{"id":172371,"date":"2024-05-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=172371"},"modified":"2024-05-10T16:22:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:22:35","slug":"camp-zama-community-hears-messages-of-resilience-at-prayer-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=172371","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama community hears messages of resilience at prayer breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n More than 100 community members attended a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, at the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan to show appreciation for the right to freely practice one\u2019s faith. Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, hosted the event that had several chaplains offer prayers and a motivational speaker share his story of overcoming adversity.
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\n Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, provides opening remarks during a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, at the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan. More than 100 community members attended the event that had several chaplains offer prayers and a motivational speaker share his story of overcoming adversity.
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\n More than 100 community members attended a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, at the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan to show appreciation for the right to freely practice one\u2019s faith. Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, hosted the event that had several chaplains offer prayers and a motivational speaker share his story of overcoming adversity.
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\n More than 100 community members attended a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, at the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan to show appreciation for the right to freely practice one\u2019s faith. Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, hosted the event that had several chaplains offer prayers and a motivational speaker share his story of overcoming adversity.
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CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 More than 100 community members attended a National Day of Prayer breakfast Thursday at the Camp Zama Community Club to show appreciation for the right to freely practice one\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n

Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, hosted the event that had several chaplains offer prayers and a motivational speaker share his story of overcoming adversity.<\/p>\n

In his opening remarks, Hunter quoted former President Abraham Lincoln who once said, \u201cI have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lincoln turned to prayer as he faced chaos and uncertainty, Hunter said he also does the same for guidance and protection when tackling the challenges of today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

Hunter said prayer is about being thankful and encouraged everyone to count the blessings they have in their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not underestimate the power of prayer,\u201d he said, emphasizing his own personal prayer. \u201cThat like Abraham Lincoln that we too can find strength in humility and faith. And, as such, that we may each cultivate an attitude of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1952, then-President Harry Truman signed a law to establish an annual National Day of Prayer. The observance, which is held the first Thursday of each May, has continued to serve as an opportunity for Americans to be grateful for their many freedoms and blessings.<\/p>\n

During the breakfast, Col. J.P. Smith, command chaplain for U.S. Army Japan, introduced the guest speaker, John Arroyo.<\/p>\n

Arroyo, a former Special Forces Soldier who was wounded in a mass shooting in 2014 at then-Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) in Texas, spoke of how the near-death experience was a wake-up call to change his destructive behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Arroyo is the example of one who has been knocked down, one who has gone through challenges \u2026 [and] one who has faced adversity at every level of life,\u201d Smith said, \u201cbut, most importantly, one who has always gotten back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the shooting, which left three dead and 16 others wounded, Arroyo said he had previously sought refuge from his personal issues through alcohol.<\/p>\n

Arroyo said his father drank himself to death while he was young, and Arroyo later became a gang member and a meth addict as he struggled without the love and affirmation from a father.<\/p>\n

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\n John Arroyo, a former Special Forces Soldier who was wounded in a mass shooting, shares his story with more than 100 community members at a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, inside the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan.
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\n John Arroyo, center left, a former Special Forces Soldier who was wounded in a mass shooting, speaks to enablers and caregivers during a resiliency workshop inside the U.S. Army Japan headquarters building at Camp Zama, May 9, 2024.
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\n John Arroyo, left, a former Special Forces Soldier who was wounded in a mass shooting, speaks to enablers and caregivers during a resiliency workshop inside the U.S. Army Japan headquarters building at Camp Zama, May 9, 2024.
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In 1998, Arroyo joined the Army for the discipline and a few years later became a Green Beret. He eventually served three combat deployments.<\/p>\n

But when he redeployed, he said he brought the war home, leading him to verbally abuse his wife and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here today to tell you that my wife attempted suicide twice because I was a mean, angry drunk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then, on April 2, 2014, his life would change forever.<\/p>\n

As he walked from his car to his unit headquarters building, he heard gunshots. At first, he didn\u2019t think much of it since he was on an Army post. But as he turned his head, a bullet fired by a fellow Soldier struck his neck.<\/p>\n

The .45 caliber bullet, Arroyo said, severed his jugular vein and went through his voice box and traveled into his right shoulder.<\/p>\n

Arroyo fell to the ground. As his life poured out from him, he said he thought about his living family and not his deceased father\u2019s affirmation he had been seeking for much of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I thought I had only seconds to live,\u201d he said, \u201cthe people that I sacrificed most were the only ones that I thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n

After surviving such a traumatic event, Arroyo said the incident also strengthened his faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make a decision on what is going to be the source of your resilience,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause if you don\u2019t have a rock \u2026 to stand on, good luck because you\u2019re standing on sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the breakfast, Smith invited Arroyo to a resiliency workshop at the USARJ headquarters building.<\/p>\n

The workshop provided an opportunity for various enablers and caregivers, including members of unit ministry teams, from the Camp Zama community to share ideas and ask questions to Arroyo.<\/p>\n

A similar workshop was also held Friday at Torii Station on Okinawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Arroyo is basically coming in to care for our caregivers,\u201d Smith said of the workshops, \u201c[and] provide them with some resiliency tools that will help them do their job better in caring for our Soldiers and family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he finished his speech during the breakfast, Arroyo noted the importance of chaplains and others who are there to help anyone, even if they are not religious, find their source of strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are absolutely not alone and when you abide and stop fighting, then you don\u2019t have to do the fighting,\u201d he said. \u201cYour source of resilience will do it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison Japan news<\/a><\/p>\n

USAG Japan official website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 More than 100 community members attended a National Day of Prayer breakfast May 9, 2024, at the Camp Zama Community Club in Japan to show appreciation for the right to freely practice one\u2019s faith. Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, hosted the event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172373,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172381,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172371\/revisions\/172381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/172373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}