The Return Home

During this past week Kristin Harty, reporter for the Delaware News Journal, published a series of articles titled, “Losing Stephen.” I worked with this family for several hours when they came to observe their son's Dignified Transfer at Dover Air Force Base.

I remember too well their grief. But I also shared in the joy of Stephen’s story. I was the first to view the DVD that Stephen made just weeks before his death. He just wanted to tell a second grade class about his job in Iraq.

Kristin did a great job with this story and I encourage you to go to the link on the right titled "Losing Stephen". Plan for two or three sessions to interact with the story.

Kristin also interviewed me. I was not allowed to tell her that I had worked with this specific family but she did a great job of capturing an important part of my job as well as my heart. You can find that article at the link on the right: "The Return Home."

Emphatically - YES!

A good friend recently asked, “Are you doing what you want to be doing?”

My answer? Emphatically - YES. This is a great job, except for the HR's. HR’s are the shorthand and politically correct way of referring to flights that carry Human Remains home from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.I have met something over 400 of these flights in the last three years. Too sad, especially when they just keep coming and coming with no end in sight.

But I have no need to focus on the HR's.

I get to focus on the living, breathing and vertical young people who must be entirely focused on the HR's. I have the opportunity to help them change their focus just a little: from Devastation to Dignity; from Horror to Honor; from Remains to Respect; from Fatalities to Families.

This death to life message is familiar and comfortable. It is confirmation and completion of my original call to ministry: “Preach the Word ... Do the Work of an Evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4: 2,5

Doing the work of an evangelist is another whole topic but for this: I have never spent so much time with the unchurched, under-churched or formerly churched. I have never built deeper or more honest friendships and I have never seen the hand of God more clearly. I have not once shared the Four (or Five) Spiritual Laws, I have not taken anyone down the Roman Road and I have yet the opportunity to ask “If you died tonight, would you wake up in heaven?” But, amazing as it might seem, I have put multiple young people in touch with a living God, I have prayed for and seen miracles (big and small) in their lives, and I have known the joy of deep spiritual conversation in which the God of the Universe has participated.

Am I doing what I want to be doing? Am I doing what I should be doing?

Emphatically - YES!