Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sunday

Before the main service at First Presbyterian of Augusta I attend a Bible study in a separate building across the street. Today we arrived slightly early and I was the only one in the room for a few minutes and I took this picture. The message this week was on sound doctrine out of First Timothy 1. The first point was the root of doctrine, or "What principles lie behind your decisions?" Secondly the fruit of doctrine, or "How is your relationship with others characterized?" And lastly the pursuit of doctrine, "The resolve to follow God at any cost." After the study I cross the street and go upstairs for the service. We always sit in the balcony. Today the church was packed and even though it was cold outside it was real hot inside. I had trouble staying awake.






The other thing we do on Sunday is haircuts. Everyone must have a fresh haircut, in regulation, by the first formation of the week. Here one of the "barracks butchers" is giving a haircut.
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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Results

A few days ago some senior top leadership had a big talk with the whole platoon and let anyone voice any problems. The guys with the most complaints shouldn't have been talking at all. The results of this is problems snowball. When someone on top is mad he yells at his subordinates and the problems just get bigger as they come down hill. At the bottom they hit the lowest guy the hardest. In this case we are the lowest guys. Some straight up stupidity resulted. People complained about being punished in ways only those farther up the food chain are able to be punished. The result was a "surprise" pt test today and tomorrow. The reason it was surprise and no one was told was so that people wouldn't go get a profile so they could skip it. If you fail a pt test you get a negative counseling and you get punished either way. Quite a few failed. The other thing that resulted was we now have a roster that we have to sign out and back in whenever we go anywhere, even when we are released. Even with this new system we still had a failure to report at a normally scheduled formation. This is the stupidity that results when people complain to their bosses boss.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Posible Opertunity

Since I have returned I've had quite a bit more trouble memorizing then when I was at home. The main reason is that I am really never alone and I couldn't bring myself to work on memorizing in front of others. At the schoolhouse there is allot of down time where the class sits around with no instructor and talks. I don't involve myself in these conversations because they are mostly about real childish or perverted topics. I've tried to lead conversations about interesting topics like politics but its futile. Yesterday I was encouraged to try working on memorizing. There where a few awkward silences where they were pausing to see what I was saying to myself then it would start up again. I was able to redeem some of that time reviewing chapters I have memorized and learning a new verse. Later that morning while on detail with one of my classmates I was asked about it. This gave me the opportunity to recite some of what I had been working on to him. Please remember to pray for the men and women in the service that do not know God.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

has caused me to re-evaluate my purpose and direction in life. I have always had the idea that someday I would get a degree, a job or business, marry, and live a similar life to that of my parents. The problems that my actions were a result of my immediate focus on short term: What can I do to look good? What will be fun/provide adventure? What am I being asked/required to do? This book helped me focus my daily actions on long term results. I have always struggled with discipline and a general lack of direction. As it says in Proverbs 16:3, "Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established" The idea there is in order to receive that direction in life, to have that vision, to have plans established by the Lord I needed to commit individual works to Him. In my war against my undisciplined aimless actions I have some new weapons: "How will this affect my leadership ability / marriage / family / children / grandchildren?"

There are many more lessons in this book that have to do with a good leader, this is just the one that has made the greatest impression on me. I have been struggling with where am I going and how am I going to get there.

This is defiantly a five out of five. For maximum use I recommend going through it with a friend you can talk through the issues it presents.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

In the Company of Heroes

The true story of CW4 Durant, a black hawk pilot who was shot down and captured, this book was real encouraging. Flying in the most elite unit of pilots in the world with some of the most elite "customers" on board Mr Durant was on top of the world. He had thousands of hours behind the instruments and had the feeling that he was untouchable. "Little bullet, big sky" is the term he used to describe his attitude going in. Then he was almost ended. The tail of his helo was hit by an RPG and he fell out of the sky. The ground impact broke his back and right femur. Summing up the energy to live five minutes at a time he survived unimaginable pain for days.

A true statement is that Mr Durrant loved to fly helicopters. He clearly shared that in this book when recounting how he came to fly for the 160th. The whole truth about the 160th is rather morbid and frighting. He not only tells of the drive and rewards but also the high price tag that comes along. Because of his love for flying his home life suffered.

Over all I give this book a 4 out of 5. I couldn't put this book down for several days and read it on all of my free time till I finished it. "There are no atheists in foxholes" is a true statement and is demonstrated here. I would have given it five out of five but it has some "army" language in a couple of places. Overall it is a real encouragement to have good resolve in the face of any trial.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Unfortunate Pain

Shortly after we returned we were doing some barracks maintenance and I was moving a ceiling tile above my bed. Standing on the windows seal I slipped and fell and my right knee hit the lock on the desk. I've been riding exercise bikes, playing racquetball, and running hoping it will loosen it up but it just seams to be hurting more. I've got a few guys together for a run tonight, we're going eight and a half miles. I'm praying it's not injured just bruised. I don't want a knee injury, we're thinking of running another half marathon in a month or so.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Cheater, Cheater...

I've been accused of being a cheater at everything I do. When playing risk online I find friends to play with so we can better our chances of winning, I demonstrated how to break WEP wireless encryption to someone here, and in other ways I've gotten into or out of different things in clever or less than straightforward ways. I've developed a reputation that I got called out for last night. I don't how bad of an accusation this is. Please pray that I'm honest in everything I do.

Steve and I are working to memorize a verse each day. It has been twenty three days since we started. I had already memorized the first eight verses of James one at the beginning. Now I have the first chapter down and the first two verses of the second. I am amazed at how quick I am memorizing even just doing one a day. So far I am two days behind. I should have done the fourth verse today. Pray that I catch up and we stay faithful.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Praise God

Thank you for those who prayed that I would stay on mids or swing shift. Even though the sleep schedule isn't ideal, the day schedule around here is even worse. For the instruction we receive the six hours we have each day at the school house is plenty. I think we have allot of down time on our time at the school house, the days have two hours more each day. That is two hours less for sleeping, reading, working out, etc. Our pt is later in the day from days which makes so it isn't so cold. They form up at around 0400. We form up for PT at 0745 and don't march out till usually 0830. But more than anything we get to keep our room. If I had gone to days I would have been put in a 12 man room with inacts and other days which are held to a lot lower standard. If we were moved to swings I would have had to move floors and loose my two man room. Staying on mids is exactly what I wanted.

Another subject for praise is they fixed the heating on our side of the building. Shortly before we left for exodus they said it was fixed but we never spent the night so we didn't know. When we got back it obviously wasn't fixed. Yesterday when we got back to our room it was slightly warmer. I still sleep with a skullcap on my head and fully dressed but now it's warm enough I don't wake up freezing. I am real thankful for both of these things.

Once again, thank you for praying.