After being gone for the better part of two weeks, I was able to start anew on my cycle of going to a site with a team each week. Today, I had the pleasure of joining the first team I traveled out with when I moved to this post. I spent the brunt of the day counting sensitive inventory that we are transitioning to our Afghan counterparts and talked with my soldiers at the margins.
Last night, I counseled a Romanian friend who is distraught that he might be kept here an extra seven weeks. He promised his little girl that he would be home for Christmas. I gently reminded him that we must entrust our families to the Lord, who wields love in power in a manner that we could never replicate. This man frequently asks me about my "little angel," so he knows that this burden is on that we both carry.
He also took the opportunity to confess his sins to me and ask for forgiveness. (In his Roman Catholic worldview, he equates me with a priest and calls me "Father.") I gently reminded him that if He is in Christ, then his sins--past, present, future--have been nailed to the cross with Christ and there remain (I pounded on the picnic table for emphasis). He has resolved to not fall into the same sins that he has in the past and is keeping his resolve in this regard, but I reminded that he doesn't live in order to earn God's favor, but lives in gratitude for Jesus who earned God's favor for us.
Amidst the current turmoil, his heart was prone to wander, believing that God has forgotten him. I told him, and must remind myself constantly, that if we believe that God has forgotten us, it is because we have forgotten God. That is why God frequently calls us in the Scripture to "remember." Only in remembering His character, the life and death of Christ, and His promises that are bound to that saving work, can we remember in all seasons that we are not forgotten.
At the end of our time together, I was able to give this man a small box with two fleeces and school supplies, lovingly donated by my mother-in-law. He was most certainly grateful, especially at such a difficult moment. Speaking of which, our Canadian friends no longer get mail. There mail system was already in incredibly slow up to a month or two ago. But when the Philippines got hit by their natural disaster, the few Canadian choppers joined our military and that of other friendly nations to come to their aid. That now means no mail for our Canadian soldiers. They happily make the sacrifice for the Philippines, but for the small contingent of Canadians left here after December, I would love to do something to make sure they're remembered.
After a couple of days of small smatterings of conversations with the wifey, we were deluged with almost three hours of rich conversation last night. I am so blessed that such communication is not the exception but the rule in our marriage. We may have lived parallel professional lives at points in our marriage, but by God's grace, our deep friendship has never been compromised. I look forward to our road trips soon after I get back, when we can spend hours reflecting on these trying months and envisioning the years ahead.
I finally found a book that drew me in. I am now over 500 pages into a 600 page book on the Battle of Gettysburg, written this past year by eminent Gettysburg scholar, Allen Guelzo. The lead-up to the battle was a bit slow (like the first book of Lord of the Rings), but once the battle got underway, I was hooked. More on the book later.
I had the privilege this past weekend of preaching at both the morning traditional service (my normal service) and the evening contemporary service (which I normally attend). On Thanksgiving, I am cancelling my normal No BS BS and replacing it with an informal Thanksgiving service, hopefully drawing folks from both Sunday services. May God stir me with gratitude in this as well!
