Six months apart from the people you know and have shared your life with for a good amount of time can have an interesting effect on your friendship with them when you go back to be with them again. Don’t ask me how, but it can.
It wears on me…even though my deployment is only 179 days (as compared to the Army and Navy’s year-long tour of duty), I have missed some pretty huge church events, holidays, and social functions that otherwise I would have attended (and probably taken for granted the ability to do so). It’s good to see that the youth group is making tremendous strides as a group and as individuals in their walk with Christ, but physical separation from them means it’s happening without me. I would have loved to have been a part of it, and now when I go back it’s going to feel so different.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m less or more spiritual than anyone else. I just feel like this deployment has been highly effective in me “missing the boat,” so to speak, on a spiritual “regeneration” at Lakeside Church. I’m sure there are new people there I haven’t even met yet, methods and means of ministry have changed, and people have formed more intimate friendships with each other, while I am 5,960 miles from where everything is happening.
I sorta feel like I’ve been hung out to dry, and that’s mostly due to the simple fact I’ve been deployed. I honestly hope and pray that when I go back, folks will realize it’s going to be so hard for me to just go back to the way things once were in all our friendships…and they’ll understand and bear with me as I get back into a normal routine and try to become involved with everything again. I’m also kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place though, because when I go back, I’m only in Virginia for six months, then it’s goodbye Newport News, hello Springfield.
So as you can see, coming back to the States will be pretty sweet, but there’s a lot of stuff to work on when I get back. And I’m not talking about my car either.
My friend Zandy, who I work with at Langley AFB, sent this to me. You’ve got to read all of these…I laughed so hard I cried, many times. Then Chuck Norris came and roundhouse kicked me in the face. I survived, but only because Chuck Norris had mercy and said “I will let you live.”
Question of the Day: Is it ethical to tell one side of the story in any situation, to display any type of bias, or focus on one extreme when telling a news story? We all know how liberal the major U.S. networks are regarding the war in Iraq. But shift to the opposite side and consider us military broadcasters over here, trying to get the message of the good that is going on in Iraq, back to the American people. Are we basically the exact opposite of the liberal networks, pushing our own agenda and propagandizing by telling only the good side of what’s going on, or are we doing a good service to the American people by showing them a side to this war that they won’t see on the civilian news networks? Is it propaganda or a carefully fought information war?
It’s a tough question that demands an answer, and I hope to have that answer when my 179 days over here is done. But for right now, let me know what you think.
If you need to, view some of my news stories to get a glimpse of the kind of reporting we do over here. Then compare that to what you see on the major news networks each day.
After some modest tweaking and messing around a bit, I decided to finally set a new theme for this website. Thanks to Marco van Hylckama Vlieg and Christoph Boecken, the theme “Lush” has now become the official look for The World According to Chris Brewer.
Not only did I go with this theme for it’s design, but it also has a couple of nice features…such as the Readability setting on the top right hand corner of the sidebar, and also a live search function. No more hitting enter every time you search for a phrase or word…just type it in and wait a second, and it will show up in real time.
How do you all like it? Is it good, bad, etc? Hit me with your comments.
Just thought I’d post really quick to let you all know I’m gonna change the look and feel of the blog soon. After keeping this theme for the last four months, I figured it’s time for a change. Expect a new look for the blog within the next week.
I love the NCAA tournament. I was fortunate enough to catch the Northwestern State-Iowa game live, a game that Northwestern St. won 64-63 off an improbable three-pointer with 0.5 seconds left.
Check out the video below, and see how tough of a shot it was.
Did I mention how much I love the NCAA Tournament???
WARNING: The following post contains a graphic description of the reality of war, and daily life in Iraq for many. Read the entire article at your own discretion.
I’m back, and I am here today by the grace of God.
Yesterday we convoyed from the International Zone to a local town in which soldiers from FOB Mahmudiyah handed out Beanie Babies to kids. Of course, I went along to gather some footage for a news story.
If you’ve ever seen The Matrix Reloaded then you no doubt have seen the freeway scenes in which Neo, Trinity and the Keymaker dodge the police and the agents in their Escalade. Riding down crowded Baghdad highways can feel just like that…especially when traffic stops and the convoy drivers have no choice but to drive in lanes of oncoming traffic. What a surreal scene…oncoming drivers dodging and pulling over to the side of the road while the convoy barrels through. Then before you know it, the traffic jam’s over so you go back to the correct lanes again.
Traffic rules are completely thrown out the window when it comes to military convoys. You drive to save your life, not to obey the laws.
After we got out of Baghdad, I was absolutely shocked and stunned at what I saw. I’ve left Baghdad many times, and I know Iraq is a nation that lives in utter poverty and squalor, but I had never seen ANYTHING like what I saw yesterday on our trip to Mahmudiyah. We traveled down side streets, and we saw garbage everywhere…lining the streets outside of homes, piled up in people’s yards, and making its presence known wherever we looked. Kids played in it, dogs licked it, and adults just stood there looking at their neighborhood overcome by garbage, and another foul presence that we encountered…
I know you’re probably thinking, “Oh man, here we go, ANOTHER attempt at a forum?” Yeah, it does seem kinda lame that I’m on my third try here to get a forum going on the site (I haven’t had one on here in eight months), but yes indeed the forums are back up and their focus is entirely different.
Instead of being a standalone forum, focusing solely on Christian issues and catering to one specific age group…I’ve decided to create the forum to sort of help out the blog a little bit. Anyone of any race,religion, creed, background, etc. is welcome…just know that the forum is made from a Christian standpoint. My hope is that we can get a tight-knit community of people who just want to share thoughts, post whatever they feel, and kick back in an environment that the blog doesn’t necessarily offer.
Simply put, the blog is where I voice my thoughts, but the forums are for you to voice yours. So why not join the community and have a little fun???
