Email from Bryon

Bryon sent me an email with information to post on the blog. I am going to copy and past the majority of it here for you to read his own words.


"I’m going to start work on my primary project. I can’t get into too much detail now, but it should have a large impact in the country. My project focuses on radio communications (Mali has more radio stations than any country in Africa) and distributing anti-extremism messages that have the ability to reach 95% of the people in Mali. The project will have a budget over $1 million, work closely with coordination with part of the Department of State as well as the military, and promote education, health awareness, religious tolerance, conflict resolution, and anti-extremism. As I get more into it, there will be more specifics that I’ll be able to share about. The project will give me the opportunity to see a lot of the country. "


"Also, I’ll be making big strides in setting up my post-military career. Africa is going to become an increasing focal point for the government and I saw aspects of that in Ethiopia, and even more of that here. The current focus is Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the aftermath of those conflicts, the focus will be shifting to the open areas in the world, and many of those are in Africa. So I will have spent time in two countries playing key roles on the continent as well as been following the rest of the continent to some extent. "


And I thought this part of the email was cute...

"I drove for the first time around Bamako. Its not quite the free for all like driving in Addis was. People pretty much stay in their lanes, and don’t cram in front of you as much. But the motorbikes and mopeds are everywhere. They drive between lanes and around vehicles and are hard to see in the mirrors. So it’ll be an adventure every time I get behind the wheel here"


You know how much Bryon loves a challenge, He'll love the crazy driving for sure! He was also really excited when he arrived to find out that not only did he have a cook that prepared dinner for them every night, but he also had air conditioning in his house! Yay! While it is the cool season there, the temperatures are still in the upper 80's to mid 90's with no rain and little breeze.



Well, thats all of the update I have for now. Thank you all so much for praying that our communication lines would open up. They certainly have! I've talked to Bryon daily on skype since Saturday and its been so much easier for me being able to see his face every day. Please continue to pray for our brave soldier. I will post more when it comes. Love to you all!

Bow the knee

Today the church service was just for me (or so it felt). Awhile back, our pastor surveyed the congregation to see topics that we would like him to preach on. This Sunday, he preached on one of the congregation's choices. The title of it was "He Heals the Brokenhearted". After the sermon, I thought my feelings would be of comfort and encouragement but I was so angry at God! I left the sanctuary in tears, got in my car and went to get gas at the gas station. My feelings of grief were so overwhelming, I literally screamed, "Why!!!". Thankfully, no one was around to be scared (I certainly would have been). I still have not accepted why God allowed my husband, of 1 month, to be deployed. He was supposed to be out of the Army in September, for goodness sake!


God is so amazing though, just when you think you cannot make it, he rides in with his sword and shield to protect you from the attacks of the evil one. Today his shield for me was being able to talk to Bryon on skype for TWO HOURS and his sword were the lyrics to a song we sang during the service.


I typically either know the song in church or don't know it (duh) and if I know it, I sing with all my heart. If I don't know it, I find myself not even trying to sing (rather than stumble my way through it) and just listening to the words. Today however, the choir sang a song which dropped me to my knees. I felt the gentle hands of my Heavenly Father, reaching down, picking me up off the floor and embracing me. I could feel him kiss my head, stroke my hair and whisper a soft "shhh, be still my child" in my ear. The lyrics are below.

Bow The Knee

There are moments on our journey following the Lord where God illuminesevery step we take. There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us, as we try to understand each move He makes. When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him

Bow the knee, trust the heart of your Father when the answers goes beyond what you can see. Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity. And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan, in the presence of the King, bow the knee.

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall, the cold and lonely winds wont cease to Blow. And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel; We are tempted to believe God does not know. When the storms arise, don't forget we live by faith and not by sight.

The part of that song that impacted me the most was in the chorus when it says "trust the heart of your Father". It isn't asking me to trust in a human for my strength, because no human can ever be strong enough. It isn't even asking me to trust in the omnipotence, or strength or steadfastness of the Lord. No, it asks me to trust the HEART of the Lord. How can I, or anyone for that matter, not trust in the heart of a Savior who gave his life for me on the cross. A God who loved ME so much that gave His only son, to die, the death of a criminal, just so that I can live forever in Heaven with Him. Christ took on the punishment of Hell so that I would not have to experience it. In THAT love, I will willingly and gratefully give all of my trust, my fears, my sorrow and my very soul.

Please allow me to share a verse from the sermon which has been an enormous encouragement to me. May it strengthen you as well.

Philippians 4: 4-7

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say it, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayers and petitions, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Mailing Address

We have a mailing address!

Bryon emailed me his address today. This may be changing in the next month when he moves houses, i'm not sure, but here is what it is for now. Remember there is a 2-3 week delay from when you send something and he gets it. So no perishable items, as much as he loves pumpkin pies, I dont think that would be the best thing to send :)

The address is:

Sgt. Bryon Mushrush/MIST

2050 Bamako Place
Dulles, VA 20189

Yes, this is a Virginia address, very confusing, I know. The way it works is that all mail sent to deployed soldiers is routed via Virginia and transported by military aircraft (I believe this is how it works). So, what that means for us is that anything we send to him requires only local postage to Virginia! Saves A LOT of money.


I hope everyone writes lots of letters to my sweet husband. I know he is very lonely for his family and friends and receiving letters from people he loves is a huge support and means the world to him. If any of you ever need me to send something in one of my packages or if you need to contact me for any reason, my email address is haleymushrush@hotmail.com. I bet I will write more letters than all of you put together! Who wants to take up the challenge? :)

Hello From Mali!

"Hello from Mali", Bryon says to everyone!

Bryon arrived safely in Mali yesterday and is starting to unpack and settle into his routine. He was able to get on AIM last night for a few minutes to let me know he had arrived and that he was excited to begin work today. He is living in a house, which he described as being 'very nice', along with other Army soldiers. He is currently sharing a room with Nathan, the other Sgt. he traveled with from Fort Bragg but that should change shortly. The house is no longer able to accomidate everyone, so within the month they will all be moving a larger house closer to the embassy. Then, he should have his own room. There is a cook at the house who the guys already living there hired. Each person pays a small monthly fee and she cooks nice hot meals for them! That made me very happy, his mom too I'm sure.

He has had very limited internet access. I got only a very brief email from him today. I have not heard how the job is going so far, but as soon as he is able to contact me I will let you all know.

He said when he arrived it felt like Africa. It was hot and there were 8 soldiers with guns standing near them as they disembarked the plane. There was a man from the embassy there to greet them and take them to their house. He sounded really excited last night about getting to the embassy today and starting on the intelligence work. This is what he has been hoping to do the entire time he has been in the army, and this deployment is giving him a great opportunity get the hands on experience he was hoping for.

Please pray for his internet and phone access. It has been frustrating for both of us that we have been unable to talk to each other any more than a two sentence email the past few days. I am trusting the Lord will work it out in His time. I am just very impatient!!!

This is a picture I found on my phone today that Bryon took of me wearing his massive body armor, and all the other VERY HEAVY stuff (I dont know the proper names for all of his gear, but you can see what I mean by looking at the picture). It's pretty funny and he had a great time loading me up with it, as i'm sure you can tell.

I Want Schnitzel!

Good morning everyone. Its 10 am and I'm just waking up! Praise the Lord! I actually slept the entire night through and am feeling much stronger today. The above picture was taken as Bryon was walking onto the plane at Fayetteville Airport yesterday. It's the last one we took before he left.

I wanted to let everyone know I received two emails from Bryon today. He arrived safely in Germany. He is staying overnight tonight in Army barracks which isn't the best but he has a rental car and is excited to try to find some schnitzel for dinner. Germany is 6 hours ahead of us and Mali is 5 hours ahead of us. So when he leaves Germany and heads to Mali he will be loosing an hour. Bryon says the easy way to remember it is that Mali is in the same time zone as London.

He told me a funny story which I am going to copy and paste here for you to see

We got all sorts of turned around leaving the parking deck from the car rental. I pulled over and Todd got out and tried to find the guy we were to follow or at least where he was suppose to be. Well I was waiting for him to get back and the police stopped and asked me what I was doing and told me I had to move. Not even in the country a full hour and stopped by the police.

As you can see he is his usual self and in good spirits. He also wanted me to thank all of his family and my family for your overwhelming support. Having my cousins, aunts and uncles call him to say you are praying for him was something he did not expect and said he will never forget.

Bryon also wanted me to thank his dad for the wonderful wedding video. We both have a copy and have watched it several times already just in the past two days. It is the only video we have of each other and it means a lot to us both. So thank you, Mr. Mushrush!

And Bryon when you read this, HAPPY 1 MONTH ANNIVERSARY BABY!!!

Bye bye!

Well today is the day. Bryon left at 1:30 for his 10 month deployment to Mali, Africa. This past month has been such a roller coaster of emotions. Its hard to believe two months ago we were just dating, now we are married, and he is deployed. Tomorrow is our one month anniversary. No big deal to most people, but pretty special to us. To us, that means we had a whole month together of practically uninterrupted time. We stole a month of time that we might not have had. God blessed us with that precious gift of time and we are so grateful.

Its amazing what perspective I've gained through this whole process. I've painfully realized the value of cherishing every moment with the person you love. You never know when they will be taken away from you. Fortuantely for me, its temporary, but for many it is perminant. Never stop saying "I love you". Never stop thanking God for His blessings.

I didnt think I'd be ok enough to write down my thoughts tonight. They are pretty scattered, but for some reason are comforting to me. My friend, Holly, gave me a gift basket to help with the grief. Man, has that been a comfort for me today. Being surrounded by other military wives and families who know what this is like has been a strength beyond words.

When I 'prepared' myself for his departure, I told myself that if I could be strong until I said goodbye, I would be ok. I thought saying bye would be the hardest part of the day but it wasnt. There were so many little obsticles that I didnt anticipate. One of the first, was pulling out of the airport parking lot. I sat in my car for at least 30 minutes before I gatherd the courage to pull away. Even though his plane had probably already taken off, I felt like being in that parking lot somehow made me closer to him, like he wasnt really gone, but just inside and would come out any minute. Pulling away was accepting the truth, that my husband was gone for the next 10 months.

Harder even than that was coming home to a house full of Bryon but without Bryon. I was exhausted when I walked inside but I couldnt bring myself to sleep in our bed, I didnt want to mess up the sheets that smelled like him and the pillow that was bunched up, just like he likes it. I walked to Holly's basket, pulled out the tissues, grabbed Bryons deodorant, put on his PT clothes and curled up on the couch in our blanket that we bought on our honeymoon. I sat there staring at the walls for hours sometimes crying, sometimes feeling a strange out of body type feeling where I thought I must be about to wake up from a horribly vivid nightmare.

Then, I remembered when Bryon had told me before leaving that morning. He said, "Haley, this is one of those footprint times. Neither of us have the strength we need to make it on our own, so we had better let God carry us". That memory, has helped me get off the couch, cook dinner, clean up a bit and quit crying. I am so thankful that God's grace is so huge. It's nice knowing He is looking after my husband, I have nothing to worry about.

Footprints in the Sand


One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints

other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from

anguish, sorrow or defeat, I

could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,

"You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life

there have only been one

set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most,

you have not been there for me?

The Lord replied,

"The times when you have

seen only one set of footprints in the sand,

is when I carried you."

Mary Stevenson