Sunday, February 28, 2010

Going Back

28 Feb
Today has been kind of a crummy day. First of all, it would have been my parent's anniversary today. Thankfully, my mom is spending the day with her sisters and having a good time. This helps keep away the pain, for now. Then my family went to church, but it felt all wrong. I felt like a stranger there. Like it's no longer my church -- which is a product of being gone so much over the last 2 years. I gave up my teaching and ministry there long ago in preparation for being gone, and now it feels too weird. It's kind of like moving away and then going back to the old neighborhood a few years later. Everything is familiar, but it's changed. And that's why they say you can't ever really go back: it's never going to be like it once was. It's sad.

Finally, I got an email from my CH Asst back overseas and she informed me that I may not get to stay home as long as I was initially informed (and hoping). It's complicated, but my scheduled leave was not for another ten days. The question becomes, does emergency leave count as your R&R leave? If not, do I get to stay home longer or will I go back and then still get my scheduled R&R --in which case I'd have to fly all the way home again. Why not just stay home??!! (Trust me, coming home for a funeral is no R&R, as someone back there must be trying to argue that it is).

I found myself angry and hurt and having a little pitty-party today. Oh yeah, and the USA hockey team lost in overtime in the Gold medal game to Canada this afternoon. I was bummed. And it rained here today as well. I can only hope tomorrow is better. So could use your prayers. (1), for my attitude, and (2) so that maybe I'll get to stay home a little bit longer. (ps: I know God's in control, but it does not hurt to ask). Thanks.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Goodbye Clara and Home on Leave


Tues 23Feb

I am writing this back in the United States because I am suddenly home on Emergency Leave. My mother-in-law died last Friday afternoon. She had been sick for awhile, but it's still very hard and sad to lose a loved one. I was a very fortunate young husband to have had a mother-in-law who loved me and accepted me so easily and generously into her family. She was a wonderful woman who loved her family, her grandkids, her Cincinnati Reds, her beloved Elvis, and a good game of Shanghai! We loved you, too, Clara, and I will miss you.
This is a favorite picture of my wife and her mom, taken in almost exactly three years ago.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Another Week Down


19 Feb
It's Friday night again, and I just got back from steak night at the dining hall. I guess after awhile it gets to be old hat. The "coolness" of having a steak every week is wearing off, especially since they're not the greatest steaks either! I'm sure that has something to do with it. The afternoon temperatures have been nice here recently, and so I went for a 4 mile run today. (The perimeter run around the base is almost 8 miles, and I want to be able to complete that at least once before I leave!) Part of my route takes me past massive airplanes being loaded or unloaded with supplies and personnel, gorgeous snow-capped mountain views, fighter jets taking off, and the local village huts with men watching their flock of sheep or goats. Sometimes the local kids get close enough to the fenceline to holler at us or even throw rocks at cars and runners. They warn us not to run the perimeter alone at night for obvious reasons! I wonder if anyone ever threw rocks back? I'm sure they were tempted.

It has been a very busy time for me recently, and it may get worse. The Division Chaplain asked me if I would help out at another chapel service starting up here. This one is on Sunday mornings and is also way across town. I am honored that he asked me, and I told the Lord that I would gladly help if He (God) supplied the transportation. Sure enough, the Div Chaplain said I can hitch a ride with the other Chaplain involved in one of the chapel vans. It is true that if God is calling you to do something, He will provide what you need. I can't help but think of Henry Blackaby's words in his Experiencing God Bible study that we need to look around and see what God is already doing around us and then go and join Him there. Don't go off trying to make up your own plans and then ask God to bless you in your activity. Nope. Instead, seek His direction and then join Him in whatever He's doing. I think Blackaby's right. It works better that way.

I've also been doing quite a bit of counseling these days. Sometimes it's with soldiers who are not even in my Unit. My office is on the first floor of a busy building (near the finance office), and I think sometimes they see my sign and stop on in. I even got a call at 12:30 am one night to come talk to a distraught soldier from another Unit. They could not locate his Chaplain so I gladly went in. I came very close to asking that Soldier to surrender his weapon to me that night for his safety. Had his sergeant not been there to watch over him, I might have done that. It's kind of creepy realizing that your distraught clientelle is carrying a loaded gun! It's par for the course in this environment, but no less dangerous.

Finallt, on a personal note, my wife's mom is really sick right now and I know both she and my father-in-law could really use your prayers. Thank you. Gotta go for now. Talk to you again soon.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

I Love My Wife




15 Feb
I got a great Valentine's Day care package from home today. Inside the box my wife and kids send a few more movies and lots of love! The kids each made a wonderful framed gift for me, and my wife sent along a T-shirt that says, "I Love My Wife." There was also a picture in the box of her wearing the wife's version of the shirt that says, "I Love My Husband." That was really awesome. I cannot tell you how much I love my family and miss them. When you're over here, the love and support you get from back home can make a world of difference to your overall emotional and spiritual health. I thank you for the wonderful boost, honey. I love you, too!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day




14 Feb

Not much new to tell you today, except that I get to celebrate Valentine's Day before most of you back home. It is a cold cloudy day here. Notice the before and after pictures of the snow and then the mud (when the snow melted) in my front yard. This is what I walk through (or around) these days. They tell us February and March tend to be the rainy seasons here, so it is likely to get even worse! We all can't wait for the warmth and dryness of the summer.
Have a great Valentine's Day!


Friday, February 12, 2010

Early Valentine's Day


12 Feb
[The picture is a bumper sticker I saw recently]. It has been a long, hard week. As you know, it all stared with the Latrine mugging (see previous blogs). I am doing pretty well since then, but they had me come back to the Aid station for a follow up concussion test (which I passed). They gave me muscle relaxers for my neck pain, but I have not used them yet. I'm certainly more careful leaving latrines now, let me tell you. Perhaps I need to talk to the Special Operations guys about techniques to sneak up on my adversary in the dark. Maybe that will help!

There is quite a bit going on in my battalion these days, but I can't really go into it here. We're into the middle phase of this deployment and they say this is when problems start to intensify with Soldiers. It get's mundane here at times, and some Soldiers do dumb things to pass the time away. Marriage problems have also been a constant with a bunch of our troops since the first few weeks of this trip, and stresses back home seem to get magnified over here. It's really sad to see and hear some of the stories of bad decisions and unfaithfulness that goes on when a Soldier leaves for a deployment. Now of course that does not apply to everyone. We also have some great people with us here, men and women who make this a better experience and that I'm proud to serve with.

Well, it's Valentine's Day weekend. My sweet wife sent me a care package that arrived Friday. Perfect timing. It was filled with cool stuff, including lots of candy, cards from her and the girls, the "Love Dare" book, and Michael Jackson's last movie DVD called, This Is It. I felt loved! Having her love and support back hope is what gives me the strength to keep going. I am blessed to have her in my life, as she is the best gift God ever gave me. (I love you, honey. Happy early Valentine's Day)

Monday, February 08, 2010

Latrine Mugging Part 2


8 Feb
This is my 2nd blog entry for today, so you'll need to also read the first one for this all to make sense. But I needed to tell you all about this horrible, no good, rotten day and how it went from bad to worse. I got word today that a friend from my church back home died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound Sunday afternoon. He left behind a wife and 5 kids. There are no words to explain the sadness and grief and disbelief at news like that. He was a friend. He was our Youth Pastor. It's too much to comprehend, and I'm half a world away. I feel helpless to do anything. All I can ask is that you also please pray for his wife and family and the church that is left to try to understand and minister to the family.

Now for my news: If you read below, you know that I took a stumble coming out of the porta-john very early this morning. I was trying to make it sound funny, but it really was not. As I pieced together my memory of the incident I came to realize something scary. I don't remember all of it. I didn't remember how I hurt my nose and neck. In fact, I believe what actually happened is that after I stumbled to the ground the first time, I got back up (because I remember rubbing my left wrist), and then passed out. I fell a second time onto my face in the snow and rocks and wrenched my neck in the fall. When I woke up -- how long I lay there I do not know? -- I was on my knees with my face in the snow. It was then that I stumbled to my hut and back to bed feeling sick and thinking I might throw up. (I did not, thank goodness).

Anyway, it gets almost comical from here on out. My Chaplain assistant convinced me to go to the Aid station to get checked out. So off we went. I think they were bored and had nothing else to do today but make me the center of attention. They took me in the back and once they heard that I may have lost consciousness and hit my head, they went into severe casualty mode. I realize they were being on the safe side, but they took my blood, stuck me twice to finally start an IV, shaved parts of my chest to do an EKG. (In fact the most pain of the day was pulling the tape off of my chest and arm hair! Ouch). Then they put me in a cervical neck collar and strapped me down on a hard (and cold) back board and waited for the paramedics to drive me to the hospital. I am not making this up! I even heard the sirens while we went down the street 1/2 mile to the real ER. The doc at the aid station was worried about subdural hemotomas and needing a CT scan of my brain and all the bells and whistles. But the ER doc wasn't having any of it. He did an evaluation and checked me over and then said I was "fine." No X-rays, nothing. He discharged me within 20 minutes of arriving with a prescription for Motrin and suddenly I was out on the street walking to lunch! It was crazy.

My neck is still sore, but not as much. I realize how fortunate I was that my fall and injury was not worse. I could have laid there in the dark and in the snow for hours until someone found me. I'm also lucky there was about 3 inches of snow to cushion my fall on the rocks -- right on my face. I'm lucky I should have a broken nose! And how/why I came to when I did, I'll never know. Ultimately, I believe that God truly protected me this morning, as He was there with me outside the latrine at 4 am. The Bible says there is no place we can go where He is not there also, and where He does not see (Psalm 139). Thank you, Lord, for your hand of protection when I could not protect myself.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Super Bowl Monday


8 Feb
It's been raining and now snowing here for the last 4 days. It turns this place into an even worse mess than it already is. Think of a construction site in the rain. It's awful. I usually love seeing snow come down and blanket the ground. But for some reason I am not enjoying it here (at least not yet). The best thing about bad weather, though, is it makes things even more difficult for the bad guys. They tend to stay in doors and create less havoc on our troops when it's not nice outside. So I have to be thankful for the accommodations I do have -- which are better than what some have -- and for peace and safety for our guys.

And yes, it is Super Bowl Monday for us oversees, since we're a half-day ahead of you. So I got up at 4:00 am to watch the game live and was excited with the results (we lost satellite connection for awhile there around half time, but it came back on soon after). We also did not get to enjoy the fun commercials like every one else. They show sporting events on Armed Forces Network (AFN) over here, and their commercials are all public service announcements such as don't drink and drive, obey the speed limits in a foreign country, report theft of government property, etc. I was bummed. But we did see a nice commercial by the President recognizing the military across the world watching the game. I felt like he was speaking to me. That was cool.

However, the morning did not start off too well. The best way I can describe it is this: I got mugged in the dark by the latrine. And I don't mean in the vicinity of the latrine, I mean literally that the port-a-john did it. It attacked me! I hate that thing. (See picture of my assailant). On my way back out of the latrine I stepped down and missed the ledge and stumbled to the ground, in the snow, in the dark, at 4 am. What a dork! I layed there stunned and woozy, nursing my left wrist and a cut nose (and a bruised ego). It was a vicious attack, let me tell you. I think I deserve a Purple Heart for my war wounds. (In which case I'll have to come up with a better story than tripping out of the latrine in the dark)!

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Old Friends Reunited


4 Feb '10

I had the opportunity to spend some time last night with my old battle buddy from the Chaplain school a year ago. He is also deployed to OEF, and came through my area recently. Just like old times: we got some coffee and enjoyed each other's company and conversation. Please add Doug to your prayer list, as he is just now starting his deployment. He, his soldiers, and his family will need your prayers as well. Thank you. (We're standing inside a big circus tent where they put as many bunk beds in there as possible to handle the large amount of soldiers coming through this area. It's loud, smelly, hot, and crowded. In fact, those tents are a big drag to have to stay in, but at least they're temporary!)

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Army Achievement Medal







2 Feb 2010
Tonight was a good night. My Men's group had 11 members show up tonight for our discussion, and it went well. We're reading through the book, Point Man, by Steve Farrar. It's a great book, and tonight's chapter was on Christian men not reading the Bible and even when they do, not applying it to their lives. He calls this "Spiritual Anorexia and Bulimia," and he's got a great point.
But the other big news is that I got my first military award tonight. It's the kind of medal that you wear on your dress blue uniform to impress everyone. It is called the Army Achievement Medal and it is for "exceptional service as the battalion Chaplain" for the mobilization period and the first 60 days here in theater. My Company Commander put me in for it as she wanted to recognize me and award my work. I was pretty touched by that, and I'm honored. (Another 1LT Soldier was also honored by our commander tonight as well. That's her standing next to me).