Why I Love Thursdays This Deployment

Wake up, shower, work, work, work, work, eat, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, eat, work, work, scho...(usually school is an impossibility), sleep.

That is the gist of my typical day over here. Not Thursdays. Now, before I explain why I love Thursdays over here so much I must dispel any notions that my joy on Thursdays comes in any way from the cultural tendencies of this area. See, Thursday to a Muslim in an Islamic Republic is like Friday nights in America. Friday is their Djuma, or holy day, and so there is no work on Fridays (for the most part). Therefore, Thursday nights usually involve a lot of excitement among the Afghans. There are rumors of what they do, but I'd rather you do your own research rather than listen to my conjecture - needless to say, most of the rumors are not very flattering.

I digress.

So then, why is Thursday of such significance to me? Because for a few hours I am able to escape work, school, and my B-Hut (which I don't see much of) and worship the Lord at practice for the Chapel praise team.

The group of singers and musicians is dynamic and diverse but the music is wonderful, the fellowship is second-to-none, and the ability to play as loud as I want and sing however I want to praise God is without equal to me. I can't do that anywhere - not in my B-Hut (the walls are merely 3/8" plywood that seem to amplify rather than dampen sound) and not in my office (the office is truly occupied like, 17 hours a day sometimes). The Chapel on the other hand, provides a place where I can finally get back to music and open, uninterrupted praise.

Sundays are good too (when we actually foster praise and worship) - but it is occasionally too difficult standing on that platform to force that "performer" mentality out of my mind, and I seem to sometimes lose track as to why I'm really serving to begin with. Instead, Thursday practice is a judgment-free, worship-filled event with only the hours of the practice to contain our praise.

VFF: Everlasting!

We are surrounded by the reminder of the Almighty - even in a place such as this.

"My heart and my soul,
I give you control,
consume me from the inside out.
Let justice and praise,
become my embrace,
to love you from the inside out."

It is incredible to think that the same power who created these mountains lives inside me and is consuming me from within!

"Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades!"

Even these mountains will crumble and fall eventually, but His love never ends.

"Neverending, Your Glory goes beyond all fame!"

The glories of war are bestowed with pomp and circumstance yet are as fleeting as the tides.
Conversely, His Glory arrived in unassuming fashion but will see no end.




(Above quoted lyrics are from the inspired heart of Joel Houston, From the Inside Out, 2006. Associated commentary by David S. on this 1st Valleys Fill First post.)

Back to the 'stan

Yep. It's cold here.

This is my Bhut after a night of wet snow.

So, in case you didn't already know, I'm back in Afghanistan fulfilling my service obligation. Leaving the family was pretty tough, but I felt a little better this time because of several reasons - primarily because I knew where I was going and I had a pretty good idea about the job I was going to perform as it was essentially the same thing I did for a year on the last tour. Additionally, I was definitely more excited about being on just a 6-monther vs the 365 our family endured from '09-10.

The only surprise awaiting me ended up being serendipitous. See, I was expecting to go to Kabul again and work out of a camp in the downtown area - one I had spent some time at before. After leaving Manas AB, Krygystan, my wingman and I arrived at Bagram AB and shuffled our hundreds of pounds of gear from the fixed (airplanes) terminal to the rotary (helicopters) terminal. Thankfully, we were able to sneak on to a couple of UH-60 Blackhawks that flew us straight to a compound not far from our new home. Upon arrival, we waited just a couple hours before our predecessors showed up to drive us to our new home for the next six months.

I spent the next day settling in to the office (I would be in temporary open-bay billeting until a room opened up in 4-6 weeks) and the next evening my boss' boss shook my world a little by advising me that he really needed me at Bagram instead. I was really enjoying the setting and getting comfortable with the turnover but that doesn't really matter much in the military - so I saluted smartly and found the first trip to Bagram.

A few days later, the office dropped me off at Kabul International Airport and I was able to make it to Bagram that day. Interestingly enough, whereas a room was at least 4 weeks out for me in Kabul, the new team I was joining already had an available private room open for me! That improved my situation greatly and so here I am, at Bagram Airfield, engineering the future for the Afghans once again.

Highlights of the last 3 weeks

The top left picture is of the kids in a model of a space shuttle at a museum here in PCB. The top right is a work of art. The finished picture can only be seen when a light is on and the shadow becomes the rest of the piece. Can you tell what it is?! Bottom left is David and me being silly. Bottom right is Hannah raising the sails and me driving the boat on a sunny winter day when David was home from training.

We are Alive and Well

I just got an email from a friend from college whom I haven't spoken to in quite a while. The subject line of the email was "Rachel, are you still alive?" After I laughed, I read the email and she pointed out that we had only posted a couple of updates on our blog in the last year. With David deployed again, I think that the usefulness of the blog will present itself again and we will use it a little more often!

The picture on the top left is Hannah Joy caught red handed getting into an itty bitty spiderman tackle box! Top right is Andrew and his friend Andrew, both in Cub Scouts now. Bottom left is Andrew and our new pet, Goldie. Our neighbors moved, and she needed a home. Bottom right is beautiful Elizabeth.

Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Dear Mark,

Today I am announcing my intention to defect from the facebook nation.  Please do not consider this a personal attack or even a statement regarding your creation.  Rather, I have come to the conclusion that facebook has outlived its usefulness (when comparing benefits to costs) in my life.  Don't worry, I do not intend on subverting the facebook culture by trying to convince my 391 friends to do the same - each of us must make our own choices in life; this one is mine alone.

Standing back and looking at the facebook phenomenon I cannot help but to be completely impressed at what you have done.  Connecting over a half billion people in the world is a feat that may not be rivaled in our lifetimes.  I applaud you and your efforts.  I have a profound respect for your business model, and I've even adopted one of your own corporate mantras (with credit given to you, of course) - "Fail harder".  I hope that you find much more than financial success in your endeavors and that you reach a point of true fulfillment in your family life and in your faith; after all - you can't take it with you.

Sincerely,

David S.

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Distance

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder."

Hogwash.

I'm currently far from the woman I love most, and the limitless temptations surrounding me and the many other Type-A males in the same position are only increasingly facilitated because of the distance.  See, the distance is merely a facilitator for growth or decay.  Some choose to grow, others do not. Regardless, the choice to grow is often the by-product of a heart that understands that thru Christ, all things are possible.

As I mentioned, the temptations are fairly limitless - even in a training environment.  Today we have media and images freely available that are a magnet to a wandering eye.  Additionally, the mind itself is constantly seeking some satisfaction and infidelity can occur without any notice given to peers or passersby.  This, Christ said, was equal to the physical sin.

The shame shreds self confidence as a sinful life lived internally gradually moves outward, breaking through the masquerade.  Soon, there is nothing left and the mind is exposed.  Relationships crumble and reputations are built.  The "A" may never be visible, but its burden on the broken family will be impossible to ignore.

On the contrary, there is a moment when God calls to satan and says, "Consider my servant....(fill in your name)...he will not be shaken."  Although the struggle continues in the mind, the successes of overcoming temptation taste sweeter than the greatest fulfillment imagineable.  This success develops into a deep longing for the wife of one's youth and the joy unspeakable that comes with reunion - on God's terms.  Then, the soul is not lost (as before) with nothing to show for it in the end, but freely shared.  This is a great hope.

So, in reality, distance does not make the heart grow fonder.  Distance does, however, facilitate the growth or decay of a heart hanging in the balance.

Holding tank headaches!

Sunset over St. Andrew's Bay from the cockpit of our 1976 Irwin 28 MkIV

Rachel piloting the Irwin through the Gulf swells - that's Panama City Beach off her right shoulder

Hannah asleep in the v-berth, Rachel asleep on the starboard settee, and A&E watching a movie on the port settee

Rachel and the kids at the drop-down table after night fell

In case you aren't aware, we decided that one sailboat wasn't enough so we spent some savings on a craigslist post for a 28' sloop just a couple up the miles from our home.  The boat is overall in great condition considering the price and the age (1976) but there were some maintenance things that needed to be taken care of and the toilet holding tank was at the top of the list.

The Irwin smelled even after a good airing out, new dehumidifier, clean carpets, and washed seat cushions.  All that remained to clean out was the flexible holding tank which more than likely held sewage from when the boat was first commissioned 34 years ago.  The problem is that you can't just dump that stuff overboard - you have to either find a dumping station at a marina or go three nautical miles offshore to be legal - guess which one I chose. . . 

So, we left at around 2 PM and returned by 8 PM and although we didn't sail a whole lot, we returned with an empty holding tank and some valuable experience.  See, the marine head on this boat has several "Y" valves which allows me to dump my toilet into either the holding tank or straight into the ocean or dump my holding tank into the ocean or a deck cap for dockside emptying.  It is complicated and messy so we've decided that the six hour jaunts just to legally empty our holding tank are not worth it.  We will be replacing the entire marine head system with a Thetford 155 Porta-potty with removable holding tank.  Yes, we'll have to empty it every time we are gone for more than a few hours but we can empty it into any toilet rather than specific dumping stations.

I hope it all works out!  I'm sick of telling my two year old, "no, you can't go potty".