New Mission; New Cards

My new business cards and church invitation cards came in yesterday. They are black with some accents of blue and print in gray or white.

I will hand out my card to most everyone I meet, along with an offer of dinner at my house or simply time and space to talk. With these cards, people will get a small token of my affection for them.

I will hand out the church invitation cards to most anyone who is looking for a church, or might be willing to shadow the door of one at some point. With these cards, people will not only be invited into my heart and home, but in the hearts and homes of Christ's people.

While my time in town yesterday was brief, I was able to drop by the Army recruiting station with my new cards and personally invite each of those gentlemen into my house (starting 13 Nov) and to Christ's church.

One of the soldiers briefly attended college in Grand Rapids, down the street from my own college, and along with his wife, has stopped going to church. But he is willing and interested. Please pray that they would come to both our house and our church!

For those of you interested in the new invitation cards, we will be handing them out on Sunday at Falls Presbyterian, along with the challenge to hand several out to unbelieving friends, family, neighbors, or strangers in the course of the coming week.

This is not a full-fledged evangelistic campaign. It is the first act of what should be a wonderful play. In this first act, our people will become more comfortable with making their identity in Christ part and parcel of their everyday conversations and identity.

We will all fear and stumble at times for fear of giving offense and of what others might think of us.

But again, we're living to God's glory, even in our weakness. #AlwaysBeReady

Pictures on a Wall

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and my unit today. On the two hour drive to the unit, I prayed that the Lord would bring just three soldiers to the chapel service. Three soldiers attended the service. I preached on the man born blind from John 9 and answered a lot of questions afterward.

I was brought to my new office and was shocked to see a name tape on the wall "1LT Randy Croel." Randy was one of my good chaplain friends in my initial training for the Army in 2009. We would often go on runs together. In 2011, we attended the captain's course together as well. This would've been just after our initial training--when we were both young, uncertain chaplains launching our careers in God's grace. I experienced a wave of something like nostalgia.

In the hallway between a number of offices and the chow hall, seven photos and short write-ups rested neatly framed upon the wall. These were seven men from this unit who were killed in action during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Four of them were lost to IEDs in Iraq in 2004--a brutal time for our soldiers. One of the men was a father of three. Another one was an elder at a Lutheran church who led Bible studies on the deployment until he was killed. This Bible study, the write-up mentioned, was a great source of strength to this soldier, according to many in the unit.

The final picture was of a soldier killed in 2011 in Afghanistan--two years before I deployed. He was just 22. Officially killed by "small arms fire."

My best exchange of the day came with an NCO with a Master's in Psychology who deployed with a segment of our unit in 2011. There was an edge to this soldier--a look I see sometimes in soldiers who have seen or experienced quite a bit downrange. Indeed, the segment of the unit he deployed with experienced IED blasts and small arms fire most every day. At times, the surrounding area experienced more concentrated action than at any point since WWII. The vast majority of the unit were awarded Purple Hearts (for those wounded in the line of duty).

This was also the unit where Justin Ross, the 22 year old soldier, was killed--by a sniper, not by small arms fire. The NCO still calls him "my soldier"--a poignant reminder of something special about the Army. No battle buddy killed in action in simply a picture on a wall, but "my soldier" to someone who will spend the rest of their life preserving that person's memory. In a sense, Dave Lyon was my soldier, which is why I'll speak of him until the day I die.

I found one comment made by this NCO particularly interesting. He said "I know it sounds weird--and don't take it the wrong way--but I think this soldier was the best person to die. His dad is a pastor and his family is very religious. Of all people, they are probably the ones who could most handle this."

I think I understand what he was saying. He wasn't diminishing the soldier's tragic loss, nor was he diminishing the pain felt by the family. He recognized that this pastor and his family had a hope that transcended death--that made it less bitter. For where, O grave, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting? Please find more below on the life and death of Corporal Justin Ross and his family:

http://arlingtoncemetery.net/jdross.htm

http://www.wiscnews.com/article_b5b92579-edf1-5b07-baea-fbd088b718bc.html

https://www.facebook.com/ArmySpecialistJustinRossMemorialPage