A Brief Return to Kandahar Airfield

I recieved notice that my background check was completed and that I was cleared to recieve a CAC card. CAC Card is a government ID Card that can be used basically like a Passport. It shows how slow things can be with the Government as I have been here for two months working and I have finally passed the background check!

Anyway, so last night I hopped on a C130 at 1030 in the evening and returned to KAF. The last two trips on C130's were relatively smooth but this one was very abrupt in nature. Quick take off, and I mean quick and quick flight and then a quick hard landing and an abrupt stop. I felt like I was playing the game "Luggage" that the kids play sometimes when they are bored in the back seat of the car. Leaning back and forth as the vehicle makes turns.

I don't know if I described it in the past but a C130 is not built for comfort. You sit in net seats sideways, shoulder to shoulder with your neighbor. No seat assignments, no window seats, no toilet, no peanuts or pre flight safety briefing. You are lead out onto the runway behind the plane and loaded up the tail while the engines are still running and ready to go. You just pile in, take a seat and hold on as they start moving before the doors are even closed. It is very noisy and uncomfortable and I do not know how anybody could be on one for any length of time. God Bless our soldiers.

So we get into KAF. Get off the plane and immediately get on a bus to come around the airfield to the TLS building. They call it this as it was the Talibans Last Stand in Kandahar. When we dropped the Airborne here this one building became the hold up point for the Taliban which apperently did not work out very well for them. Through this building, grab the backpack and out to the truck to get to our Camp. Rocket Attack wooop! Rocket Attack wooop! Rocket Attack wooop! Not even five minutes here and there shooting again. Down in the dust I went, waiting one minute and then back inside the building.

There is something about this place that is just unsettleing to me. Maybe it is the busyness of it or maybe it is the unclenliness. Something about it just makes me nervous and unsettled. I woke up to go over to the processing building which is quite a ways away only to find that it is closed on Sundays for computer dowloads. Now I get to stay an extra day and I just don't like the idea of it.

I did get to go to the Bulgarian Chapel as I walked. It is completey made out of plywood and is actually very beutiful. The have a steeple on it and a big heavy wooden door. Vaulted ceiling and all of the fixens on the inside. All made from wood. It is obviously an Orthodox Church and has the wall of Saints covering the Holy area in the front where the altar is. I stood and prayed there for a few minutes.

So here I sit, in the main office at Camp Hicks. Watching all of the people do what they do. I will go check out some of my paperwork items and then go over to the little tent Chapel by the American DFAC at 10:00. I am looking forward to that time. More and more that is the best time of the days for me, when I am foccussed soely on Him. It is obvious to me why, because He is my Comforter and I can Rest in Him.

I know that I am here to do a job and that is a priority for me but I am begining to truly understand that my life is nothing without Him. That I am called to service for Him and that is where He would have me. I am anxious and nervous in the world because I see what it does, I see the reality of mans fall in so many ways. I am nervous as the business around me takes me away from Him. I will fullfill my requirements here to this company and do the best thatI can but my life is will become fully engauged in His service.

I believe that this is the feeling that brought me away from my last job and that the Lord was moving me towards Him even then. I believe that being here and reliving the same feelings but having a new perspective on them confirms what it was, that He wants me to give Him my all, everyday. It is good that I am here and it will be even better when I have completed this mission but for now I will remain faithful to my word as He promises to remain faithful to His.

All be blessed and know that I love you dearly. Pray for me and this place as I pray for you. May the Lord bring you rest and you find Him to be your only comforter also.