Welcome Home

Check this out, it is a tear jerker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kerMm0HG1mk

Church Fellowship

Almost done!!!!! I am so ready to be with my wife and son!!!!! We spent last week in the field doing combat exercises. I will post more about those later. It has been a hard 3 weeks for me mentally, physically, and spiritualy. At first my daily devotionals kept me for a week or so but Sunday after Sunday with no connection to the Body of Christ will take it's toll. Humbling to truly understand that I cannot do life alone. Part of our course is to visit every chapel service on base. The first week I went to a service for young soildiers and their families. Great service for new believers or seekers. Last week I went to the Jewish and the Catholic services. This week a Lutheran/Episcopal and Protestant service. The experiance was good and I learned alot intelectually but spiritually these services left me DRY. So today I went to Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia for their contemporary service, needless to say I am FULL. It was refreshing to be fed with likeminded believers. I pray that never again will I take being part of the Body of Christ for granted. GO TO CHURCH we cannot do life by ourselves. To listen to todays service go to www.shandon.org

Gas and Ministry

Well 2 weeks down and I am still alive and kickin or maybe just alive and not so much kickin. Friday was a big day for gas and Winnie the Pooh. Thursday we spent some class time going over our gas masks, how to fit them, and clear them in 9 seconds. Friday morning was the day we checked them out, you see thinking your mask works doesn't compare to knowing it works. So we go into the gas chamber (which was reaaly eirie) evrything is good lookin like darth vader. Then the sergant tapes me on the shoulder and I have to pull up my mask give name rank and ss # and pull it pack down and clear it. Mannnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!it stinks burns and irritates but the mask seals and I can breathe. Then five of us have to take the mask completley off and shout the class motto (TO GOD THE GLORY) for 15 seconds while breathing the CS gas. It was like ridin with Nathan Rogers after a Mexican Buffett. I was cryin, snot was hangin from my nose to my toes and I was doin the Re-run dance trying to shake that stuff off of me, it was hilarious.(someone is putting the pictures on the web) Being able to tell soldiers I know what they went through will mean alot and I WILL go through the chamber with guys in my unit because as a chaplain I must go with the soldiers or my preaching will fall on deaf ears. Our NCO's all went through it with us giving me a greater confidence in their leadership. How important is it for us as ministers to be with people? It was important for God to become man. How much more can we trust Him because He knows what we are going through? We as ministers must be around people and quit just hanging out in our ivory towers!

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 (NASB95)

Monday

Today was a shorter day. We went on a road march with helmet, body armor, pistol belt and ruck sack and after that some obstacle courses. Needles to say my dogs are doing some major barkin. We have been doing some very sobering things. We have to have our DNA taken to id our body. Also Al Quida wants to capture a chaplain pretty bad and we have to know what to do if that situation occurs. (PRAY THAT IT NEVER DOES) We have also started to learn about IED's and what to do if hit or if those around us are hit. There are many things that we know about but until these things start to be reality they wont affect us much. It makes dependence on God take on a deeper meaning. The need for Him, the desire to stay close to Him seems to be more urgent. Some of the students here will be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan soon after graduation, Pray for these Godly men and women as they share the Gospel with those fighting for our freedoms!

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

First Week

Hey, it has been a long week. Days have started at 3:30 and I get to bed about 9, so there has been some adjustment to my quiet times and blogging time. Chaplain Initial Military Training (CIMT) puts the Chaplain through what a new recruit would go through in basic training so that we could say we have been there too. There have been many lessons learned this week. Number One, I am not as young as I once was. Nutrition, rest and lots of water have to be a priority for me to be successful in 100 degree heat. I have been worn out every evening but it is getting better. Number Two, do things the right way no matter how we interpret things the right way is the right way. I passed my push up test but with less than what I expected. That is because I was practicing push ups wrong. I trained and trained by doing push up after push up, but I had the wrong technique. Doing things the right way may be harder and we may try to get by but it will never work out in the long run. A great lesson to apply to ministry. The highlight of the week has been the ropes course and repelling. It is as much fun as the commercials look!

The Beginning

This blog is part diary, part conversation. For the next 30 days I will be in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I am going to try to keep my family up to date on how the training is going, and will also give me an opportunity to share thoughts with and hear from friends. Well, here it goes....