"What is it? What happened? What's going on?" My mom shouted, seeing the look on my dad's face as he came back from the office, scaring us all, and we had to rush out from our room to see what was going on.
"What is it, Dad? Talk to us." My siblings and I pleaded with my younger sister, already crying.
The look on his face was worrisome, and to make things worse, he was not himself; he just kept quiet and kept staring at us and did not say even a single word for about 30 minutes. "Ahhhhhhhh." Dad sighed.
"I think you should talk to us and stop killing us with this behavior of yours." Mom said, rubbing his back.
"I have been deployed to the northeastern part of the country again." My dad said slowly and with a long face.
"Are you the only soldier here? You have been there twice for three years each, and now you are going there again. That simply means it is going to be another three years or even more," Mom said angrily.
"I really don't know what Chief Clark and his cohorts want from me because this is obviously their doing. There are soldiers in this unit that have never been there not even once but it is always me." My dad said, looking all worried because of the news we have been hearing from the northeastern part of the country, has not been good.
"How about you approach them and ask them to tell you what they really want and what they are secretly punishing you for?" Mom suggested.
"I will not do that. What I know is that I will go for this operation, and even if it is two people that will come back alive and healthy, I will be one of those two people. If they feel they are sending me away to end me, they will be shocked to see me return every time they do." Dad said with faith.
"I love that," Mom screamed, encouraging him. "Faith can move mountains; let your faith move every mountain facing you," Mom added.
The following week they started training ahead of deployment; among all of the 50 of them to be deployed, he was the only one that had been there twice, making it very obvious that those in charge had something against him they are not saying but are using this deployment as a way to pass their message. He was not even supposed to be deployed because he just got back from a deployment, but they still went ahead to pen his name down.
His coming back to us alive, hale, and hearty became an everyday prayer because the other times he went, many who went with him did not come back with him, and in no time it was time to leave. "As I step out of the house standing on two feet, I will return standing on two feet," Dad said as he picked up his bag to leave.
"Let your faith work for you." Mom said as we waved him goodbye.
After they left, we stayed for about eight months without knowing his whereabouts or where particularly in the northeastern part of the country he was deployed to, but we just kept hope alive that he was okay because usually if it goes beyond three months and you don't hear from them, it simply means they are no more or they are missing in action (MIA). They all made it a habit to reach out at least once in three months to let family and friends know they were doing okay, but he couldn't, and when he finally did, using a letter, he explained why.
"I was deployed to New Marte; the road is filled with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which makes using a helicopter the only way in and out, and for the past few months there haven't been any, but we finally got one, and I am writing to inform you that I am doing okay." My dad said in his letter.
Getting to know he was okay was a relief, but telling us how much danger he was exposed to caused us to worry even more, and we kept hoping faith moved mountains in his favor and brought him back to us in one piece. From new Marte, his location was changed to a town called Gamboru Ngala, which is on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. Sometimes they have a network for phone calls because of the neighboring country, and that helped us communicate better, and 4 years later another set of soldiers were deployed, and my dad was able to come back home.
"Indeed, faith can move mountains." He said as he shared his countless near-death experiences with family and friends that came to celebrate his return.
