My Plans

The past week has been a long, but good one.  Our plans were to visit as many bases as possible, but only got to two because of travel difficulties.  We were stuck at one base for two nights, and at another for two more nights.  This was pretty frustrating because I was focused on getting to as many bases as possible so that I could see my troops.  Instead, however, the last base we were at only had two of my Soldiers on it.  As the window for travel to other bases closed, I felt more frustrated because I was not getting “God’s work” done.

 

Brass rounds turned into luminaries

It was Saturday night and I was walking around the base in a frustrated mood. It just so happened that I ran into a 1 LT who had a guitar with him. I asked him how long he had been playing and he said, “ever since our youth group band started.” I found out that he was in the praise band for the local chapel and he asked if I would be staying for the chapel service on Sunday. The plan was for us to be long gone by Sunday, but I was beginning to realize that we would probably be there. “Yes, we might be around,” I told him. He was very excited at the news and then informed me that they don’t have a Chaplain that speaks English (since it is a Polish base). I followed him back to the chapel and observed the praise team practicing for the service in the morning. They were all so happy to see a Chaplain, and were overjoyed when they found out that it was not just one, but two chaplains that were going to be present with them for worship. (I don’t know if I explained this or not, but another chaplain that has been in the country for a while traveled with us to show my Assistant and I around before we make the trip ourselves). I immediately felt God remind me of proverbs 16:9 “in his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
After the practice was done, the LT and my assistant had a jam session of worship music which fed my thirsty soul. Its funny how true worship awakens us to how thirsty for God we really are. We went to bed and were woken up by the Polish singers and organ player practicing for the mass at 2300. I am very supportive of practicing before we go into a service, but who does it at 11pm on Saturday night?
We woke up on Sunday morning and started getting ready for the service. As we looked through the Lords Supper supplies, we noticed a box of “Grabbin Grape” Hi-C by the communion cups. We knew that this one box would not be enough, so we watered it down a little bit, and then the Polish priest let us use some of his wine. Communion and worshipping God with Soldiers in a war zone is an amazing gift. It’s a reminder to me of just how present God is no matter where we are and what our circumstances may be.