Endorsement Conference

We have just returned from our endorsement conference with the ECA.

The conference was in Branson, MO and included some excellent speakers. One of our favorites was Dr. Norm Geisler. Dr. Geisler has written a number of books (I think they said 70) concerning the foundations of Christianity. His presentation addressed a number of current issues facing America as well as the church.

Another excellent opportunity though was to hear from other ECA chaplains. The ECA has 113 active duty chaplains and during a luncheon meeting we were able to hear from some of them who were in attendance. It was especially nice to hear some suggestions from some of the spouses.

This was our first time to Branson, MO and we did not really have a lot of time to try to catch any shows, and did not really want to pay for any of them either. I guess the one suggestion I would make is to understand that traffic in town moves really slow. When we tried to leave to come home it took us 20 minutes to go about 5 miles to the interstate.

Just a heads-up in case you are thinking of visiting.

Blessings

Busy Month

I have wanted to update this blog much more often than this, however, we have been very busy.

The first week of the month was spent at the North American Christian Convention. The training was excellent. I especially appreciated the training on understanding the next generation. Those who are 18-25 are many of the Soldiers to whom I am trying to minister. I know that they view the world slightly different than I do, so this was some really good material.

After that we had a couple weeks of "block leave." This is when almost everyone in the brigade is given the opportunity to take leave with their family. We decided to take a week and go somewhere that was new for us. We went to Disney World! We had a lot of fun and were actually thankful for the rain. It really helped to keep things cool. We also discovered the pin-traded practice. Essentially, most of the employees have Disney pins that they wear and they are required to trade them with you if you ask. We really enjoyed putting together a set by work with the folks at Disney.

Then we returned and I ended up covering for a lot of the other chaplains who were on block leave. The good thing is that I got to do some stuff that I would not normally do, meet some new Soldiers, and spent some time with two of my other brigade chaplains. Busy, but good stuff.

My youngest son is at camp and is having a blast. He got to celebrate his birthday there and the staff took the entire cabin out to Dairy Queen. I'm sure they were very thankful for him at that point.

I also met my new chaplain's assistant and he is a great guy, with a lot of experience. Hopefully he'll be able to keep me from getting into too much trouble.

Finally, we will be doing some additional traveling for some training with my endorser. This should also be some very good training. One of the speakers is Dr. Norm Geisler. So I am very interested in this opportunity.

The Army has announced some of the upcoming deployments and I have some friends in that brigade. Please keep our Soldiers, leaders, and world events in your prayers.

Still a Chaplain

Don't be too scared by the title.

Basically what I am saying is that not too much has changed.

I did pin on the rank of captain, but for a chaplain, not too much should change.

The reason for this is that every chaplain in the Army (for the most part anyway) has the same title, "chaplain." It does not matter if you are a first lieutenant, captain, major, colonel, etc. Everyone is usually going to address you as, "chaplain."

I really like that. Although making the rank of captain means more pay, my attitude and focus should be the same. I need to be concerned about my Soldiers and their well-being and care.

It is the same as when you are a pastor of a church. If you are more concerned with the size of the congregation or your perceived prestige in the community then you are focused on the wrong thing.

Of course all of that is easier said than done, and it is easy to get pulled into a wrong focus or attitude, but for me, I am reminded of the proper focus every time someone says hi,..."hey chappy, how are you doing today?"