There is really no good excuse for not writing, so I won’t give you one. To say the past few weeks has been busy would be an understatement. Since my last entry, I have been to the field for a week, graduated, traveled 1200 miles from South Carolina to TEXAS, checked in with my unit, Inprocessed, rented a house, and signed out on permissive TDY for 10 days. I am tired.
Graduation week was great. My Love, the kids and my parents got to Ft. Jackson safe and sound. My Love and I had a wonderful time at the Graduation Banquet. She was simply gorgeous and took my breath away. Once I caught my breath, we had a wonderful evening.
I will say, My Love made me quite jealous. The guest speaker for the evening was CH (COL) Moore, FORSCOM Chaplain. While the evening was just getting underway, my wife read that CH Moore was from Mississippi. She let this cool fact be known to our endorser who was sitting with us and he went over and got CH Moore (we are both endorsed by the same agency). Come to find out, my wife and CH Moore are from some of the same places and even know some of the same people. To make a long story short, My Love received the FORSCOM Chaplain’s coin. Very cool and very jealous.
Graduation was a great event as well. CH (MG) Douglas Carver, Cheif of Chaplains, was on hand and gave a wonderful talk. I will say, it was quite weird sitting there at graduation. I could feel the reality of the situation and it was heavy. In the 13 weeks of CH-BOLC, I built friendship that will last a lifetime. Strangely though, it might not be until heaven that I see some of those blessed Chaplains again. May the King of kings watch over them and their families.
Our trip to Texas went off without any major hiccups. The 9 hour trip did take 15 hours and an over night stay, but what should one expect traveling with a 2 1/2 year old and a 6 month old.
I have already gotten into the busyness of the Chaplaincy. It is amazing how fast a day can go by when you are trying to run around and do this ministry of presence thing. I am the first Chaplain my unit has had in 4 years. I have actually had people tell me that they didn’t know Chaplains worked at the Battalion level. Truly amazing. I pray that my time here is fruitful. I still feel that I am drinking out of a fire hydrant, but I have a great Brigade Chaplain who will be a great mentor. If you think about it, please pray for me on the 19th. I have been tasked to pray at a ceremony for the standing up of a new Brigade. I have been tasked to pray at the ceremony because I am currently the only Chaplain in the Brigade. May the Lord receive all glory and honor and praise.
I hope to change the way I blog from here on out. My focus will be on the Chaplaincy within the confines of the Battalion. I won’t be specific about the unit I am with, but I hope you will get a taste of what Chaplains do. WE NEED MORE CHAPLAINS, and the longer I try and do this job, the more I am convinced that the Chaplaincy needs to be pushed more at our seminaries. May the God of all creation bless you.
