December 09, 2009
May 25, 2009
Your'e Invited . . .
4th Annual
Friends Of MMBA Banquet
Friday
June 5th, 2009
5:30 p.m.
at
Mayslake Peabody Estate
1717 West 31st Street
Oakbrook, Illinois 60523
Cost:
$12 for those in full-time ministry
$20 for everyone else
Please pay at the door.
Dress is Business Casual
The speakers this year are:
Dr. Kent Ramler('86)
Sr. Pastor of Peoples Baptist Church in Frederick, MD
Eric Graham('88)
Missionary to South Africa
Please RSVP by June 1st at jenramler@hotmail.com
March 10, 2008
You're invited . . .
3rd Annual
Friends of MMBA Banquet
Friday
June 6th, 2008
5:30 p.m.
at
Mayslake Peabody Estate
1717 West 31st Street
Oakbrook, Illinois 60523
Cost: $12 for those in full-time ministry
$20 for everyone else
Please pay at the door.
RSVP by June 2nd at jenramler@hotmail.com
The speakers this year are:
Caren Sammet Fuller('87)
Caren and her husband are in full time ministry in Wisconsin
Rob & Tracey Godawa Daulton('87,'88)
The Daultons are in full time ministry in North Carolina
Josh Evans('98)
Josh is currently finishing his tour in Iraq, and is serving as General Petraeus' personal bodyguard
June 09, 2007
May 11, 2007
You're invited!
Friends of MMBA Banquet
June 8th, 2007
5:30 p.m.
at
Mayslake Peabody Estate
31st Street
Oak Brook, IL
Cost: $12 for those in full-time ministry
$20 for everyone else
Pay at the door
The speakers this year are:
Will Pareja, Dan Whisnant, and James Lopez.
Mayslake Peabody Estate
We look forward to seeing you
and don't forget to RSVP!
April 23, 2007
Corinne Holmes Homegoing
Corinne Holmes went to be with the Lord on April 13th at her home in Woodridge, IL after battling with cancer for many years. Corinne is the wife of Don Holmes - former teacher and minister of music at Marquette and mother of Allison ('98) and Julie ('02). Services were held in Downers Grove on April 16th and in Decatur, Alabama on April 18th where she was buried. You can read her obituary at the Decatur Daily. If you would like to send cards to the family, please send it to Marquette Manor Baptist Academy, c/o Don Holmes, 333 75th Street, Downers Grove, IL 60516.
April 12, 2007
Barbara Sparks Galyean - Missionary in the Philippines
Barbara Sparks Galyean('87) is serving the Lord with her family in the Philippines. They started Crossroads Baptist Church in 2004. Barbara leads the music ministry in the church. She directs the youth choir, plays the piano, leads the Ladies Soulwinning Program, and teaches piano, music development, and Christian Womanhood in their Bible School.To see more of their ministry visit www.galyeanfamily.net
Dan Whisnant's 2nd Iraq Tour is Ending
Greetings for the Final Time from the Peninsula,
This obviously is a bitter sweet update to write because our time has come to an end here on the Fallujah Peninsula.
The Marines of Alpha Company, 1/24 have started their journey to rejoin you, their families and friends. By the time you receive this letter all of the platoons will have vacated FOB Black and will be safely back at the Battalion Headquarters in Camp Baharia on the other side of the city of Fallujah. They will not be responsible for patrolling or guarding a post anymore. They will get the opportunity to rest, relax,and reflect upon this deployment during the next 2 weeks as a company -together. This will be the first time in 7 months that I'll be able to see the entire company together at one place at one time. When we had our final formation in 29 Palms, CA in September, I told them it would be a long time before we were back together again. Well, that time has quickly come for us. It will be good to see their faces, shake their hands, slap them on the back and tell them, "Job well done!" They have done an outstanding job and I can't begin to even tell you of the amazing accomplishments. Unfortunately, I have failed to even come close to describing some of the remarkable events and responses of your incredible Marines.
The Iraqis of Fallujah and the Peninsula can feel the momentum. For a couple of months now they have asked me when we are going to finish Al Qaeda? When we first arrived, no one would talk to us. No one was willing to stick out their neck and give us information on who the bad guy was and where he sleeps. For the last 7 months, our company intelligence cell, the platoon commanders and your marvelous Marines have worked 18-20 hours a day to gather the necessary intelligence to track down the cowardly enemy. We detained over 500 as a company of which over 40% of those will be in jail for longer than 3 years. We had a total of 26 go to an actual trial in an Iraqi court and most of those will see 7-10 years in an Iraqi jail. We killed many of the enemy -some we know about, most we do not. These numbers are outstanding for a company deployed to Iraq and we are proud of these numbers but here numbers are not everything. Just last week, we had people giving us information that at one time only 3 months ago we know were helping the enemy by being neutral and allowing the enemy free passage through their village. They now have an active checkpoint outside their village and they point out who the enemy is to us and they are key piece to controlling the vast terrain of 82 square kilometers we call the Peninsula. Nearly every night for the last 2 months we have done squad and platoon-sized raids in pursuit of the enemy because peace-seeking,courageous Iraqis are telling us where the bad guys are sleeping. One of our main contacts told my replacement the other night that the bad thing is that the enemy will be difficult to find in the area because he is hiding and running from the Marines. When we first arrived, the enemy lived in plain sight and enjoyed the cloak of secrecy of the local populace. Your Marines were successful in shedding that cloak from off the shoulders of the enemy and either killed him, captured him or made him run. That's how you fight the counterinsurgency fight. Just today,I spoke with a young Iraqi man who is a lawyer in Fallujah and he said that he thinks the enemy will be finished in 60 days or less. He realizes that the Iraqi police are functioning properly and have a great leader who takes the fight to the enemy daily. Others are seeing this and joining in droves. In the last two police recruitments over 200 male citizens of Fallujah have volunteered to become police officers here - they feel the momentum too and want to be on the winning team
I will close with a quote from one of our greatest Presidents: "The beast always hates the same things: religion, a free press, intellectual inquiry, artistic expression, anything that elevates the individual. People try and wish the beast away. People hope that the wolf would just pass by. Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid." - Ronald Regan 1981
Semper Fidelis,
Dan Whisnant
Major USMC
Alpha Company, 1/24
Fallujah, Iraq
FOB Black
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