Dear Ones,
We received an update from Jason this morning. He has now been in Baghdad for 2 weeks. Please continue to pray for him and the many others who are serving. Here is the e-mail in it's entirety...
Hey everyone (feel free to forward),
I just came back from attending my first worship service here in Iraq. Because we don't have an official chapel building on Phoenix Base (the base where I work), we meet in our dining facility.
It was really great! There must be 80-100 people in attendance, worshiping the Lord through Hymns right out of the old hymn book (I was impressed that I still remembered the base line for "Standing on the Promises" - because we have so many worship services where we sing praise songs, I don't think I have sung that in years). We even have a little choir, which I think I will try to join and maybe see if we have the availability of a piano around somewhere. The staff chaplain spoke on "hope" today - a meaningful message given the trials that we have had over the last couple weeks, and the tragedy we suffered just one week ago with the loss of 2 of our officers.
The devil tried to keep me from going though - about 3 minutes before the service started, my boss called on my cell. To give you the full picture, let me describe my boss as, somewhat "dim-witted". Don't get me wrong, he is very intelligent (I think he is a PHD in nuclear physics), but he lacks common sense and gets spun up for hours over the slightest little thing. He kinda lacks the ability to sort issues through logically and separate the critical from the trivial - think teenage girl mixed with class nerd, but wearing an O-6's uniform. Get the picture? Anyway, he calls me and starts rambling about needing this number, and that, and this other issue. I respectfully interrupt him and mention that I am getting ready to sit down to the Protestant worship service. To this he replies, "Jesus Christ!" Without missing a beat, I say "Yes sir! That's right", "I will back in my office in about an hour". I couldn't help but find that hilarious.
One other item of note from this morning. One officer stood up when prompted for those that will soon be finishing their tours and heading home and said this - "Over my year here, I have learned that faith is like a muscle, it grows stronger the more you use it". Dear Lord, help me to come back home looking spiritually like "The Hulk", Amen.
Love you all very much!
Jason
I just came back from attending my first worship service here in Iraq. Because we don't have an official chapel building on Phoenix Base (the base where I work), we meet in our dining facility.
It was really great! There must be 80-100 people in attendance, worshiping the Lord through Hymns right out of the old hymn book (I was impressed that I still remembered the base line for "Standing on the Promises" - because we have so many worship services where we sing praise songs, I don't think I have sung that in years). We even have a little choir, which I think I will try to join and maybe see if we have the availability of a piano around somewhere. The staff chaplain spoke on "hope" today - a meaningful message given the trials that we have had over the last couple weeks, and the tragedy we suffered just one week ago with the loss of 2 of our officers.
The devil tried to keep me from going though - about 3 minutes before the service started, my boss called on my cell. To give you the full picture, let me describe my boss as, somewhat "dim-witted". Don't get me wrong, he is very intelligent (I think he is a PHD in nuclear physics), but he lacks common sense and gets spun up for hours over the slightest little thing. He kinda lacks the ability to sort issues through logically and separate the critical from the trivial - think teenage girl mixed with class nerd, but wearing an O-6's uniform. Get the picture? Anyway, he calls me and starts rambling about needing this number, and that, and this other issue. I respectfully interrupt him and mention that I am getting ready to sit down to the Protestant worship service. To this he replies, "Jesus Christ!" Without missing a beat, I say "Yes sir! That's right", "I will back in my office in about an hour". I couldn't help but find that hilarious.
One other item of note from this morning. One officer stood up when prompted for those that will soon be finishing their tours and heading home and said this - "Over my year here, I have learned that faith is like a muscle, it grows stronger the more you use it". Dear Lord, help me to come back home looking spiritually like "The Hulk", Amen.
Love you all very much!
Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment