t be here like this.”

She was transferred to another military hospital and soon her husband arrived, sent home by the Army to be with his wife. When he entered the room, Melanie’s mom was there, too. The doctor came in and told them he had some very serious news for the couple. Melanie asked her mother to stay. He said, “There has been so much internal damage that you need a complete hysterectomy.” In shock, she reached for her husband but his reaction was devastating. “You’re a waste of a woman, and I want a divorce!” Her mom threw him out of the room and Melanie just lay there stunned. “I wanted to be a mom, and now this! A hysterectomy and now a divorce.”

While she spoke with us, Melanie held a large coin in her hand. She showed it to us and said, “A military nurse brought this to me. It’s from my unit. It’s all I have left from the Army.” She wanted her career to continue, but after three more surgeries, she was medically discharged. That part of her life was over, but not the pain or the memories.

Why Go To Church?

A friend of hers was rotating out of the military and a bunch of them got together for a good-bye party. “I drank a lot. I don’t even know how much.” So a friend of hers offered to drive her home. There’s no nice way to say it… He betrayed their friendship and raped her. “Again, I wanted to die.” He was sent to prison for four years, but that didn’t appease her anger.

“I came back to this area and was 100% miserable. Everyone tried to get me to go to church with them but I figured, why? If there is a hell I’m already in it. I had been to a few churches but just got up and walked out. My sister was into drugs and asked me to take her 2-year-old son. Of course, I would. And I have been able to adopt him. And I’m close to finalizing the adoption of another child.

Last spring, a friend invited me to Heartland. As soon as I drove onto the campus, I felt a calmness. The kids went to Launch and loved it, and I loved the Freeway series. I realized that God loves me. And I wanted to show people, myself included, that I love Him. So that’s why I wanted to be baptized. To show the change He’s making in me.”

We talked for a while more and then Melanie shocked us again. She took the coin… the only memento of her military service besides her scars, and handed it to Julie. “I want you to have it,” she said. “I don’t need it anymore.”

She’s a brand new believer in Jesus. Yes, she wore the shorts. Yes, she has a lot to learn. But don’t we all?