To Iraq … And Back
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2008
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Dear Fiends and Family,
Wow! In the midst of all the business, I have let the time sneak
by without any new updates to all of you. Thanks for your
patience and for your continued prayers and support throughout
these many weeks. I continue to stay overwhelmingly busy, but
much of it is due to my own inability to set still for five
minutes.
Sundays are the highlight of each week on which I preach twice at
field services at our airfield, and once at our motor pool. I
also help with two services at our brigade chapel where I preach
every third week as well. This past Sunday I preached four times
to a total of about 65 soldiers and helped support another
service with another 35 soldiers in attendance. The two services
at the chapel consist of a traditional service at 0930 and a
contemporary service at 1100. We have six chaplains with three
working each service. I am currently assigned to the traditional
service and I have been taking the opportunity to preach through
1 Peter focusing on “How to thrive during this deployment
and not just survive it.” We have seen the service grow each
week from about 8 soldiers when we first arrived to 35 this past
Sunday.
During the course of the eight weeks we have been here, we have
baptized four young soldiers at the chapel and two others have
been baptized in a local pool. This past week, I had three
soldiers who also have made professions of faith who will
hopefully follow up soon with baptism. Their names are Joe, John,
and Michael. Please be in prayer for these men as they begin
their new lives following after God through the power of Jesus
Christ. Each of them has a story to tell, and each one has
challenges to face, but I know that God is doing great things in
their lives.
One of the exciting opportunities I get every
couple of weeks is that of going to visit some of our soldiers
who are located at another base. In order to get there, I fly on
one of our Blackhawks for the one hour journey. Along the way, I
get a bird’s eye view of the “cradle of civilization.”
There is a certain beauty to this place that can only be fully
appreciated from 1500 feet in the air. I love the huge groves of
palm trees that seem to go on for miles, and of course, there is
the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers which snake their way through
the Iraqi desert. It may not be East Tennessee, but there is a
beauty here found nowhere else in the world.
United Through Reading
One of the highlights of our deployment so far has been the
United Through Reading program. The UTR program is a nationwide
program that we have adopted to provide opportunities for our
soldiers to read books to their children, siblings, or other
loved ones with whom they are seeking to stay in touch with.
Every day except Sunday, we open our UTR room for two hours
providing opportunities for up to four soldiers to make a video
recording. An article has been distributed nationwide about our
program through the internet, and in newspapers. Here is a link
to one of those articles: http://freerepublic.info/focus/f-news/2062069/posts.
The picture on the right was taken in our UTR
room where soldiers sit to be recorded. The books in the
background have been provided by both the United Through Reading
program and by many of you. One of our supporting churches,
Patton Baptist Church, sent many of the books seen here. Along
with the books, one member donated a large box of Beanie Babies
in memory of a child that has gone home to be with the Lord.
Thank you so much to all of you for helping to make this program
a great success.
Patton Baptist Church, mentioned above, has sent almost 20 boxes
of goodies so far. They have sent things like toiletries, candy
and beef jerky, as well as the Bienne Babies, books and DVDs for
the UTR program. I received an email from them yesterday stating
that they had just put 16 more care packages in the mail. YOU
GUYS (and Gals) ROCK! I talked to Pastor Pat Cummings who told me
that they pray over every box before it is sent and they pray for
our ministry and our soldiers each week. Thanks so much!
Copperas Cove Presbyterian Church (www.fpccc.net), located just a
few miles from Ft. Hood, has also been a great blessing. Pictured
to the right is Staff Sergeant Jeremy Kindred (my chaplain
assistant) holding two of the boxes recently received from CCPC,
containing cups, pens, puzzle books, cards, drink mixes, and beef
jerky. The church also presented me with a Christian flag just
weeks before I deployed. The flag is now displayed proudly on one
of the walls in my office. Thank you CCPC!
Another church that has really stepped up is a young church plant
called Cedar Ridge Church (http://www.cedarridgechurch.net/), led
by pastor Lane Skyles. They have taken the lead in our Adopt-A-Soldier
program. With their help, fourteen of our soldiers have been
adopted by people in the Leander, Tx. area. They also took the
lead in helping us provide a pre-deployment BBQ for our Comanche
families just one week before we loaded the planes. Here is a
link to a newspaper article about that event:
http://www.hillcountrynews.com/articles/2008/06/12/news/news54.txt.
There is also a four minute video on their website about the
event.
Recently, we received a package from Cedar Ridge Church filled
with cards made by the children attending their VBS.
Well, as you can see, God has been good to us in so many ways,
and through the efforts of so many people. I am proud to be part
of such a great community of Christian believers who have been
called to give so much. Thank you for your sacrifices on behalf
of the 3-4 Aviation Comanche Family. We love you all!
United Through Reading
o Children’s books (new or slightly used)
o Mini DVD’s (Maxell DVD-RW Camcorder)
o Envelopes to mail DVDs to families
Adopt-A-Soldier Program
o Email me and ask for info on this program if interested
. Chaplainmarkolson@gmail.com
. Mark.j.olson@us.army.mil
Care Packages
o Snacks (The Command Sergeant Major wants Tootsie Roll Pops) .
o Drink mix singles
o Toiletries (shampoo, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, razors,
deodorant…)
o Phone cards
Thanksgiving and Christmas
o Be creative
o If you have any ideas, please let me know
Here is a HUGE one!
o We are looking for a set of drums, used or new that can be used
by our praise and worship team. We
have one set that is pretty worn out, that is, the heads are
ruined, and all the equipment for the
cymbals is broken. Over all, it is in pretty bad shape. If you
can help with any part of this, please let
me know!
Finally, I want to ask you to remember my family in prayer. It
has been three months now since I have seen my
family, and they are really missing my presence (and I theirs).
My wife is leading worship and the children’s
ministries at our church in Tennessee, while at the same time
homeschooling four of our six children. She is quite a
woman. Please pray for her and each of our children!
If you would be interested in dropping a note of
encouragement to her, here is our address:
LaDonna Olson
1104 Corder Hollow Rd.
Pikeville, Tn. 37367
CH (CPT) Mark Olson
Unit 6061, HHC, 3-4 AVN BN
Camp Taji, Iraq
APO AE 09378
For God and Country
Chaplain Mark Olson