Wednesday, June 09, 2010

An Old Friend, Unexpectantly - Michael

One of the sad duties here is to provide pastoral care for our units in the midst casualties. My Canadian contingent honors every one of their fallen with a memorial service. They will gather all of their troops and embassy personnel on the roof-top patio of their main office. The senior officers will pay their last respects, the senior officer will say a few words of remembrance and then the chaplain says a few words and prays. Following this, there is the Canadian version of taps, a moment of silence followed by their national anthem. I normally do the chaplain portion, but this day a Canadian chaplain was visiting the compound. Naturally, I am going to step aside to have him do the chaplain portion. I stood with the crowd along the side. The Canadian chaplain came out and stood in place, and , lo and behold, I recognized him and he recognized me.

I was deployed to Cold Lake, Canada back in 2004 or 2005 for an exercise. I spent a little time with their chapel staff - they even allowed me to preach a service for them. :) This chaplain was their Senior Protestant Chaplain, and here he was in Afghanistan with me. I did not bring a camera so no pics, but we were able to spend about an hour afterwards catching up on all of the goings on in our lives. You never know who you will meet down the road in a foreign country in the middle of a war zone, ministering to God's people. :)

Blessings, Michael

Choosing Joy!

©2010 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

Living all of life before the face of God...

5 comments:

Jared said...

wow! That is really cool!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Amazing. That IS very cool. Love you!

Janette said...

I'll be praying for the soul of the lost. I will also thank the Lord that in such a time- He can bring joy to some very hard working chaplains. Soldier on! At least that is what this Army/ Marine family says. God Bless!

Anonymous said...

Mike: How special and what a great God we serve who causes this kind of thing..... what a blessing.

love/prayers -- Mom T.

Anonymous said...

Mike: How special and what a great God we serve who causes this kind of thing..... what a blessing.

love/prayers -- Mom T.