semper fidelis

well, it's been a while since i posted last. that is because i have been gone on my annual training with the reserves and am now back and halfway settled. i was in quantico, va with alpha company of the 4th marine division, anti-terrorism batallion, who are based out of rochester, ny. there were a couple of other platoons with us from other companies out of chicopee, ma, erie, pa, and lafayette, la. all told, there were approximately 160 personnel there. needless to say, i had a very good time while there. the training started with an exercise called mout, which stands for military operations in urban terrain. this training gets the marines used to patrolling and staging assaults within general urban environments. i was one of the opfors (opposing forces) that were there to do everything we could to throw their patrol into chaos. we had a variety of tools at our disposal, including grenades (dummies with charges in them), m-16s (with training rounds), and artysims (artillery simuators to represent ied's). the next part of the training was time on the various rifle ranges, where marines spend a lot of time (which, by the way, is why all marines are riflemen and thus chaplains cannot be marines b/c we are non-combatants). from there, we ran the new cft, or combat fitness test, which is a brutal new fitness routine designed to get the marines' bodies conditioned to the physical demands of combat. finally, our training finished with us running the stamina course. this is a combination of a 5 mile run on a trail through the woods, with various obstacles to traverse or go under along the way. needless to say, after running, climbing, crawling, and hurling, i was extremely tired by the time i was done.

while there, i can honestly say that i saw more porn in those two weeks than in my whole life combined. i also heard more language than can possibly be described. the marines are known for using the f-word quite frequently. all of this made me realize a few things. in aligning myself with the mission of Christ, i remembered that He came to seek and save that which was lost. that means getting out of the church, going to people whose habits and language may or may not be something that you are comfortable with, and showing them the love of Christ. i had everything from professing Christians, to agnostics, to atheists, and even a muslim that i had the responsibility of ministering to. it took a lot to gain their trust, like sleeping on the ground in the rain alongside them, eating mre's instead of hopping in my rental car and driving to the chow hall, training with them instead of sitting back and watching, and even crawling through a trench filled with stagnant, putrid water. those things, while not always pleasant, paid off. after a couple of days there, i had marines from all walks of life coming to me to ask me very hard questions about life, marriage, religion, and the ethics of war. there also was the element of being in the world and not of it. i made a point not to "preach" to them whenever they displayed behaviour that would make the average church member turn on their heels and walk away. instead, i showed them that Christ loves them despite who they are, and that i was no better than them. this opened up the path for later discussions on the detriments of pornography, etc.

this is a mission field in the most critical sense. alpha company is getting ready to mobilize to the middle east later this year. many of them will be placed in harm's way on a daily basis while there. and there is a possibility that some of them may not come back. i tell you this so that i can request your prayers for these marines. hopefully i will have a chance to see them again one more time before they deploy. in the meantime, join me as i pray that our Father will place other Christians in their paths to continue the work that i started. pray the He will keep them safe and bring them back home. but most of all, pray that those who do not know Christ, will have the opportunity to accept Him before they leave. here are a few pics for you to enjoy.