Year in review

From my very favorite "Openings" devotional today comes some wonderful reflective questions:

• List significant persons in your life for the past year. How have they supported and/or challenged you?
• List pivotal events or changes in your life and your feelings about them.
• Remember and celebrate your greatest joys. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for each.
• Name your greatest challenges, pains, and disappointments during the past year. Can you offer a prayer of thanks or see how God has worked through the difficulties?
• Describe your experience of God this past year. Has God seemed near or distant?
• Think of a symbol, word, or phrase that pictures or summarizes this year.

They put gravy on pizza!!!

I knew I would be stretched this year during the deployment, but I didn't know it would involve gravy! We had a donation of breakfast pizza brought into the SCIF on Christmas day. I was offered a slice and before I took one they asked if I had ever had breakfast pizza with gravy. I thought they were pulling my leg. I had never hear of such a thing.

The thought of cheese and gravy together was not all that appealing. I almost passed up the offer to try a slice. But they insisted it was good.

I gave into peer pressure and am I glad I did!! Talk about a Christmas miracle.

Gravy on pizza...where have you been all my life?????

Some of the greatest surprises come from the most unlikely of places.

The Day Dad Went to Prison

The title of this post could be the next big country and western song my sons could write about me!

I have been to prison and I have been released from prison! One of things I thought about before moving to Terre Haute was what I could do here that I really couldn't do back home.

One of those things is rediscovering my love of basketball officiating (which I have done/am doing).

Another is to become a volunteer Federal prison Chaplain. Last night was my first time reporting for that duty. I shadowed two volunteers ("Non-Trinity Apostolic Christians"...interesting to say the least!) and one of the staff Chaplains.

There are 3 different levels of Federal prisons here in Terre Haute. I started at the minimum security
camp. I was very impressed. The place was clean, the inmates were polite and that was not a perimeter fence in sight!

I asked the Chaplain how they keep the prisoners there when there is no fence...he said they know they have it good and they don't want to loose the privilege of serving their time there.

One of the programs they run there is POP...not sure what it exactly stands for, but selected inmates live with and train future comfort dogs! I saw at least 2 dozen different dogs being walked about inside and outside the buildings.  I even got to pet a cute little lab!!

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!! I am getting on my soapbox.....

I saw a bunch of your (and mine) hard earned tax dollars last night at prison. It is true that as fellow citizens we either pay on the front end with good education and social programs or we pay on the back end with forced confinement of criminals.  Yes, there will always be outliers, but I wondered last night how many of those men (it is a men's only facility) could have been prevented from getting to this point in their lives had good education, the right social (to include the Church) programs AND their personal responsibility been in proper place earlier in their life.

I seem to remember a Native American story that ends with something along the lines of the "failure of one individual is a failure of the whole."

We are going to pay one way or another...might as well pay on the front end.

Rooted in Time

Living close to IL, I sometimes get IL radio stations and I catch myself getting confused when they announce what time it is (they are an hour earlier). I have to stay grounded in where I am at to remind myself that their time in IL is not my time in IN.

There is a sermon in there someplace! The Bible talks about 2 different types of time...basically "killing time" and "pregnant time."

Killing time is just passively waiting to clock out so we can go someplace else to waste more time.

Pregnant time is hope-filled time that says we should be on the edges of our seats expectantly waiting for God to move in lives.

Mary was pregnant with a baby AND with hope-filled time.

What time is it in your world?

Christmas

Even though our Commander In Chief gave most Federal employees Christmas Eve off, the mission at the 181st never stops, so I am proudly working today and tonight. Today is shaping up to be a very busy day for lots of reasons.

I plan to do a short service tonight and tomorrow.

This is my 3rd Christmas being deployed. The prior two meant that the Lundys opened Christmas presents via Skype. We will get to celebrate in person in a few days this time around!

One of my best memories of being deployed during Christmas was from Saudi Arabia last time around. Marti asked me to read Scripture at her late Christmas Eve service. At first we were going to record it, but then we realized with the time difference I could literally read it live on Christmas Day in KSA and it would still be Christmas Eve in Huntington and thus I could be project live into their sanctuary.

I ended the reading by pointing the camera out my widow to the Christmas sunrise. A very powerful moment to be reminded that we are all connected more than we realize and that one sunset leads right into a sunrise.

Advent

After a self-imposed Advent break, I am back. Some updates:

• We hosted the Director of the Air National Guard and the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air National Guard earlier this month. It is always good to hear directly from those (literally) at the top.
• Along with those DVs, we also hosted the 2 Star General that is the Chief of Active Duty USAF Chaplains and his wife.  Although he is out of my chain of command, he is the one that sets the policy that guides much of my military life. What a gracious pastor who just happens to be a 2 Star. It was good to give him the "ANG" perspective on how things happen in our world, which is very different from active duty.
• Mrs. Schaick (Chaplain Schaick's wife) spent her own "time and dime" to travel here as well. She was incredibly gracious and supportive of our work. Upon hearing that we have a son going to school in DC, Ch and Mrs. Schaick invited us to come visit them in DC and even stay in their home!
• Most senior officers have their own coin that they present to superior performers. I am proud to say that the Director and Ch Schaick both coined my "Chaplain Assistant" (now called Religious Affairs Airmen). He is incredible to work with.
• Ch Schaick also coined me.

But enough about their visit:

• I have been reminded in real ways there is lots of brokenness that we all carry with us, and that there is amazing power in just listening (I do a lot of counselling where I do nothing much more than actively listen).  
• I have said it before and I will say it again...I work with same amazingly smart folks, many of them barely out of their teenage years!
• I work in a technology-rich environment. Technology is a double edged sword.  Who is speaking into this world the proper ethics of emerging technology?
• In an act of humility, one of our commander's is taking himself and his staff to a smaller office footprint in a different building to give those of us in the "helping agency" department more room to serve more Airmen and their families.  This means that the Chaplain offices are moving as well. The much needed cleaning out old stuff before we move has been long over due. Why is it so easy to let junk pile up??
• I have been able get home a bit to worship with Marti and help Joshua on some projects at his house. Visits such as these remind me that I could not do what I do at the 181st without the support of family and friends.  

Thanks for all the support I get in so many ways. 

Thanksgiving

I was able to spend some significant time this past week visiting my Intel parish. There were special meals prepared for those of us working on the holiday. Even though we were away from our family of birth, we were together with our family of choice.

A question I like asking on holidays like these is what Thanksgiving traditions we had as children. I heard some wonderful stories of Grandparents and their cooking, going hunting with Dad and Black Friday shopping. What we all agreed upon is that we have realized we took those moments for granted.

In the moment, we all thought those moments would last forever. But they didn't. They never do.

I hope this holiday season gives us amble opportunity to breath deeply the gift of the present moment. May we never take it for granted. May we bring our best selves to each of those moments so that the memories we take from today will be worth remembering.