Mark Kunkee

“Not Yet”: The Story of Deacon Mark Kunkee

The road was dark and quiet in the early hours of March 28, 1987, when Mark Kunkee, a Marine Corps veteran of eight years, drove through the lonely stretch of Highway 64 in Illinois. He was heading from Aberdeen to Nebraska to be the best man in a friend’s wedding. A fellow Marine had asked for a ride, and Mark, as he often did, said yes. But at 3:35 a.m., their journey turned tragic.

In the silence of the night, metal collided, fire erupted, and in a matter of seconds, Mark’s life nearly ended. His friend, James, did not survive the crash. A passing truck driver, seeing the flames, rushed to the scene, pulled Mark from the burning car, extinguished the fire, and called for help.

When the hospital called his family and wife, they were told he wouldn’t make it. Doctors prepared them for the worst. But God had other plans. “Not yet”, today Mark would laugh. Incredibly, doctors reconstructed parts of his brain using tissue from his legs—a surgical feat that spoke to both the desperation of his condition and the determination to give him another chance.

Mark opened his eyes on April 15, 1987—18 days later—with no memory of what had happened. His body broken, his brain damaged, and his heart shattered by grief and confusion. His survival was a miracle, but what followed was no less than a crucible.

Mark was sent to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego where he began the long and complex process of rebuilding not only Mark’s physical body, but also his mind. For two and a half years, Mark remained at Balboa, undergoing intense therapy to recover basic motor functions, speech, memory, and cognition. He had been a machine gunner, then a tank mechanic. He loved the Corps. He fought to stay in. “There has to be something I can still do,” he pleaded. “Even something in an office—I just want to serve.”

But his commanding officer gently pointed out the stark truth: “What about your vision? Your speech? Your right arm? Your hearing?”

Medically retired, Mark left the military not with a ceremony, but with a deep wound—the loss of his vocation, his identity.

Then came another blow. The woman he loved, his wife, couldn’t see a future with the man he had become. “You’re not the same person I married,” she said. Despite Mark’s relentless hope and efforts to save the relationship—reaching out to chaplains, counseling, prayers—it wasn’t enough. She left him. And, in a twist that pierced deeper than war, she soon married Dan, one of Mark’s closest Marine buddies. The betrayal was staggering.

“Why did I survive?” he asked himself.

But even in the midst of brokenness, God was rebuilding something deeper.

Mark enrolled at Mesa College in 1990, not only to retrain his brain, but to rediscover who he was. There, he met Leanne, a kind soul with patience and grace. She helped him learn to take the bus again, to remember to drink water, to tackle schoolwork one step at a time. From her gentleness grew a friendship. From that friendship, a love that healed. They’ve now been married over 30 years, raising two daughters and building a quiet, resilient life in San Diego.

Through all this, Mark never lost faith. While still recovering at Balboa, he connected deeply with a hospital chaplain who nurtured his spiritual life and helped him make sense of his suffering. That faith only grew stronger when he found a church home at Faith Lutheran Church.

One Sunday, after worship, the pastor asked to speak with him. “Have you ever thought about becoming a deacon?” he asked.

Mark had been finishing an associate degree in psychology, and the thought of serving others in their pain resonated deeply. He enrolled in the deacon formation program and, over time, began assisting in Word and service ministry. He has now served as a deacon for more than 20 years—first at Faith Lutheran, and later at Trinity Lutheran Church, always with quiet faithfulness and a servant’s heart.

Much of his ministry has been behind the scenes—especially in the food pantry, where he spent countless hours distributing food, listening to stories, praying with those who came in hungry—not just for bread, but for hope.

In November 2024, Mark suffered a stroke, forcing him once again to pause, to heal, and to wait. But this time, he knew the road. He knew that recovery, though slow, is still a gift from God.

And then came a new chapter.

In February 2023, Mark Kunkee was present at the installation service of Pastor Tardelli Voss as the new Missionary Director of the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego. He was excited and came with open arms to welcome the new fellow worker in the mission field, as a man who knew what it meant to serve, to suffer, and to show up.

At the time, we didn’t yet know where Mark might fit in our work. We didn’t know the exact direction God was taking us. But Mark showed up—with his story, with his scars, with his heart open. He expressed support for the mission and a willingness to serve. And we knew that, in some way, God was up to something.

Now, that purpose is becoming clearer.

As we begin developing new military ministries—including outreach at Balboa Naval Medical Center, the very place where Mark was once restored—his experience, testimony, and presence are a gift beyond measure. Through the leadership of his longtime pastor and friend, Rev. Rick Stark, and in collaboration with Michael Morabe, another Veteran and missionary, we see Mark not as a man retired, but as a missionary being recommissioned.

His life says what we believe:

That no pain is wasted in the hands of God.

That healing can become calling.

That the broken can be made into messengers of mercy.

We love Mark. We honor his sacrifice, his perseverance, and his unwavering heart for others. And we at the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego are eager to walk with him in this next season—not just as a supporter of the mission, but as a partner in it.

Because God is still writing his story.

And we’re here for what comes next.