Inspire, Spring 2011

ollowing a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan, the soldier Sarah Greenberg ’09 was caring for couldn’t move one of his legs. He could move the other one only a little. He was distraught, believing he was the only one to survive the explosion, but Sarah found one of his friends alive. “He was so excited to hear that,” she said. She put the soldier in a wheelchair and arranged a reunion in his buddy’s room. “Having each other to talk to was therapeutic for both of them.” Sarah lives and works far away from her loved ones, and she has a job that few envy. Sarah is a second lieutenant at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) near Germany’s Ramstein Air Base. The largest American military hospital outside of the United States, LRMC receives war casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq for treatment and care. After a 12-hour shift on a medical-surgical floor, these are the kinds of stories Sarah remembers most about U.S. soldiers she sees every day. Serving the Soldiers One soldier had been shot in both hands. “He said, ‘I would really love it if I could brush my teeth right now,’” Sarah said. “So I helped him brush his teeth.” Another soldier had been struck by a roadside bomb, and he lost his right arm. The day he arrived in Landstuhl, Sarah helped him get out of bed to walk for the first time since he had been wounded, but he had trouble keeping his balance. “Standing up was very emotional for him,” she said. He was processing more than just his own fate. Some of his fellow soldiers had died in the blast. “I spent hours just listening,” Sarah said. “When he first got there, he was really upset and didn’t want to talk, but by the end of my 12-hour shift, he was actually smiling and joking around with me.” She gave him a Bible to read before he was flown home. “You can look at their armbands and know that they were born in the ’90s,” Sarah said. “That’s not uncommon. That’s every day. It’s emotional.” Discovering Her Mission The conflicts in the Middle East were far away from Sarah’s home in Westwood, New Jersey, and Cedarville’s quiet campus. Before her senior year at Cedarville, she spent a month in Landstuhl as part of her ROTC training. That’s when she decided she would request Landstuhl as her first duty station to begin her four-year commitment to active duty. “I thank God all the time for putting me here, because I see it as a huge blessing,” she said. “It’s a very rewarding job, so I am blessed a lot from it. I have strong faith, and I have Jesus, so I feel like I’m here to share that love. This is the greatest job ever.” Sarah’s time to share the love of Christ with her patients comes during 12-hour shifts three or four days per week. She works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for three months and then switches to the night shift for three months. She said everyone at the hospital is dedicated to the mission, but seeing the reality of war 12 hours at a time can be difficult. “I pray every day on my way to work for strength to cope with whatever I’ll see that day,” she said. “I try to focus on the patients, attempting to make them comfortable and meet their needs during those 12 hours.” “Her patients are at low points in their lives and looking for comfort, so she finds that they are often receptive to talking about God.” F 20 spring 2011