LAST DAY - WEEK FIVE "THE FAT LADY SINGITH"

Kate Smith would be singing it out today "God Bless America" CTOC is DONE!
As some of you already know, I was a little nervous about this five week pre-deployment course. I expected it to be tough but not as tough as it really was. I knew if I did not cut it I would not be able to deploy. Some of you are probably saying "yeah don't deploy", and feel that at my age I should be home feeding pigeons from a park bench. Hmmm, I wonder if they have pigeons in Iraq? I wonder if they even have park benches? I will let you know when I get there.

We said our good byes and felt that grip of concern, knowing our friends are going to "hot zones." It was tough seeing these young folks going to war leaving their young children behind, their new wives behind.

I had a chance to talk to a guy I met in my class about faith. He made a statement one day during some down time that he wanted to "get back into it" meaning his faith. He was raised in a contemporary church environment but much like many young people he got into the world and left God behind. He was involved in his youth group, went to church and became a Christian. He knows the truth and he realized he needed it back in his life. It was a humbling experience to have an opportunity to share some "old guy" wisdom and help him re-focus his Spiritual eyes. Upon going our separate ways I gave him a packet called a "Spiritual Deployment Kit." The kit is put out by Campus Crusaders for Christ, written specifically for deploying military members. It contains a pocket sized bible, a study guide and a tract. Thanks Rev. Jesse Coale (Christ United Methodist Church Broomall) for providing those kits for me to distribute, 100 to be exact. I also gave him my Chris Tomlin CD. It's a great worship CD that will grip your heart no matter how far you have strayed. I will be heading out to buy another. I look forward to being able to do this again in the near future.

Oh yeah, back to the pigeons in Iraq. If there are pigeons in Iraq they are probably mutant pigeons. Everything in Iraq is mutant. Snakes, bugs, camel spiders, other spiders, scorpions, Camels (who spit at you), sand flies with a disease called "the face eraser disease." Guess why it is called the "face eraser disease?" BECAUSE IT EATS YOUR FACE!!!! That's right folks, we in America loose a day of work because of the common cold, but people in Iraq have to worry about getting an incurable disease that EATS THEIR FACE!!! Oh man that sucks! No worries though, I will be bathing in 100% DEET every day for 6 months. When I get out of my bath I will be dripping with DEET and dress that way, no drying off. I am not coming back with NO FACE! Okay, okay, very funny, no face is better than my face yeah I get it Linda Biddle. LOL LOL LOL LOL!

Back to work Monday.