Area woman sends cards to 1137th

HORNERSVILLE, Mo. -- After receiving an inspirational e-mail concerning a deck of playing cards, Amy Metcalf has been busy sending the same inspirational message to the 1137th Military Police Company of Kennett.

Metcalf explained that she received an e-mail about a month ago with the subject, "A Deck of Cards." The e-mail told the story of a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. One Sunday he was in the bunkhouse with a deck of cards laid out over his bunk. At that point a sergeant entered asking why the soldier wasn't with his platoon.

The solder then told the sergeant that because they weren't allowed to have Bibles or any other spiritual books in Afghanistan he decided to talk to the Lord through the deck of cards. The soldier explained to the sergeant that the ace him that there is only one God. The two represents the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The three represents the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The four represents the four apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The five represents the five virgins that were 10, but only five of them were glorified. The six represents the six days it took in creating the universe and the seven represents the day Jesus rested. The eight represents the eight member family of Noah who were saved from the flood that destroyed the earth. The nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed 10, but only one thanked him. The 10 represents the Ten Commandments. The jack represents Satan, one of God's first angles who was kicked out of Heaven for his wicked ways. The queen represents the virgin Mary and the king represents Jesus, the king of all kings.

When the dots on the card are counted there is a total of 365, one for every day of the year. There are 52 cards in a deck, each for a week in the year. There are four suits, representing the four seasons. Each suit has 13 cards, representing the 13 weeks in a quarter.

Metcalf said after she read the e-mail she printed it and gave it to her family and a few close friends.

"My mother and I talked about it and we decided that if I could be inspired by the e-mail, there were probably others who could be inspired as well," she said.

Metcalf said she thought of the 1137th Military Police Company from Kennett which recently had been called to active duty. She then had the idea to send them a deck of cards, along with the e-mail.

"I called the National Guard Armory in Kennett and learned that they were stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia," she said.

Metcalf said that she wrote down the mailing address and learned about how many soldiers were in the company. At that point she knew how many decks of cards she needed and where she needed to send them. She said she knew that buying a case of cards would be quite expensive. But she knew that Casino Aztar gives away decks of cards to visitors to the casino.

"Because they usually give the cards away anyway, I wondered if they would be interested in donating the cards to send to the company," Metcalf said.

She made the request to Carla Phillips at the executive office of Casino Aztar. Metcalf said that Phillips presented it to the board of directors and Casino Aztar agreed to donate a case of cards containing 144 decks.

Phillips said, "Everyone thought it was a good idea and we wanted to help out in any way we could."

She went on to say that Metcalf's request was one of three that week.

"We gave one case to each request," Phillips said.

Once Metcalf got the cards she compressed the three page e-mail message into one page. She made a copy of the e-mail for each deck of cards. In addition to that she wrote a message to go with each deck that said, "Take this as a token of our love and appreciation to you. Always know that you will be in our daily thoughts and prayers. May God bless each and every one of you for every day to come!"

Metcalf then inserted both the e-mail and the message into the deck of cards. When all 144 decks were ready she packed them in a box, ready to be shipped.

"At that point I decided to approach the Hornersville American Legion. I asked them if they would be willing to pay for the postage," she said.

Metcalf said she attended the American Legion meeting on Monday, April 14. She told the members that it would cost $33.40 to send it priority mail.

Herb Kaneko, American Legion commander, said, "We thought this was a very worthy project for our organization. It shows our service men and women that we support them and appreciate the things they do for our country."

Kaneko went on to say that the American Legion was happy to help in any way it could.

Once the package arrived at its destination, Metcalf was notified.

Sergeant First Class Richard Lamunion with the 1137th, who remained stationed in Kennett while the company is stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. awaiting to be sent to Kosovo, confirmed that the company had received Metcalf's package.

"They're extremely thrilled with the decks of cards," Lamunion said. "It was such a nice gesture of support to show the guys that everyone back home still cares about them and is awaiting their trip home."

Metcalf said, "I hoped the message would touch everyone like it touched me. And at the very least it will show them that people back home care."

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