Looks like I'll be making my last trip to visit some of my soldiers. I'll try to remember a snap a few pics from the chopper so that you all can see a few of the sights through my eyes.
I had coffee with a chaplain buddy from the 82nd Airborne today, and he gave me a lot of good counsel on ways to continue progressing the chaplaincy (since he shares many of the same passions and gifts). Please keep this chaplain in prayer, as he will constantly be circulating around the country to visit his soldiers and will likely not get rest through most of his deployment. He has a wife, two little kids, and a baby on the way back at home.
My commander put me in contact with a reserve Civil Affairs unit and I recently put in my military resume. God-willing, this will be the next step. As much as I love my current unit, chaplains are not meant to stay in one place and it is time to move on. Civil Affairs would be a great option for me as I know the political and journalistic fields quite well, annual training is often done in Africa, which is my home away from homeland, and spots are much more readily available in jump school and other advancement opportunities. Such a unit would still be within driving distance of home as well.
Maybe some day I'll be assigned with a Special Forces unit to the Malawi-region, where I can also moonlight as a seminary professor and itinerant preacher and free up the wifey to pursue a funded project/advanced degree dealing with that region of the world.
Just another crazy dream, which is not unusual for me. Thankfully, I have the wifey to keep me grounded to reality and attentive to the everyday details and responsibilities that come with life in a real world!
Frankly, I'm just happy not to be whittling away the days until I die. Even when--especially when--one understands the brokenness of this world, they can still find joy in their work, relationships, and lives. Ultimately, when I hand the flag to the newly-widowed or put my hand on a shoulder and pray with someone who is grieving, I feel gratitude. If this broken world is not the ultimately reality, and it is not, then it is a pleasure to work, love, and serve. Christ brings meaning and healing to the brokenness, and in His saving work and present reign, points us forward to the day when all that Adam did in his rebellion against God, and us in Adam, will be undone by the Christ who reigns forever and ever, with His people in Him.
