My dear parish family:

            They’ve arrived, they’ve arrived! Our replacement command group, the 3^rd ESC, has arrived here at LSA Anaconda and is in the midst of being trained up by us all. Ten days are what we have been given in order to insure that our mission can be effectively handed over to them, and this 10 day timeline has been broken down into two halves, the first five days of them observing us and learning, followed by the second five days in which they are seated in the driver’s seat doing the work while we observe and advise. Therefore, with twice the number of people in a building that was already somewhat crowded, you can imagine the ‘dances’ we must go through in order to maneuver through the various meeting areas, and especially in our Command Cell (aka Mission Control). The joke is that each of our respective counterparts from the 3^rd ESC is our new ‘best friend,’ since they have come to relieve us of our mission. It was almost a year ago when we, too, were somebody’s best friend during our ‘train-up’ before we began our time of combat service here.

            Having listened to the litany of gloom and sorrow from various television anchors and reporters concerning the economy and with respect to the price of fuel, I must admit to you, my friends, I shake my head in dismay. In the midst of one of only many of our nation’s economic changes, are we being tempted to lose perspective on the blessed standard at which even many of our nation’s poor are able to enjoy in comparison to much of the world. Consider that we aren’t confronted with anarchy here. There isn’t chaos abounding among our towns and our villages with regular looting or pillaging. There hasn’t been rampant raping or malicious murdering merely because of our association with a specific religious sect, or due in part to our ethnic background. Here is a novel concept of sad consequences, we actually have the freedom and the economic ability to get ourselves into debt, and then, having gotten ourselves into such debt, the consequences of such are not the death of any family member due to starvation, but rather only embarrassment and inconvenience, a change of our lifestyle and our habits. This freedom and this economic standard at which we have been living has been bestowed upon us from having been borne upon the shoulders of our forefathers, and now, upon the shoulders of our present protectors of this republic, the young men and women of our military.

            Most of you are reading this missive as you sit in a pew having been purchased and maintained by those who preceded you at your church. You are enjoying the comfort of air conditioning, enabling you to hear the Word of God preached freely to you, unbound by fear of reprisal or by the local zealots who are against what is being proclaimed. You return boldly to your home without concern of who has seen you come from your church. Freely you worship the Triune God, and freely you live out the Faith, inviting and encouraging others to enjoy the sweet comfort of sins forgiven and mercy bestowed from the same God whose Law has condemned us all. We are blessed to be able to educate our children in an atmosphere where their faith is not ridiculed, nor scoffed at, but rather, nurtured and nourished by fellow believers who, too, sacrifice much in order to lovingly impart this glorious Faith. They volunteer to sacrificially serve as Sunday School teachers, and others sacrificially serve to teach as day-school teachers. God be praised for the freedoms we have been enjoying in which all of this has been made so easy and without fear of punishment.

            Today, I bid farewell to two of my chaplain assistants, MSG Lesada, and SSG Douglas who have been mobilized with our unit since March of 2007. MSG Lesada willingly came to serve after having only been wed for three months, leaving his beloved bride in tears. SSG Douglas came to serve knowing that upon his return he would have to move his family half way across the country with his new civilian job. I thank our heavenly Father for the courage and forfeiture of comfort by these two men in order to not only support our nation’s war on terrorism, but to sustain me, their chaplain, and uphold my arms in the work God has privileged me to accomplish among His soldiers. Beautiful, indeed, is the bond between men who have suffered and have served their nation and one another, but even more priceless is the forging of such a brotherhood when the common Faith binds that bond.

            How uplifted and encouraged have I been by the correspondence you have so lovingly given throughout our separation from one another. Your ‘goodies’ and your ‘various sundries’ sent to support me have been appreciated with gusto, enabling me to brag about your generosity. Thank you all so very much.

            Your Pastor