Proud

We just got off of commo blackout, so it's been a couple of days since I posted. But it has been a great couple of days. Yesterday, I preached at the Gospel Service for the first time, and I think it went very well. The Gospel Service is different than what a typical Lutheran service is like, but it is a very cool service. They do an altar call, which I did, being the chaplain for the service, and we had three people come forward to receive Christ, as well as others who came forward for prayer for other things.

Last night we also had a Interfaith Praise service, involving the choirs from the various Christian services on the FOB, including the Gospel Choir, the Contemporary Praise Band, the Catholic Choir, and the Liturgical Choir. It was amazing. The music was incredible. I looked around the room last night, and it was a glimpse of America: people of all colors and various languages. We had some Roman Catholics from India, some Hungarian Soldiers, a Muslim convert to Christianity from Indonesia, Asians, and Americans of all kinds. It was, in my mind, a vision of what we're fighting for as Americans- peace between peoples of all kinds. It was also a vision of heaven... Christians from so many different backgrounds, together, praising God.

While the songs were all Christian praise songs of some sort, the closing song was a soldier favorite: Proud to be an American. While it's not specifically a Christian hymn, of course, it was a perfect way to finish the evening. We're not proud to be Americans for nationalistic reasons, or because we think we're better than anyone, but we're proud to be Americans because of the ideas America represents: freedom, equality, opportunity, peace, and the freedom to worship God without hindrance. That certainly reminds me of what I'm doing here, and makes me proud.