Safety in Skepticism

I love how God displays His wisdom in His providence. So often, seemingly mundane encounters or conversations end up being so much more.

I met with a guy from a local non-profit the other morning to talk about ways in which I can support his work. I don't know how he found out about me, but when he reached out to me, he mentioned that he had also been a service member (Marine and Ranger). He knew the right hook.

We planned on having coffee at Ninos. Closed. We walked down the street to Purloin. Closed. So we walked still further, back to his car, and took off for Panera. I don't know how we got into philosophical and religious topics, but I shouldn't have been surprised. He was just as energetic and talkative as I am.

For three hours, we discussed seemingly every facet of religion. It was far from a controlled conversation--he just skipped from one grandiose claim ("the Old Testament god seems a lot more realistic than the New Testament one") to another ("no one really knows what is true anyway"). This guy is really good at undermining other peoples' claims, but it's hard to poke holes in his when he just makes then one after another without taking a breath.

Eventually, I just blurted out "You just made a lot of HUGE claims! And it sounds to me like you're just picking out pieces of religious you like from an a la carte line and making it a part of your own religion of personal experience!" Thankfully, because he's a fellow happy warrior, he took the jibe with good humor. He acknowledged that his claim that we can't truly know anything was based on his own assumption, and it didn't need to be questioned because he is his own authority.

He was refreshingly honest. Our discussion stretched back from Panera to his porch to his kitchen (with a delicious-looking chocolate liqueur on the counter). Before I left, I told him that I would keep an eye out for ways to help his non-profit. I also asked him if he would be interested in joining, and perhaps even help leading, the discussion Meetup that I started.

The Meetup has a huge following, but no one comes to the events. I have already asked a young man at my church who is great at bar room conversations to help me reboot the group. Now, this guy will help as well.

You might wonder why I would ask someone who is not a believer by any stretch to help lead a group that I hope to use to advance the Gospel. Well, for one, ownership breeds commitment. He won't just be attending, but leading. Second, others--regardless of belief--will be more willing to come if they know that there is place for them at the table. He would show that. Finally, in order to avoid overwhelming people, it is usually necessary to take an indirect approach to the Gospel (i.e. Why is Christmas the worst time of year?) and try to navigate to a proper end. If people with different beliefs are hosting the discussion, we can be more direct in topics pertaining to Christianity--What is truth? Was the world created? Is there a transcendent law? Etc.

The next night, after wonderful vision-casting sessions with my fellow pastors at Falls Church, I led a last minute running Meetup, and was joined by a runner who is one of our consistent participants. We have chatted during our runs before, but remained relatively superficial. About halfway through this run, he asked me how my other Meetup was going. I told him about the present dilemma (plenty of followers, but no participants). We talked about the purpose of the group and the importance of people knowing why they believe what they believe.

I told him what the guy the previous morning told me--that people only believe what their parents believe. "That seemed true in Wisconsin," I told him, "where folks seem to remain Catholic or Lutheran their whole lives, but my wife and I each grew up in areas that were in certain ways several generations removed from the church. In order to believe, we had to rebel against our cultures." This was my segue into asking him the all-important question: "So what religion were you raised in?"

Answer: Non-denominational as well as Pentecostal. He said that his dad was still a strong believer (and he admires his dad to no end), but he wonders if his mom converted to Christianity with the belief that it would stabilized her marriage (which it did). He called himself agnostic. "Don't get me wrong," he quickly added, "I do appreciate Christianity." In Christianity, he sees an element of charity that he sees nowhere else. He also hates when people attack Christianity, especially atheists, who are unwilling to question their own assumptions. "Not a bad critique," I told him.

"So you're a skeptic of the skeptics?" I asked. "I guess you could say that," he replied. The kicker was what he added, "I just don't think people can really know what is true."

And with that, the second friendship was formed in two days with a guy who who is utterly skeptical about any truth claims. I could have replied to this second guy as well, "How do you know we can't know? Will you be your own skeptic?"

Skepticism is not new. The Enlightenment, for one, was built upon skepticism. Rene Descartes really started the Enlightenment when he took it upon himself to disregard every truth claim he knew and start over with his own, independent mind and the remark "I think therefore I am." But the Enlightenment displayed the same hypocrisy as today's skeptics. It was skeptical of truth claims it didn't like (especially from religion), but not skeptical about its own skepticism.

In that era, the one un-scrutinized claim was that truth started with the independent human mind. Today, the one un-scrutinized claim is that truth starts with the independent human experience--"I feel therefore I am."

How convenient! Everything outside of you is exposed to withering critique, but nothing inside of you. You are always safe--from scrutiny, critique, truth, meaning, and eternal love.

Whether you seek to create paradise with your mind or with your heart, you will only find a wretched wasteland. Nothing within the human person has any truth, meaning, or beauty beyond that which is given by God. As the Christian singer, Keith Green, once sung: "You can run to the end of the highway and not find what you're looking for. No, it won't make your trouble disappear."

The truth is, this world operates on a sense of truth (Rom. 1). And for truth to be truth (or as Francis Schaeffer called it, "true truth"), it must exist outside and above the individual person. That means we can't start with "I think" or "I feel," but with "Where can it be found?"

In God's Word, the Bible, we find the one place where God both reveals His truth to mankind (in "baby talk" as Calvin calls it). We also find the one Person, truth incarnate, who bore the penalty for man's intellectual insubordination so that man might know the truth, and be set free. Thank you, Jesus!

Catholics and Protestants: Some Basic Differences

For our most recent adventure, a number of us from Falls Church took part in a community chili cook-off. Out of 13 competitors, the top-10 were recognized. We made the bottom-3. :)

As with so much of life, however, there were much more meaningful storylines stretching through the course of the event. For one, our church has successfully participated in another community event. Ten of our members were there, and a number of them helped out. Second, those that helped out did so in accordance with their God-given gifts. One man made the chili while a couple of younger ladies made the sign. About half a dozen people took turns manning the table. Third, most of these volunteers were young adults, showing that stereotypes have plenty exceptions. Fourth, there were a number of encouraging conversations that took place and plenty of cards handed out.

One of our young adults went to the basement bar after the event upstairs (in the American Legion building) and started talking with one of the older ladies at the bar about "fire chili" (apparently made with beer and whiskey). The lady doubted that such a chili would ever appear at this event because of the religious types. Our young man laughed and said that he was a part of the church group. Another Christian stereotype dashed!

Perhaps my favorite conversation was with a Catholic friend. He learned that I was a Presbyterian pastor and asked about the difference between Catholics and Presbyterians. "I know the Lutherans don't pray to Mary like we do," he added. I told him that all Protestants, regardless of denomination, believe that there is one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).

I told him that the primary difference between the two concerns the work of Jesus Christ. Catholics generally view the grace of Christ as what gets them across the line, while Protestants generally believe that our salvation is Christ's work from start to finish. An old Catholic saying goes something like this: To those who do what is within themselves, God will not deny grace. As Salty the Songbook (a giant blue cartoon songbook, not a priest) later sung: Do your best and God will do the rest.

Note that I said "generally," as there are some Protestants who have little to no understanding of the full nature of God's grace in Christ and some Catholics who do. Also note that the difference is often not in the concepts--both believe in "grace," but in the meaning behind the concept. Don't go accusing your Catholic friend of not believing in grace! But we as Protestants believe in grace alone (Galatians 2:15-16; Philippians 3:1-11).

At the same time, this partial view of grace that many hold to leads to what many of your Catholic friends will often call "Catholic guilt." Many Catholics feel the vast weight of the law upon their shoulders--a weight they can't cast off with any amount of penance. It's no wonder. We all know that God is holy and that we are left without excuse, but we suppress that truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1). It is tempting to tell ourselves that we play a role in our salvation, but the temptation turns to terror as we realize that all we can earn is wrath.

In countering the Jesus-plus grace of the Judaizers, Paul gently reminds us that it was for freedom that we are set free--so let us not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Since Christ has perfectly kept the law in our place, we are now free to live for God's glory and enjoy Him forever. If Christ's work wasn't complete, then we are not free.

Even these basic distinctions are broad and could be contested, but hopefully this gives you, the reader, a few points of contact. Talk about grace and the passages mentioned. Talk about guilt and the hopeless task of carrying a weight that will inevitably crush us apart from Christ.

These conversations with folks in the community are a constant joy for me, and more and more, they will be a constant joy for the people of Falls Church: An OPC

Update and Prayer Letter

Greetings, Brothers and Sisters.

Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement. The missus and I are tremendously blessed, knowing that we have friends and prayer warriors interceding for us from SoCal and Seattle to Sterling, Virginia. We know our prayers are not in vain, because our Savior's work was and is not in vain.

In the first quarter (Oct-Dec) of my two-year call to Falls Presbyterian Church (now referred to as "Falls Church: An OPC Family"), I sought to integrate myself within both the church and community in order to get to know both better, as well as establish some outreach "baby steps" within the church.

During that time, I joined the American Legion and Toastmasters, took over two local Meetup groups, and visited a host of local social spots. I also started visiting with individuals from the church and community and by the time we settled into our new home, joined my wife in having folks over on a regular basis.

With our outreach "baby steps," individual members of our church were given the opportunity to distribute invitation cards to our church, thus making their faith a more explicit part of their daily lives. The church also had a booth at the town "Christmas Market," where we distributed hot chocolate and free literature. We also hosted two unofficial 5k runs, which each drew about 10 people.

A few highlights:

1) We had 18 volunteers at the Christmas Market, and interacted with several dozen people.
2) Our Facebook is now followed by over a thousand people (was at 120).
3) The running Meetup group is followed by 160 people (was at 110), now draws between 4-8 runners on a regular basis, and has become known as the official Falls running group.
4) The discussion Meetup group has exploded from about 120 followers to 320.
5) We had a housewarming party with 40 people--20 from the church and 20 from the community.

These are all venues, direct and indirect, for building relationships, trust, and communicating the Gospel. As you have read in this blog, there have been lots of hard-hitting Gospel discussions by God's grace.

We are now halfway through the second quarter (Jan-Mar) and my goal here centers upon hospitality. I recently taught a class at church on this topic, reminding our people that hospitality is not only at the heart of God-glorifying fellowship within the church and God-glorifying outreach outside of the church, it is at the very heart of God himself.

To this end, my family has upped our own hospitality, hoping to better know friends and strangers alike, as well as model what a blessing this lifestyle brings! Over the past three Sundays, we have hosted our new "Growth Committee"--four couples who are committed to the aims of outreach, hospitality, and discipleship. They will join us in spreading the hospitality culture.

This will include promoting the church in the community, arranging events, guiding and engaging visitors at the church, providing meal invites to members and visitors alike, and nurturing the bonds of our church on a deeper level. They will be helping me represent the church at the community's annual chili cook-off this Saturday, and started rolling on the hospitality.

A few highlights and additional plans for this quarter:

1) Through my work with a local political organization, I am receiving invitations to pray, read Scripture, and offer devotions at local political events and through local outlets.
2) Just today, a member of our running group set up a Facebook page for the group. This will not only raise the profile of the group, but demonstrates a level of commitment to this group, making it more self-sustaining.
3) This Sunday, we will have a member at the back door, ready to guide any visitors through the church and connect them with people who are ready to receive them. We will also start having a Sunday lunch invitation at the ready for any visitors.
4) A graphic designer is creating a new logo for the church in consultation with the session. A logo, like a website and FB page, is for the 30 year old what a properly manicured lawn and outdoor sign is for the 50 year old.
5) We will be sending out mailers and actively promoting our senior pastor's Easter sermon series. In conjunction with the new measures to fully welcome visitors, we are ready to receive those who the Lord brings to us in this high-visitation season.

John Piper once said that missions exists because worship does not. In the same way, outreach exists because worship does not. Our aim at Falls Church is to draw more worshipers to the living, loving God of the universe through Jesus Christ.

Please pray for the following:

1) That the Lord would encourage our hearts with His grace, regardless of visible outcomes or perceptions about progress.

2) That the Lord would keep us faithful in our methods and hopes--seeking His glory first and foremost!

3) That the Lord would make us fervent to employ every gift of this diverse body in service of His kingdom.

4) That the Lord would give us wisdom with each interaction, event, and endeavor.

I will keep you posted with some details along the way, and expect another report and request for prayer in a few months!

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Stephen Roberts (Evangelist, Falls Church; Chaplain, US Army Reserves)

Love is Rebellion

At Toastmasters last night, I gave a speech on some of my experiences in Afghanistan and Dave Lyon, the young man who was killed. I won't repeat the speech here because many of you have heard me speak of Dave on many separate occasions.

But I concluded on this note: As much as the loss of Dave hurt, I am grateful to know that love still exists. This world is broken, all love is in some form broken, and one day, all love will be love lost. Yet, even in this type of world, love still remains. What a testament to God's grace!

Later on, we had our "Table Topics" time when random subjects are introduced and people are asked to speak about them. I raised my hand for the subject of special memories from a past Valentine's Day.

On Valentine's Day in 2004, my nephew was born. Now I have lots of nephews and nieces at this point (which is awesome!!!) and each of their births were special. The really cool thing about this birthday is that it connected love with life. The natural outworking of love is life.

In the Bible, we are told that "love is as strong as death" (Song of Songs 8). One practical outworking of that comes in the form of life. Death in this fallen world is inevitable, but as long as love persists, so does life. Love becomes our rebellion against our fallen condition and the death that ensues.

Connecting my formal speech with my brief Table Topics one, I cherish again the fact that the Lord, knowing he would take close His hand upon Dave in this world and open it upon the world to come, gave Dave and Dana their final couple of days together in Afghanistan. There is also a logic behind the baby boom that so often occurs after a deployment. Soldiers see the rising tide of brokenness crash over precious lives, so they come home and start anew. To put it crassly, the pleasures of the marriage bed are combined with the purpose of the marriage bed--to turn love into life.

John 11. Jesus, looking upon the tomb of his friend Lazarus and two grief-stricken sisters, wept with great, heaving sobs. The Son of God made flesh, weeping. Why? Did He not know that He would raise Lazarus up just a few moments later? Sure He did, but He also knew what the world was like when it was created through Him--what men had made of it--and it all ended with a tomb. He felt the brokenness in His mortal bones. He then waged a rebellion of His own against death. Surely He knew the words following "Love is strong as death...Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it." With that, the Lion roared, the stone rolled away, and the dead man was raised.

Soon after, the Lion would become the slain Lamb--an object of ridicule before a rebellion world. But through that humiliation, He would forever turn back the tide of death upon itself. He will forever be the slain Lamb and the roaring Lion. And one day, the Lion will return and bring death to death and life to life.

All of this, we consider with the reminder: God shows His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His supreme act of love for death-destined sinners was to bring them to life through His perfect life and sacrificial death. With His own resurrection from the tomb, He reminds us that a final Day is coming. Until that Day, dear Lord, when You rend the heavens and roar...

Hospitality and the Heart

In part, the Lord took a hold of my wife's heart through a family welcoming her into their home. She was always welcome for dinner. At times, she was still hungry afterward. She realized years later that they all ate less so that she could eat with them. In that same home, she found a copy of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity on her best friend's floor and the walls of her heart soon came tumbling down.

Already a young Christian in college, I was still amazed by my first "Sunday dinner." A friend on my floor invited me to church and his parents' house. After church, I enjoyed his parents' rich hospitality, completed with a reading of a devotion and a time of prayer. This was a normal occurrence for this family. For me, it was a foretaste of heaven.

When the Lord drew us one week to Grace OPC in Vienna, VA, three families invited us over for meals. We knew that we had found our new denominational home.

Hospitality is such a vital part of the Christian life and the body life of the Christian church. By welcoming others into our homes, we show a commitment to relationships and their depth. In our homes, visitors will notice aspects of our brokenness--not nearly so easy to conceal as in public--and find the fruits of grace and repentance.

And by letting our guard down and welcoming others into our homes, we give them permission to let their guard down as well. Conversations about the weather turn into conversations about the well-being of our hearts. These sorts of conversations deepen the bonds of Christ-centered fellowship within the church; they also establish bonds with those who might one day become Christ's sheep.

So far, we have welcomed about a dozen families from the church and community into our home in Wisconsin. Each time, we have seen struggles, dreams, and reflections of God's grace that we would not have seen otherwise. Each time, we come away blessed.

Perhaps that is the most important thing you should know about hospitality. It is the hosts who are most blessed. We see the Lord's work--both incredible and ordinary--in the lives of others and are left in wonder and awe. With those who do not yet believe, we see the savage wounds that could be so sweetly tended to by our Savior.

Speaking of our Savior, remember that He presents before His people a lavish table of His grace. He also prepares rooms in His heavenly home for us. All this for a people who had no room for Him in their inns or their hearts--only a space between two criminals on a cross. What the hospitable God has done for His inhospitable people! How that truth can transform even the hardest sinner!

I would encourage everyone who reads this post to open their homes and their hearts to the family of God and the strangers within their midst. The Lord may use your hospitality to change the hearts of others. But know this, He will certainly use it to change your heart.

Putting Politics Into Perspective

I was asked to offer a prayer at a local political gathering and I in turn asked to give a meditation just before the prayer. Here were my remarks (as best as I can remember them):

"Two notable political events happened a few days ago in Iowa: Terry Branstad, the popular Republican governor, issued his endorsement: Anybody but Cruz. Later in the day, Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump.

A third thing happened that day that was perhaps not as notable, but certainly more meaningful. An atheist at a Marco Rubio gathering challenged him about his religious rhetoric and asked him if he was running for 'Pastor-in-chief.'

Rubio responded with a brief presentation on the Gospel. He spoke of the Gospel as a free gift--one that cannot be coerced. But he also said that his faith was vital to his work. It reminds him that he is living for eternity, so small things, like being a good husband and father, are far more important than being President.

(See video here: https://youtu.be/Qy2Fjk00tTA )

Living in light of eternity--that is what makes political engagement a happy and hopeful task rather than an angry one. A great theologian about a hundred years ago (J. Gresham Machen) said that we cannot hope to move the world if we think that this world is all. In order to move the world, we must first have a place to stand.

That place to stand is on the truth of God's Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is these central truths that enable us to be "happy warriors," and if God so allows, people who can move the world."

Here is your gut check, friends: Do you get heartburn or lose sleep over the state of our culture or political system? Perhaps you have turned your politics into your religion. It's an easy thing to do.

God reigns over every kingdom and His grace in various ways permeates every place and every time through Jesus Christ. Why not focus on that fact before focusing on the task at hand?

You may find that you are the task, and God's is the hand.

SPC Serpa: One Year Later

Photo taken by SPC Matthew Serpa when our plane touched down in Afghanistan. Most of those seated her around him were part of his unit--the 55th Sustainment Brigade.

On September 11th, 2001, hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a field in rural Pennsylvania. One of the rallying cries of American patriots after that day was "Let's roll," the last words recorded from one of the heroes who fought the attackers on the plane that went down. Matt Serpa was 9 years old when that all unfolded.

Nine years later, straight out of high school, Matt Serpa joined the United States Army and was assigned to the 55th Sustainment Brigade at Ft. Belvoir, VA. He drilled with the unit prior to Basic Training and thus wore "civvies" (civilian clothes) instead of the uniform. His baby face could not mask his uncanny intelligence and wit. He convinced a long-time soldier that he was a reporter and asked him a series of probing questions. Obviously, Serpa had a since of humor as well.

As Serpa quickly ascended the lower enlisted ranks, he also quickly gained a place at the DFAC (dining facility) tables where the deeper discussions were held. Outside the DFAC, he knew how to take orders without asking "Why?" Within the DFAC, his natural skepticism and intellectual curiosity made "Why?" his automatic response to any assertion.

He was always a bit reclusive, often choosing to venture out on his own during free time, or listen to music alone on his bunk at night. But he was loved. When the soldiers of the deployment element of the 55th were given their assignments for Afghanistan, he learned that he would be sent to Camp Spann in the north, along with MSG McKissick and SFC Creamer--both wily vets with extensive experience in the military. Both of them took Specialist Serpa under their wing--a mother and father of sorts for the youngest kid in our unit.

When I traveled north to visit my soldiers at Camp Spann, I mostly spent time with Serpa. We went for walks together and ate pizza together. He told me about how much a group of older, cigar smoking Canadians and Americans meant to him. One Canadian officer recalls the depths of the conversations he enjoyed with Serpa then. He was impressed by Serpa's breadth of life experiences at the age of 20, but also felt it his job with some of the other older men to educate Serpa on the great music that pre-dated him.

Serpa turned 21 in Afghanistan--an event that usually provokes a raucous party. Instead, he enjoyed "near beer" with Americans, Canadians, Germans, and others in Afghanistan.

Specialist Serpa returned with a third of our unit in January of 2014 as part of the draw down (reduction of forces) in Afghanistan. 152 of us deployed to Afghanistan together. All 152 would return home, but only about 30 were in this group. The number was then whittled to 3, as Serpa, MSG McKissick and I hopped aboard a plane on an unusually icy day at Ft. Hood for home.

We enjoyed first class on that flight, and were honored when a flight attendant announced that we were returning home from Afghanistan. The moment was fleeting, however. When we got of the airplane, Serpa went to a catch a taxi and went out into the night, alone.

Being the intelligent, tech-savvy entrepreneur that he was, Serpa was soon accepted at Columbia University. Once there, he joined a fraternity and switched roles from young underling in the Army to worldly counselor for your undergrads. One of his fraternity brothers described Serpa as full of ideas, and always welcoming to those young collegians who needed to talk. This was a side of Serpa not often witnessed by his fellow soldiers, but one that was probably brought to the fore by his deployment experiences.

Unfortunately, deployments don't only reveal sterling attributes, but long dormant heartaches as well. The effects are often unpredictable:

• 

  1/17, 6:37am

  Matt Serpa

  Hey CPT Roberts, are you free to chat sometime?

  What is your phone #
• 

  1/17, 8:01am

  Stephen Roberts

  Hey Matt, I certainly am. My number is 240-281-8415. If I miss your call, please leave me a voicemail so I will know to get back to you! Look forward to talking with you, brother.

Most of our soldiers had gone their separate ways and I had lost contact with Serpa. I did not know of his burden, of the weight of his struggles. I looked forward to catching up with this kid I had known since his first day in the Army.

Three days later--one year ago, today--SPC Matt Serpa was dead.

****************************************************************************

Matt Serpa was a casualty of war--not simply the War on Terror, but the war experienced in every human heart, soul, and mind between the original dignity imprinted upon them and the brokenness wrought by mankind's fall from God. But Serpa was not the greatest casualty in this story. We are the greatest casualties. The people who now live with his death. Even in writing this tribute, I felt the old weight of grief returning and had to stop writing.

For some of you, Serpa's death may have left you in utter darkness--depressed and incurably bitter over his loss. Staying in such a state is a disservice to Serpa's memory. The brokenness of this world has not entirely obscured its original beauty, and the brokenness of Serpa's final hours do not entirely obscure the beauty of his life. Those 22 years were a precious gift for him and for us.

For others of you, there may be a temptation to sweep away the brokenness in the false beauty of cliches and hollow comforts. That too is a disservice to Serpa's memory.The beauty does not obscure the brokenness. The world was created through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in infinite and impeccable beauty. This fact was the basis for Christ's heaving sobs at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. The tomb not only representing the loss of that precious person, but the loss of so much beauty, life, and love in this world. Nobody knew that more than Jesus.

The most healthy and appropriate response to the loss of Serpa is to bind the beauty and brokenness together, as the loving purposes of God were bound together with the evil purposes of man in the crucifixion of God's only beloved Son--the savior of sinners. Christ didn't simply weep at the tomb of Lazarus--He raised him from the dead and bore His own tomb. He overcame death with the beauty of His own brokenness, so that we can cry "Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O grave, is they victory?" So now, in Christ, we may (and certainly must) grieve, but we can now do so with inexhaustible hope.

Around the time of Serpa's death, three of our deploying soldiers (myself included) had beautiful baby daughters. One soldier whose wedding I conducted prior to the deployment just had her first little one. I conducted two weddings for soldiers in our unit, and another soldier happily married a great gal down in South Carolina. In all these things, we remember that "love is strong as death" (Son of Songs 8). And Christ is the life-giving pinnacle of that truth.

*****************************************************************************

Roll Call:

(In the Army this forms part of the memorial ceremony offered for our soldiers.)

WO1 Rainey. Present.
SPC Rojas. Present.
CPT Roberts. Present.
SPC Ruelas. Present.
SPC Serpa. (Silence)

SPC Matthew Serpa. (Silence)

SPC Matthew Serpa died on January 20th, 2015. He was a son, brother, friend, and battle buddy. Most important, he was loved. And he will be missed.