Memorial Day / Mark's Party

Our dear friend Mark is being deployed in July for a year-long assignment in Ft. Bliss, TX. He's ultimately hoping to be sent on to Iraq, where he's been trying to go for the past two years. Selfishly, of course, we don't want to see him go, but he has had this burning call for some time now. So as his friends and family, we are full of love and support for him and admire his bravery and determination to defend our country.

The thing about Mark is that he's a really humble guy who never feels comfortable in the spotlight. He will avoid it every time! So when Tom first mentioned wanting to have a sending-off party for him, Mark strongly protested it. It got to where he made Tom promise not to do anything.... to which Tom lied and said, "OK, I won't have a party for you."

Memorial Day was the perfect cover for the surprise Tom had in store for Mark. After apologizing to Mark for lying to him... Tom presented Mark with a group gift - an iPod that can hold 50 movies, thousands of pictures, and tons of music. The other thing Tom surprised Mark with was to have dog tags made for all of us to keep Mark at the forefront of our prayers. The dog tags say

Pray for Mark Sobol
U.S. Army
1 Cor. 13:4-7
Phil. 4:13

It was a really special day, and Mark was truly overwhelmed by the friends and family that have rallied around him with such love and support. What else could he expect - we love him!