Last week of year

The last week of the year has proven to be somewhat interesting. I have some more pictures to add to my "what I did not expect to see in the desert" category: snow. Big huge flakes. Enough to dust the ground and make the hills around the base white. I was told this is a rare occurence here. As our commander said, he ordered snow for Christmas but like everything else here it takes a little longer to arrive so it was a few days late.

Those of you who were involved in Operation Little Debbie will be pleased to know the Little Debbie cakes have all been passed out now and they went over like gang busters. They were a huge hit. My office looked like a storage room at the Piggly Wiggly.

Had a little startle this afternoon in the form of a loud zoom and a loud thud - another rocket attack from some of our neighbors here. We continue to have casualties come to us on a regular basis. Last night was a night of firsts for us though as we received two children along with an adult. I helped carry the youngest, a little boy, in from the helicopter. Our team did an amazing job. Both children are recovering at one of our more advanced hospitals.

It has been very cold here but mostly clear. The stars are amazing, at least on the nights when the sky is not fogged from the burning fumes from the area refineries. At least the cold weather has put the creepy crawlies into hibernation.

Our chapel has been spruced up a bit thanks to one of our Master Sergeants with a nack for staining glass. Stained glass truly helps give the old building an appearance of a sacred space.

To all you who helped with donations through Operation Aircare I want to say a special thank you. Not only were Little Debbie donated but many many other food and snack items and other items hard to come by over here. Much of this found its way into our Christmas celebrations. In fact, thanks to your generosity, I was able to fill a Humvee up with donated food stuffs for the Army to have a reception following a Christmas Eve service that they looked to have to cancel because they could not secure refreshments. It has made a huge difference to our folks to know that they are thought of back home.

May God bless all with a blessed and prosperous New Year.

Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve in Iraq. The sun has been shining bright all day with another tremendous sunset, just like most of the days here. But the cooler weather combined with upbeat spirits and Christmas decorations convey a feeling of Christmas in the air. But it still isn�t home for our folks. Our work is necessary, but it is not without a cost to our troops. For myself I find I am missing to things. The most easily guessed would be my family. I will miss seeing the smiles of my little girls and my wife as the evening progresses. As I sat in the congregation for the evening worship service which the army chaplains lead for the base, I found myself missing those Christmas Eve candlelight services in my parishes back home. I miss the parish from time to time even though there are so many more dimensions of ministry and a much busier tempo than in the parish. I miss many of the fine brothers and sisters in Christ who I have pastored. Today I received 66 boxes of Little Debbie cakes from Dayton Tennessee, part of an effort there lead by dear friends Marilyn and Teddy. I miss you guys.

But it is a joy to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being proclaimed in Iraq. Tomorrow night will be Christmas. I will hold a service of celebration with carols and candles and the Good News that our sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus will be proclaimed. I take care of my troops in all sorts of way on all kinds of levels, but the one that gives me the greatest joy is by proclaiming the Gospel to them as they come to hear what God has in store for them. Yes, being away from family has a cost, during the holidays, but there is also a joy and a need.

May God bless you this Christmas.

Holidays

This week before Christmas seems as if it is taking forever to pass. I'm looking forward to the worship services and other celebrations scheduled this weekend I suppose. But in another way I'm trying to keep my mind off not being there with my family. I was visiting with one of the units yesterday. The conversation turned to what people would be missing and what people would partake of when they got home. Upon thinking, the thing I first want when I get home is one big hug from my family. I miss my girls snuggling up with me on the couch and watching TV or telling me about their day.

I had a heart racing experience the other night. I was out in an area where there is a small coffee shop set up and an outside sitting area. Talking with some folks, I looked up to see a red trail arcing across the sky toward our area. I just knew it was a rocket launch and I could tell it was coming close. I was just about ready to key down my radio to call it in and raise the alarm when it broke into a number of pieces. It was a meteor breaking up in the atmosphere, one of the last of a couple of days of the latest meteor shower, but this one was a big one. Really beautiful. Much better than a rocket launch.

I have the best job in the Air Force. Yesterday I was able to help an enlisted person with an issue that chain of command relationships prevented him from being able to deal with directly. But one of the blessings of being a chaplain is we can engage the chain of command at whatever level needs to be engaged to work an issue. In this case, I actually tag teamed with an army chaplain to get r done. Great stuff!

Tomorrow night our EMEDS staff will have their last and greatest town hall meeting. I anticipate that it will be one major blow out of a celebration with general teasing of all. These guys are a phenomenal team.

Most of my ministry is fairly routine as before. Lots of vistation and counseling. Lots of plain morale work.

Those Little Debbie cakes are coming in again, and going out my door as fast as they are coming in. I've got folks coming and asking for them. I've promised two big bunches to two different groups for their holiday events. Today I will make a run taking the bulk of what recieved yesterday out to various units. Passing these things out gives me a great interface for talking to folks and taking a pulse of how they are doing.

Home

I'm sitting here listening to Bing Cosby sing Christmas carols and I am taken back home to East Tennessee to my childhood when I watched the old Christmas records spin on our record player as his deep voice rang throughout the house filling it with holiday cheer.

I talked to my boss back home tonight. He advised me lots of things have changed, including myself, since my tour over here. All true enough. I've learned since becoming a pastor that life is more about change than it is same. I think though that one reason we think back to home, when home was good, is we desire something to remain the same.

I feel at home in Tennessee. I can go up in the mountains and I revel in the glory of God's handiwork. I feel closer to Him there though my understanding reminds me He is always present. Maybe it is my appreciation that is closer to my consciousness. I can refresh my spirit and life by spending some time in those mountains.

But home is where my family is. We've been all over. A couple of different places in the midwest, Tennessee, and finally DC. And I suspect another change will come in time. I was pondering what makes places so special. The mountains are special to me. To my friend I've made here Times Square in NYC is home to him, a place that would be an alien landscape to me. It's the love. Home is where we are loved, where our loved ones are. Christmas music and Christmas places take us back to times that may feel simpler but were likely as complicated as our lives now. We were just younger then and more filled with faith, trust, and belief that we were loved.

Home is where you are loved. Change is good, it keeps life growing and from becoming stale. But I'm glad some things stay the same. No matter where I take my family, in the states or oversees, as long as they know they are loved - they will feel they had a home.

Wednesday December 15th

In a few short hours we will kick off our holiday celebrations with a tree lighting. Evergreen trees are a bit scarce here, so we built one out of camoflogue netting. It looks good, really.

Thanks to the Walcholz's from back in Tennessee. Your Little Debbie cakes arrived today just in time for tonight's celebration. These are holiday themed cakes and will be a special treat.

Last night we had an alarm that had us taking cover in case of something coming in over the perimeter that makes noise and light in the night. The chapel was full of folks so I broke out my stress reliever, my wife's homemade fudge from home. A whole slab of chocolate peanut butter fudge. There was not a drop left. We lay on the floor eating fudge, reminiscing of holidays past, listening to Christmas carols, and ready for anything else that might come our way. Nothing did thanks to the work of some really great folks.

Today a very sweet lady from the midwest sent me a copy of Country magazine. Now that brings back memories of when I lived in Tennessee while in college and special holiday celebrations with friends and families. All over the base are little reminders from decorations, to pictures, and all sorts of memorabilia where people are triggering their memories of loved ones and making home feel not quite so far away.

12 days to Christmas. HooAhhh! as Big O would say. Gotta be here to get that one.

Solemn Days

I received word this morning that the gag order we've been under has been lifted. Gag orders are put into place when certain things happen to safeguard operational data but also to enable contact of family when someone is hurt or killed here without their finding out through the internet, email, or some overzealous news agency.

A few days ago we had a visit from our Wing Commander. The base I am located at is part of a larger network of bases forming a wing. We have a "group" here. But the boss of the whole pie was in and took a few minutes to walk around the chapel. I had just returned from the morgue, where I had been summoned by an Army NCO who wished to have me up there to support his troops. We had dead coming in. Five. However, their bodies would not arrive for another 8 hours, so I had returned to the chapel with the news, which I passed to our leadership.

Five is an astounding number for us to experience. I'm not going to say anything more about their death because I don't want to give the xxx who killed them information or satisfaction, though taking satisfaction at killing people who are here to help says something about the evil depravity of their value system.

The next day I formed up with my Air Force brothers and sisters and marched out onto the flight line with our Army brothers to bid farewell to our dead. The sun was out and the day had warmed up. The flags were lifted by a gentle breeze as tears flowed from many faces standing rock solid at attention. Across from me holding his salute from his wheel chair was a soldier, a friend of one of those being carried home, just three hours out of surgery he had had earlier that morning. The commands rang briskley in the air. The slow solemn march of steps as the 5 teams bearing their comrads were heard approaching and passing under the frozen bodies locked in position to render honor to a group of people who gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy. Once again I remember the words spoken to a dying man in Ballad -- this is not a hospital but a temple, this is not a gurney but an altar, you are not a soldier, you are more -- you are a sacrifice for freedom. They defend freedom
and pay the price demanded by evil men so the rest of us don't have to.

Yesterday I helped to debrief some young people who formed our mortuary team. They pay a price too. Everyone who mounts up in a vehicle and goes out of the wire to engage the enemy who wants to kill them -- they pay a price. Family members back home -- they pay a price. Children celebrating the holidays, birthdays, first concerts, graduations, marriages, having children, and so forth -- a price is paid. I know a lawyer who has left his practice to stand a post 12 hours a day looking out at a piece of ground to make sure no one comes through that space to cause injury or death -- he pays a price -- willingly.

To the families who will celebrate without their loved ones, especially those who have lost loved ones, we understand and we care. We remember. And we promise - freedom will be preserved. Evil will not win.

Small World

It is an amazingly small world. I sort of suspect to run into some folks from Andrews here where I am from time to time since this is largely an Air Force installation. But tonight I found out that one of the airmen I've gotten to know has a husband from Dayton Tennessee. What a small world it is. We started talking about Dayton and people we know and sure enough, we know many of the same people. She especially appreciated that many of the Little Debbie cakes she has been enjoying were donated by folks from Dayton. Small world indeed.

The Amazing People back home

This is a shout out to the folks back home.

To an operation named Soldier's Angels for providing me with a number of care packages and 2 cases of great coffee mugs which went great with out instant capuccino bar we have in the chapel. And they provided a great capuccino machine for our EMEDS unit here. Already they are becoming specialists in their own right and have helped me realize a dream of my own of someday owning my own coffee shop.

Thanks go back to Rhea County too. To the schools there and many churches who are supporting Operation Little Debbie. A special thanks to Marilyn for heading up the project there in town and the Dayton Herald for publishing about it. Marilyn and her husband were huge supporters of ministry in my days in the parish there and I am proud to say they have become like family to my wife and I. People who have a true heart for the Lord shine out in a parish and make being a pastor or a chaplain a true joy. She has passed word that Dayton has just shipped close to another 300 boxes. I'm estimating this will bring the total somewhere between 4500 and 5000 Little Debbie cakes that I will have passed out through visitation and the chapel to our troops here at my location, and that is just what is coming now. I anticipate more to arrive.

Then there are all the school supplies coming in from Lutheran congregations in Cincinnati and Bloomington Illinois. Thank you. I wish I could post pictures fo their bright smiling faces as items are put into their hands. Blankets, shoes, and clothing are greatly appreciated as well.

General Rand, our Wing Commander, was in and was very pleased with all our outreach efforts as has been our Group Commander here. The truth is that we can only do these things because of the support of the fine folks back home. You are very much involved in this struggle and you are making a difference. A big hoooahhh! goes out to you.

As for an update, we are gearing up for the holidays here and for our upcoming rotation of personnel. But each day is another day the mission is done. Flights are flown, security posts are manned, construction is done, training of the Iraqi Airforce, Army, and police forces progresses. Security checks are made at gates and security patrols are conducted in the city. In their off time troops watch movies, get a coffee, or visit with comrads in arms. Each day and ever day is a work day and every day a little more progress is made - another piece of the puzzle that makes a country and a society work comes alive and begins to function. Christmas will be another mission day. The last day we are here, as we ready to board the aircraft home on the next, will be a mission day. We are here to get the job done. And we are. Thank you for the part you play. The care packages, the cards, small gifts from families and friends, and even total strangers who become known make a huge difference in morale and attitude. We are in the struggle together. I wish all could see from where I stand the amazing changes and thankfulness of the Iraqi people, but rest assured it is there.

Blessings to you.