I believe I stated sometime earlier that if anyone had ever said before I came here that it did not rain in Iraq I would have swore they were crazy. It really does rain here. The problem is, when it rains, it is an absolute mess. There are no storm sewers here, so the water has nowhere to go and the dirt/sand is of such a consistency that it takes forever to absorb the water. This makes for (as I said before), an absolute mess. Beyond that, today was a blessed day of worship. I did not preach today but I did lead our morning prayer. As I interceded to God for the requests made known and the requests on people's hearts that were not made known but known to God, I felt the Spirit move among us and felt an unusual liberty in my prayer. I love Sunday morning worship and I feel like the spirit of Advent/Christmas is really taking over for the Soldiers here. Remember to be in prayer for all of us as we serve. Pray for safety, pray for the salvation of lost souls, pray for a safe journey home for the units of the Wisconsin National Guard, and pray for the safe arrival and easy transition of duties for the units of the Texas National Guard.

I'm out.

Shame, shame, shame on me! I have not posted in a while. It is not because I don't want to, I just stay busy - fulfilled, but busy. Right now I am in the midst of planning the Christmas Eve service here, working on a portion of training for a Chaplain training day we are having this Friday, working on my active duty accession packet, all on top of my everyday duties. I was blessed to be in the rotation to preach in our Sunday morning service for the first Sunday of Advent and if the rotation stays true to form, I will be preaching on Sunday, 20 December, and then again on Thursday, Christmas Eve. So I am staying busy. This is where its at - and it beats the stuffing out of serving in the local church. That is not a knock on any church pastors out there. I know we all have different callings. Anyway, that's all I know for now. Stay upbeat.