Currently at the R.O.B. (Rhine Ordinance Barracks) in Germany... on day 1 of my journey back to the states for my 2 week leave from this deployment! I should be getting in to Lexington, Ky around 7:30PM though it'll feel like 1:30am due to the time change (: I'll be on such an adrenaline rush seeing my family that it won't matter I'm positive!
This'll be a welcome 2-weeks home. I wasn't able to sleep last night due to the excitement and I'm SURE I won't be able to sleep tonight!!
Can't wait to see how big my little ones have gotten and how amazingly beautiful my wife has grown.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Elijah & Matt 19:14
This is ABSOLUTELY a blessing to me...
But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:14
Kosovo - Strpce Valley Sunset
We flew to the Italian Camp "Villagio Italia" last night for a mission and got to eat a nice italian dinner and walk around the camp...
This valley "STRPCE" is one of the ways to get to there... we were flying thru at sunset.
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Below is NOT the restaurant at Villagio Italia... (:
On Wednesday night, we left Bondsteel and had dinner in town at one of the nearby restaurants, "The Castle". It was a kind of bed n' breakfast - so we asked to see the hotel rooms.
The room below is 25 Euro a night. (crazy!)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
"When the Unqualified are Qualified"
Excerpt from the book: "Messy Spirituality" by Michael Yaconelli
-When the Unqualified are Qualified-
"Walking by a pet shop on his way to school, a young boy stopped and stared through the window. Inside were four black puppies playing together. After school he ran home and pleaded with his mother to let him have one of the puppies. 'I'll take care of it, Mom, I will. If you can just give me an advance on my allowance, I'll have enough money to buy one with my own money. Please, Mom, please.'
The mother, knowing full well the complications having a new puppy would bring to a busy household, could not resist her son. 'Okay, you can get the puppy, but I will expect you to take care of it.'
'Yes, Mom. I will.' Filled with excitement, the little boy ran to the pet shop to buy his new puppy.
After determining that the boy had enough money, the pet shop owner brought him to the window to choose his puppy. After a few minutes, the young boy said, 'Um... I'll take the little one in the corner.'
'Oh no,' said the shop owner, ' not that one; he's crippled. Notice how he just sits there; something is wrong with one of his legs, so he can't run and play like the rest of the puppies. Choose another one.'
Without saying a word, the boy reached down, lifted his pant leg to expose a chrome leg brace to the owner.
'No,' he said firmly. 'I think I'll take the puppy in the corner.'
It turned out that what disqualified the puppy from being chosen by others is what most qualified him to be chosen by the little boy.
It's amazing how few of us believe in the unqualified grace of God. Oh, yes, God loves us, as long as we're clean and whole and fixed. But it turns out that what disqualifies you and me from 'spirituality' - the mess of our lives and our crippledness - is what most qualifies us to be chosen by Jesus."
("Messy Spirituality" was one of the books given to me by Charlie, one of the guys in my life group at Quest - Thanks Charlie!)
-When the Unqualified are Qualified-
"Walking by a pet shop on his way to school, a young boy stopped and stared through the window. Inside were four black puppies playing together. After school he ran home and pleaded with his mother to let him have one of the puppies. 'I'll take care of it, Mom, I will. If you can just give me an advance on my allowance, I'll have enough money to buy one with my own money. Please, Mom, please.'
The mother, knowing full well the complications having a new puppy would bring to a busy household, could not resist her son. 'Okay, you can get the puppy, but I will expect you to take care of it.'
'Yes, Mom. I will.' Filled with excitement, the little boy ran to the pet shop to buy his new puppy.
After determining that the boy had enough money, the pet shop owner brought him to the window to choose his puppy. After a few minutes, the young boy said, 'Um... I'll take the little one in the corner.'
'Oh no,' said the shop owner, ' not that one; he's crippled. Notice how he just sits there; something is wrong with one of his legs, so he can't run and play like the rest of the puppies. Choose another one.'
Without saying a word, the boy reached down, lifted his pant leg to expose a chrome leg brace to the owner.
'No,' he said firmly. 'I think I'll take the puppy in the corner.'
It turned out that what disqualified the puppy from being chosen by others is what most qualified him to be chosen by the little boy.
It's amazing how few of us believe in the unqualified grace of God. Oh, yes, God loves us, as long as we're clean and whole and fixed. But it turns out that what disqualifies you and me from 'spirituality' - the mess of our lives and our crippledness - is what most qualifies us to be chosen by Jesus."
("Messy Spirituality" was one of the books given to me by Charlie, one of the guys in my life group at Quest - Thanks Charlie!)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Pictures from April-ish 2010.
Dennis awarded me the "172" hour accident free flying award... as he didn't want me to feel left out from those who were receiving their 500hr award. (I was party to one of the infamous Hunnicut incidents about 172 flight hours ago).
...a classic example of "construction" in Kosovo. The top floor of this building is made up by sticks.
Miles and I next to a foreign military vehicle.
Parking in Kosovo can be difficult sometimes... so we celebrate small victories (:
Marcus and I flew some peeps into Camp Casablanca - Austrian/Swiss base camp.
a unique piece of artwork at Camp Casablanca.
a swiss military vehicle
I think this is where they hold church service / mass... a cool place to worship! (also camp casablanca)
a working swiss army knife holds the door shut...
Marcus and I next to some more interesting artwork at Camp Casablanca.
Jeff and I were sitting in refuel... decided to take a picture (:
Amazing Grace & The Tax Collector...
The Parable of the Pharisee & The Tax Collector
Luke 18:9-14 New Living Translation
"Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector.
The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don't sin, I don't commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.'
...But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.'
I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
These are two of my favorite things to help keep my relationship with Christ in perspective... Amazing Grace, written by John Newton in 1779, and Luke 18:9-14 "Jesus' parable of the Pharisee & the Tax Collector"
A real, authentic relationship with your Creator is the only thing that matters. Everything else simply falls into place when you keep this perspective. I am this tax collector each and every day.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Crazy Dream.
See if I can type this out quicker than I'm forgetting it...
(-obviously there's always more to a dream, but this is the nuts & bolts)
Elijah (my 4-year old) and I were driving around in a car - talking and joking. We suddenly we crashed into water - a pond or lake - and sunk 50 or so feet. I was desperately trying to get out of the car AND get Elijah out of the car (because obviously I wasn't leaving the car without him). After struggling and struggling, I finally get him out. I'm completely out of oxygen and he's already passed out and I'm swimming and kicking like crazy to get both of us to the top. I'm confident that we're both going to survive but panicking at the same time because.. well... we were fifty feet under water and I had no more oxygen!
We finally made it to the top and Elijah was revived. We left there and found Nicole and Kylie (my 2-year old) and they wanted to go see the crash. When we got there, the car was only sitting in 2 inches of water- and had always been in only 2 inches of water.
So we sat there, trying to figure out how I had floated 50 feet in the air to get to the top where the lake should have been and where the shore started (as it was some type of sudden drop-off).
That's pretty much where it left off, as Nicole called me on skype and woke me from my slumber - which is always a pleasant surprise.
(-obviously there's always more to a dream, but this is the nuts & bolts)
Elijah (my 4-year old) and I were driving around in a car - talking and joking. We suddenly we crashed into water - a pond or lake - and sunk 50 or so feet. I was desperately trying to get out of the car AND get Elijah out of the car (because obviously I wasn't leaving the car without him). After struggling and struggling, I finally get him out. I'm completely out of oxygen and he's already passed out and I'm swimming and kicking like crazy to get both of us to the top. I'm confident that we're both going to survive but panicking at the same time because.. well... we were fifty feet under water and I had no more oxygen!
We finally made it to the top and Elijah was revived. We left there and found Nicole and Kylie (my 2-year old) and they wanted to go see the crash. When we got there, the car was only sitting in 2 inches of water- and had always been in only 2 inches of water.
So we sat there, trying to figure out how I had floated 50 feet in the air to get to the top where the lake should have been and where the shore started (as it was some type of sudden drop-off).
That's pretty much where it left off, as Nicole called me on skype and woke me from my slumber - which is always a pleasant surprise.
Ironman Training + flying (a LOT)
This Ironman training isn't going how I'd like it to go (: I'm refusing to get worked up about it though as I DECIDED to sign up for this race as something to look forward to and not a burden!
I'm not planning on winning it, just finishing and as I see it... I've got 16 hours and 15 minutes (if I'm the very last person in the water) to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
Yes these individual events are broken down into mandatory finish times... but big picture is over 16 hours (:
I still, as of yet, have no concrete training plan - only a mental picture of what it "should" look like. Right now, I try to alternate running and biking and going at least an hour when I do get out there. Also trying to incorporate some upper body strength training but have done something to my back or ribs or something and have decided it's best to lay low on the strength training until I'm better healed (that is EXTREMELY frustrating).
I have 18 days before I go on my two-week leave and need to make the most of my time as well because I KNOW I won't be doing training when I'm there.
Since making Pilot-in-Command, I've been busier than I was whilst TRYING to make PC. I get Tuesday and Wednesday off - but prior to that will not have had a day off in 13 days... due to both running flight operations and flying a bunch. I've logged more flight time in a week than I did the previous month almost. This is good and I'm really enjoying it... but ultimately it equals less training time.
Will post pictures very soon.
I'm not planning on winning it, just finishing and as I see it... I've got 16 hours and 15 minutes (if I'm the very last person in the water) to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
Yes these individual events are broken down into mandatory finish times... but big picture is over 16 hours (:
I still, as of yet, have no concrete training plan - only a mental picture of what it "should" look like. Right now, I try to alternate running and biking and going at least an hour when I do get out there. Also trying to incorporate some upper body strength training but have done something to my back or ribs or something and have decided it's best to lay low on the strength training until I'm better healed (that is EXTREMELY frustrating).
I have 18 days before I go on my two-week leave and need to make the most of my time as well because I KNOW I won't be doing training when I'm there.
Since making Pilot-in-Command, I've been busier than I was whilst TRYING to make PC. I get Tuesday and Wednesday off - but prior to that will not have had a day off in 13 days... due to both running flight operations and flying a bunch. I've logged more flight time in a week than I did the previous month almost. This is good and I'm really enjoying it... but ultimately it equals less training time.
Will post pictures very soon.
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