Chusok

It sounds like a Vulcan holiday or religious rite, but it is as I have been told the greatest holiday in Korea. It is a time for families to gather and celebrate family. We have a formal three day weekend starting on Friday, though I am planning to work at least 1/2 day Friday to be out with one of my units and will be pulling duty as the on call chaplain for the week. I was thinking of taking a tour out into the countryside, but this turned out to be a good weekend to pull duty as the travel office cancelled all tours. Supposedly the traffic here for this weekend would rival anything DC has to offer.

I'll have to see if anything pops up locally for celebration.

Kiddies

Yesterday we loaded up a bus full of volunteer airmen and headed to a local orphanage for some outreach to children in our local community. The trip afforded me, and most of those with us, a first time opportunity to view another area of the local countryside as we got off the main route known as Highway 1 and headed out into the countryside, though not too far from base.

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera.

We did a bit of fall cleaning at the orphanage and then spent a few hours playing games with the kids. I lucked up that my bus driver played soccer for 12 years as a goalie. Soccer is a big game here. The kids had a blast trying to get past him. He was pretty good.

One of the young ladies with me was walking by with a little girl leading her by the hand. My airman looked over her shoulder and said, "I don't know where she is taking me". When she came back her eyes were wide and she said, "she showed me the most ginormous spider I've ever seen".

The language barrier didn't prove to be so ginormous.

It was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

POW/MIA Dedication

Yesterday we dedicated a memorial in honor of all who have been or currently remain Prisioners' of War or Missing in Action

I had the honor of doing the invocation for the ceremony. This ceremony has in the past years been very personal and moving for me. Since coming into the Air Force, I've met a number of men who have been held prisoner of war. At Arlington, I did a number of memorial services for those whose remains had not yet been found, but whose families wanted to bring closure. I also did a number of service for repatriations, where those who lost their lives years ago have finally been brought home. Last year at the Air Force Memorial in DC, I met a woman a few years older than myself who had the experience of growing up not knowing the status of her father until much later in life.

Yesterday, as I prayed and stood tall during the ceremony, I was remembering one of the greatest men I know. I got to know him during my time at Andrews. He is Colonel (ret.) Norman McDaniel, USAF. He was shot down and held for six years in Vietnam for 2,399 days. He endured a meager diet, but beyond this torture, interrogation, and isolation. He came home on February 12, 1973 during Operation Homecoming. I also have gotten to know his wife, a tremendous woman of strength and courage herself. Colonel McDaniel would write five years into his captivity, "I am still a man though I am badly bent. I will hope and strive until my life is spent."

For his dedication and faithfulness to our nation he earned the Silver Star.

His Silver Star Citation reads:

For the period 20 July 1966: This officer distinguished himself by gallantry and intrepidity in action in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force during the above period while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam. Ignoring international agreements on treatment of prisoners of war, the enemy resorted to mental and physical cruelties to obtain information, confessions and propaganda materials. This American resisted their demands by calling upon his deepest inner strengths in a manner which reflected his devotion to duty and great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

As I reflected upon on 9/11, there is a huge price often paid for the liberty our citizens enjoy. We cannot afford to forget. I read somewhere a quote that has stuck in my mind, "real life is not sugar coated".

There are still wives and children, even comrades and friends -- still waiting to know what has happened to their loved one. Don't forget them.

I was visiting a blog from Boone North Carolina, near where I grew up, and enjoying the photos of the author's golden lab.

There is true value in the companionship of one's four legged friends.

Dachshunds are great animals. My mother has one that basically adopted my wife years ago and convinced my wife that she might tolerate a dog in the house if it were a little black wiener dog.

The dog belongs to her by the way. Me and the kids get to borrow her from time to time, but that dog and my wife - well - you know. She is a family dog though. She had me trained well before I came to Osan. She'd stand at the top of the stairs from the den and bark until I'd come up and fill her water bowl, let her outside, or sometimes she just wanted chicken out of the fridge.

Yep -- I miss the dog too. Lots of missing going on these days.

But lots of good ministry too. Yesterday was a day for getting lots accomplished. Met all my First Sgts, the Commander of the OSI unit I am serving (only one of my units) as well as many of his folks, and some counseling and so forth. Good day.

I was deeply moved, tried to hide it, but seeing a memorial picture in the OSI hallway of one of the men I buried brought back images of his small children sitting on chairs beside his young wife at Arlington.

We have to win. There is evil out there. We cannot afford to quit or fail. Liberty is a mighty powerful force for life but in too many ways it is also, because of human nature, a fragile thing and costly. Freedom is not free. Like anything worth anything in life, it take effort and sacrifice.

I miss my family, very much, but then I remember young men like this and his wife and children who I am sure would like to have him home too.

Then I remember why I'm here. Why we are all here.

Maybe one day, when work is done, I'll retire to Boone and have me another Dachshund and a cabin and maybe even a Golden Lab, but today - I've got work to do.

But if you want to visit a great blog site: here it is: Come enjoy the flavor of the mountains.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul-John Muir

September 11

I will never forget.

Miss home

Watching the sun rise over the Smokey's by webcam isn't quite the same as watching it from the deck of a cabin at altitude, but given I'm half way around the world - I am thankful for the technology that allows me to do so.

It does make me miss home and my family though. I truly love my job and the challenge of each unique day serving the incredible men and women who for our Air Force. But I miss the quiet simplicity of life in the mountains.

LABOR Day Weekend

This weekend certainly lived up to the name "Labor Day". I'm bushed. We had a large Protestant service this past Sunday. Saturday I thought I would give my brother chaplain a hand with food preparation. I wound up in a freak accident with a bean can lid which swiped my leg and left me with four stitches. (I was the first person this particular tech had ever sown -- she had someone teaching her.) Sunday was a very long day by the time setup, service, and clean up were done. Hardly any of the blasted beans were eaten. We poured them in a trash bag and put them on the back of the truck, where they promptly fell to the ground with a large splat when the driver popped the clutch. I won't be dissapointed if I don't see another baked bean while I'm here.

Which is entirely possible.

Monday my boss invited me to come along to go eat Shabu Shabu. Its a bit hard to describe. It turned out to be a cook your own meal which consisted of very thin sliced beef, so thin it instantly cooked in the boiling beef broth, a mound of bean sprouts and other assorted green lettuce leaves, hot pepper and teryiaki sauce (still haven't figured out how to spell that yet), and rice balls in some lettuce.

The drive to the restaurant was an adventure. The boss's GPS speaks Korean. The boss doesn't. Traffic is like a constant game of chicken in some places and thread the needle in others. I picked up my Korean driver's license today. I hope I don't have the opportunity to utilize it.

We were visiting the city of Suwon, which was a mixture of poverty and age as well as brand new modernity. I saw a place where someone was growing mellons and curing peppers on their tin roof and in a few moments saw brand new high rises going up.

After dinner, which was quite good in-spite of two large raw shrimp that kept staring at me (not my thing), we visited the fortress wall that surrounds the old city. Quite a interesting and lovely hike even if it was threatening a bit of rain.















After dinner we walked a bit. Stopped at a bakery. On the street I bought some cinnamon like waffle circles - quite good and very cheep. Big bag for about 75 cents. Then we bought a bag of little yogurts (great frozen) from a "yogurt lady" again a dozen for about 75 cents. Dinner itself was only about eight dollars, and the restaurant and its service was outstanding.

Saturday there was a ribs and blues festival which also featured native Korean dancing, which was a new experience.

Miss home

From the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. Rom 1:20

I just hit a webcam that looks out from the Smokeys. This is the sunrise going on right now back home.

I tell people there is a reason that Tennesseans were known as hillbillies who did not wear shoes. When the first European settlers came across the Appalachian mountains from the colonies into what was at that time the western wilderness area of Tennessee (from the Cherokee name Tanasi), they saw the smoke on the mountains and stopped to pray. God spoke to them through the clouds (you may recall how God went as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day when He lead the Israelites out of Egypt). God spoke and said, "take off your shoes, you are on holy ground". So from that time forth, Tennessee hillbillies have not worn shoes.

On a serious note, I have always felt close to God in these mountains. Perhaps these pictures can convey to some small degree the incredible testimony of the mountains to the glory of God.

Moving In Day

My household goods caught up with me finally. There is no predicting how long it will take things to get to Korea from the US. For example, my wife mailed me some cookies and a few other things just a few days after I left and they didn't arrive until Sept 1st. She mailed me a uniform on a Friday and it was here the following Monday.

My household goods arrived 3 weeks ahead of schedule, due in a large part I believe to the diligence of the person who was managing my account. She kept pinging the shipping folks asking when my stuff was going to get airlift out of Travis. And it sped through customs, which is unusual, but perhaps they were tired of getting her email. Anyway, have all my cold weather gear, my books, and my computer equipment that I need for ministry here. My room now has a few of the comforts of home, minus my family of course.

Had some computer issues today that kept me from Skyping my family on video. Vista updated to my laptop and disabled my sound driver. Had to do a re-install, which proved a bit challenging since Vista kept wanting to install a generic driver that would not activate my built in microphone, but finally got it up. My computer has not been the only one quirky. Have worked on 2 of my fellow chaplains computers.

We have a four day weekend, but we are not really off. We are preparing for a big worship service on Sunday. Tomorrow I am going to help a brother chaplain and some volunteers prepare a bit of food. To be honest, I'd rather have something to do than just sit around anyway -- so not having much off time hasn't been that bad. I've been here a month and it has flown by.

Had dinner with my supervising chaplain last night in one of the new apartment towers on base, 7th floor. You can really see the countryside from up there. Beautiful. Watched the sunset. I wish I had had my camera up there. It was incredible.

Cooking

My wife can cook. She can cook circles around me. No doubts. But she ain't here.

So guess who's cooking tonight?

I made my own terrioke marinade. (ok I have no idea, and the spell check isn't helping with terriyake) Anyway... used some vinegar, soy sauce, red pepper spice sauce (a Korean thing), splenda, pepper, salt, garlic, and bit of tomato paste. Marrinated some steak. Boy is it good. That with some spiced up veggies and a 1/2 glass of Sam Adams and dinner ain't too bad tonight.

Anyway, wanted to post this because I know my wife read this and this way she'll know I'm not starving.

But I have lost 7 pounds since hitting the ground here.