The World According To Chris Brewer

Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was officially the start of the 2005 holiday season. Since there will be no snow in Baghdad, only moderately cold temperatures of forty and below some nights without precipitation, I will stand outside, close my eyes and imagine I am in the yard behind my boyhood home in Rainier, OR (yes, go Columbians) feeling the snow hit my face. Except the sounds I am hearing in real life are not snowballs with rocks in them whizzing by my ear, nay, it is the sound of distant 50-caliber gunfire. I will realize that and go back inside, pity myself for a second and then resume playing Tecmo Super Bowl on a Nintendo emulator.

Happy holidays, everyone, and it’s nice to still be with you on this beautiful 28th day of my deployment.

I realized something today…I think God was preparing me for this deployment as early as three years ago. I missed the 2002 holidays because I was in basic training in San Antonio, TX, and I missed Christmas 2003 because I couldn’t get the time off while I was stationed at Lajes. My church family took me in (thanks Pastor Rick, Vivian, Tyler and Wes) for Thanksgiving last year and I made it home by the grace of God for Christmas ‘04, which happened to be my last visit to Rainier (and probably will be for awhile). I think my previous two Christmases missed will help me because I know what it’s like to be away from my family on the holidays already. I’m already looking forward to Christmas 2006.

I watched football last night and I must say Detroit is truly a sorry football team. The Lions consistently get talented players whose skills turn to mush once they put on that silver and blue uniform. It’s sad because I’d like to see them make the playoffs sometime before I die. Just for Joey Harrington’s sake. But it’s not gonna happen, at least with him in a Detroit uniform. He rocked the house for my Ducks when he was in college but he routinely throws perfect passes to opposing players as a NFL quarterback. Poor guy. Maybe he should stick to playing the piano.

So Thanksgiving here was pretty cool yesterday. Before the meal, while everyone was in line, they played the chaplain’s prayer over the loudspeaker by the chow hall. A group of soldiers stood off to the side, took off their hats (you usually don’t do that outdoors in uniform) and bowed their heads in respect. Others followe suit…it was a nice sight to see. I had to shoot some video of the feast, and hopefully I can put some of it online for you all to see. Basically they took our chow hall and transformed it into Feast Central. They decorated it nicely too. they had this cake there sitting on a platform, and the cake was shaped like an open Bible, and had white frosting that looked like pages. The icing was meticulously detailed….it was a verse from a Psalm. Really neat stuff. Also the worship team from the chapel here in the IZ came and sang worship songs during the feast. It seriously brought tears to my eyes because I realized there were more brothers and sisters in the faith that are far away from their families as well.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and blessings on the beginning of your holiday season. God bless, I’ll update again Sunday because I have tomorrow off and I need it badly.