To Iraq … And Back
Saturday, July 26, 2008
To See the original in Adobe PDF format click here
Dear Fiends and Family,
As of today, we are 8.9% of the way through this deployment! That
means that I only have 91.1% of this deployment left to make a
difference in the lives of these young men and women. It is hard
to believe that the time is moving so quickly and before I know
it, I will be back in the states wondering where God will take my
family and I next.
It has been a couple of weeks since I last
wrote, so I have a lot to share. I will attempt to keep it brief,
but I know many of you are wondering what it is like to be a
chaplain in this environment. Let me begin with a brief outline
of my day. It looks a lot like this:
.
0630 Physical Fitness and personal hygene
.
0800 Breakfast at the chow hall or a cup of coffee at Green Beans
Coffee
.
0900 Office Time
.
1130 Lunch (with Ice Cream)
.
1230 Visit soldiers at the airfield, motor pool, and headquarters
areas
.
1700 Dinner (with more Ice Cream)
.
1800 Back to office
.
2000 Back out to visit soldiers
.
2400 Begin to make my way to bed
Being a deployed chaplain is difficult. I have to suffer through
air conditioned buildings, cable tv in our rooms, and all the ice
cream I can eat. It is hard but some one has to do it. Of course
I say all this tongue and cheek because being deployed comes with
its trials. One of the things I am constantly aware of is the
fact that we are in a war zone. It is easy to forget sometimes
because we have not been hit by any mortars since we arrived here.
Praise God for His hand of protection.
Another area of concern is the effect this deployment is having
on our soldiers. Every day I counsel three or four soldiers with
serious issues. Some are struggling with family relationships
made worse by the separation. Others are struggling with anger
and stress. Some are even contemplating whether or not tomorrow
is worth living. As I counsel with each of these folks, I am
reminded that God loves to take the weak and lowly things of this
world and transform them for His glory. At least once a day, I
get the opportunity to talk a soldier through God’s plan for
his or her life. There is no great opportunity than this. Every
counseling opportunity is another opportunity to see the hand of
God at work.
Along with the one-on-one ministry that takes place, I am
preaching in the chapel on Sundays, providing a Sunday service at
the flight line for those who can’t make it to the chapel,
leading a Bible study twice on Wednesdays, providing
opportunities six days a week for soldiers to read books to their
children while being recorded on a DVD, and putting together a
coffee shop/ministry center to provide a casual place for
soldiers to “Hang out with the Chaplain.”
God has blessed me indeed with the greatest
opportunity ever to make a difference in the lives of soldiers. I
am truly thankful to be here with these men and women as they
work hard to make a lasting difference here in the birthplace of
civilization. Please keep us in prayer as God works in this
Comanche Team to mold us into His image.
Holy Joe's Cafe logo
CH (CPT) Mark Olson
Unit 6061, HHC, 3-4 AVN BN
Camp Taji, Iraq
APO AE 09378
For God and Country
Chaplain Mark Olson
To see this with pics send me an email for the PDF file.