Saturday, May 24, 2008
Chaplain Washington Installation
I've had a wonderful week and had to share it on the blog - more photos and video attached. The blessings keep on coming over here. First off, over the past few weeks, I have become friends with another LCMS chaplain! It is so awesome to have another "Lut-er-an" in the Area of Operations (AO)! There are so few of us LCMS Army Chaplains that to have another one here is actually remarkable.
His name is Chaplain Washington. He went to Ft. Wayne Theological Seminary. We've hit it off and actually, when I go on leave, he is going to cover the religious support of my battalion.
So it was just like God, to use me this past Sunday--Holy Trinity Sunday--to install Chaplain Washington into his ministry here...in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Since he was not pastoring a church when he got mobilized, the Ministry to the Armed Forces who issued him the Divine Call, required that he be installed. So the two pictures are from the installation service. That's the first cool thing I have to report.
The second thing, actually much more than a "thing", occured last night. After a full day of meetings, writing letters to thank people for their care packages, and counseling some soldiers, I was beat. However, I had the opportunity to accompany two of our soldiers to a Ugandan camp. I was this -->[ ]<-- close to not going. But I went with them to meet some Ugandans they couldn't stop talking about.
Here in Iraq, the security force is composed of retired soldiers from the Ugandan military. These wonderful people are full of the Lord, friendly, and incredibly inspiring. They ministered to us with prayer, kind words, Scripture and a their new hand of friendship.
Right before we left them (Samuel, Richard, Moses, David, and others) they took us back to their hooches and introduced us to their friends. Right before we left, they wanted to sing a song for us. It is in swahili, so you won't be able to understand it, but this is what the song means (loosely translated of course):
"We have Jesus in our heart, the one who is with us. We worship and honor him. The one who made us and all things".
Oh, and one more thing...I was talking to one of the faithful, and he told me he is a lay-reader in churches all over his country. I told him I knew a Lutheran pastor, Tom in Kenya, by lake Victoria who travels around to churches. HE KNEW MY FRIEND TOM!
All I can say is WOW! Thanks be to God for Chaplain Washington, and all the Ugandans...they are blessed to be a blessing.
In His Grip,
Chaplain Ayers
His name is Chaplain Washington. He went to Ft. Wayne Theological Seminary. We've hit it off and actually, when I go on leave, he is going to cover the religious support of my battalion.
So it was just like God, to use me this past Sunday--Holy Trinity Sunday--to install Chaplain Washington into his ministry here...in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Since he was not pastoring a church when he got mobilized, the Ministry to the Armed Forces who issued him the Divine Call, required that he be installed. So the two pictures are from the installation service. That's the first cool thing I have to report.
The second thing, actually much more than a "thing", occured last night. After a full day of meetings, writing letters to thank people for their care packages, and counseling some soldiers, I was beat. However, I had the opportunity to accompany two of our soldiers to a Ugandan camp. I was this -->[ ]<-- close to not going. But I went with them to meet some Ugandans they couldn't stop talking about.
Here in Iraq, the security force is composed of retired soldiers from the Ugandan military. These wonderful people are full of the Lord, friendly, and incredibly inspiring. They ministered to us with prayer, kind words, Scripture and a their new hand of friendship.
Right before we left them (Samuel, Richard, Moses, David, and others) they took us back to their hooches and introduced us to their friends. Right before we left, they wanted to sing a song for us. It is in swahili, so you won't be able to understand it, but this is what the song means (loosely translated of course):
"We have Jesus in our heart, the one who is with us. We worship and honor him. The one who made us and all things".
Oh, and one more thing...I was talking to one of the faithful, and he told me he is a lay-reader in churches all over his country. I told him I knew a Lutheran pastor, Tom in Kenya, by lake Victoria who travels around to churches. HE KNEW MY FRIEND TOM!
All I can say is WOW! Thanks be to God for Chaplain Washington, and all the Ugandans...they are blessed to be a blessing.
In His Grip,
Chaplain Ayers
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