SPC Brandon Stout

46th Military Police Company, Michigan Army National Guard
US Army

SPC Stout's Act of Heroism

He was on a mission in the morning as a driver of a humvee and was hit by an EFP on the passenger side of the humvee.

My Hero

Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Brandon knew where he was going, believed in what he was doing, and was eager to always do what he was asked. His whole family supported him. He was called to serve.

Letters

Dec. 15, 2006 3:42am

YOU KNOW WE COULD ALL USE A LITTLE HARDSHIP ONCE AND AWHILE!

Praise to you oh God who by your grace and mercy has provided me the minutes, hours, and days in a place where they are not guaranteed to write in your name to family, friends and anyone who will listen! -Amen

Well hello Everyone! Just thought I would give a little insight into my thoughts this week. You know when faced with hardship in our lives, most of us turn to questions of why. These questions sometimes happen immediately and sometimes these questions happen after we have thought and analyzed our current situations. I can tell you that whether you are in Grand Rapids, Michigan or in Baghdad, Iraq these reactions are typical of a person faced with hardships and sacrifices. So naturally you can imagine that after all the other emotions had ripped through my mind following some o f the extremely emotional hardships that I have experience, one of my first reactions was to ask the Lord "Why?" Why Lord would you allow this to happen? Why would you allow me to experience this? Why would you let this happen to such a good person? why have you thrust me into this situation. why is our country involved in a place where the people want to kill us? etc. etc. Being the mysterious God that he is, he led me back to his word in pauls second letter to Timothy. in the second chapter Paul states: "you therefore my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. no soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he has competed by the rules. the farmers who labor must be the first to get a share of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things" Paul''s writing really opens your eyes about the enduring pat of hardship. It also speaks one thing very loudly to me as it pertains to "why?" WHY DOESN''T MATTER! Asking why is not the understanding Paul is talking about, it is the understanding in our relationship with God that we should strive for! Hardship or sacrifice is all part of the work that we must put into forming a great relationship with God in order to please the one who enrolled us as soldiers. in order to be crowned or in order for us to reap our share of the crop first! Worrying about the Lords ways and trying to understand that which only the Lord understands will only distract us from building that relationship with him and learning all the lessons in which he wishes to teach us along the way through our sufferings and hardship. I no longer concern myself with why? why to me wastes my time, and time with god, my wife and my family is more valuable than anything the current position that I am in. I cannot afford to waste time when the word of God tells me: "The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also". That is a pretty clear message as to my duties as a soldier! Well I will be thinking of home and all of you in the upcoming weeks and I certainly hope you all have a blessed peaceful Christmas! Thanks be to God for his word in which I am able to find peace and understanding!- Amen

Dec. 12, 2006 6:53pm

Praise be to God, In everything you do, in everything the Lord gives and takes away find time to praise your God! The lord has taught me many lessons on this deployment all of which will stay with me until my very end. However none more important than the lesson of praising him in life STORMS - and this is a storm like nothing I have ever seen and one like most people will never see! It seems easy on paper to believe that you would never doubt, hate, be angry or basically do anything but praise God when the going gets tough, however until faced with harsh realities and tough situations you will never truly know how it is you will act, and from my experience in most cases praising God is pretty much one of the last thing that you think of when faced with EXTREMELY STRESSFUL situations! Faced with house arrest in Rome at the time, thinking that he was going to be moving on to Spain to spread the word of God and writing letters to churches, one of the first and last things Paul did was to Praise God in his writings. That is something I hope to accomplish while facing EXTREME situations and even harder situations that I do not understand. Adapting to these types of situations and still finding time to Praise my God is one of the greatest blessings that I have ever received from my most awesome and powerful GOD! Praise be to his name forever! AMEN!!