Mission or Missions?

The other day I went on my first military mission although it reminded me more of missions work than what I believed to be military missions. While our trip served multiple purposes, most of which I cannot share, one of our goals was mission critical. We delivered a wheel chair to an 8 year old Iraqi girl who's only mode of transportation to this point in her life was to be carried by her relatives. While the wheel chair aided her relatives more than the little girl it was very gratifying to be part of such an important mission. Unfortunately you will never read about this in the paper or see it on the nightly news.
There were many children at this home and they were all so beautiful. I know it sounds odd, but that somehow amazed me as though I thought perhaps they would be ugly because of the ugly situation their country is in. These children look just like ours with the exception of most of them being brown eyed, black her and dark skin. They waved, smiled and just got excited seeing the American Soldiers. It was truly a blessing to be there.
One of the elder women of this family spoke to me as though I could understand and speak her language. She kept pointing at a young man, about the age of my son, and was obviously telling me a story about him. The interpreter came over and helped me when he saw I was struggling big time. The lady was telling me that the young man was an orphan. Terrorist had taken his father away and he had no other relatives. They were taking care of him.
Today a Sgt. delivered the message at Chapel on being salt and light to the world. It was delivered very well and really got me thinking about what our young men do. Whether they know it or not they are bringing salt and light to a very dark world. Whether they know it or not they are doing God's work and serving God's people.
I know we have a tendency of thinking of our soldiers as the best trained killers in the world, and they are, but to think that is their sole purpose is a gross misunderstanding of their mission.
These young men & women do what few will for little financial gain. They do it for little thanks and often for a Country that treats them as evil. Oddly enough they may never see the fruit of their labor, but just like us when we labor for the Lord none of it is in vain. The outcome is up to God. We are here to serve His purpose.

God bless you all and do what you can do, not expecting to see the beauty of what is to come.

In Country!

Hello everyone. I am now in Iraq and living the dream. To be able to support our troops and our Country in this way is extremely gratifying and truly an honor.
I hope everyone at the beach is doing well and adjusting to school and the quiet time we know as the off season.
I have not been able to blog in a while, but now hope to have an entry for you once a week. It is difficult to get to a computer and the Internet on most days, but I think once a week I should be able to manage.
As usual I have a request, please continue to pray for our soldiers, the Iraqi Army, Police and citizens, as well as the many civilians that are here in support of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom).
It is overwhelming what the coalition troops are doing here. I am proud to be an American and of the many positive changes made to the lives of the people of Iraq by our Country and allies. You can be proud to whether you support the war or not. There are great things being done here and much more to follow.

God bless you all