God Cares About All Things

This should have been blogged months ago.  No excuse for it taking so long.  It shows God cares about even the things we don't think he would care about.

I had arrived here in Kuwait and was going through what we call RIP (Relief in Place) / TOA (Transition of Authority).  It is the process that units go through when handing off the mission to another unit.

The mission here is such that I have Soldiers in my brigade that are scattered through out Kuwait and through out the region.  As part of the process of handing off the mission to me and my unit the outgoing brigade chaplain had the battalion chaplains take me on a tour of their AO.  This required traveling around Kuwait.

On one of the travels I was taken up to the Iraq / Kuwait border where I have a unit that process convoys through the boarder.  It was 6 years prior that I had gone through the boarder.  It was kind of an interesting feeling.

When we were getting ready to leave that evening I had taken my Blackberry out of its holster and was using it.  Just before climbing in the car I set it up on top of the car.  Finished preparing to climb in the car and then did so, not realizing I had left my phone on the roof of the car.  We then proceded to turn around and drive off.

We drove over speed bumps through the gate and then sped down the road.  About five minutes into the trip I realize I do not have my Blackberry and then realized I left it on the roof of the car.  So we whip around and speed back to the boarder, hitting a huge pot hole along the way.  Over more speed bumps and we arrive back to where I climbed in the car.  I was praying and hoping that I would find my phone on the ground unhurt but at that point I just wanted to find it.  It has all my contact info and I did not want someone, to get a hold of that info.

As I climb out of the car and begin to look on the ground where the car had been parked one of the Chaplain Assistants climbs out of the car on the other side and yells across the car to me and says, "It is still on the car!"  I said, "What?"  She repeated herself.  I said, "No way!"  I turn around and there it sits on the car.

I rejoiced and gave God the glory.  I have a saying, "God protects fools and children, and I am not getting any younger."  God cared enough to protect the information on my phone along with knowing how much of a life line it is because of Yahoo Messenger that I have on it.  It was amazing that it held on and there was no ledge or anything to prevent it from falling off.  I believe that simply the hand of God held it in place.

Qatar

Being in the unit I am in and deployed to the Middle East means that I have Soldiers and units scattered across the region. My responsibility as the brigade chaplain is to ensure religious coverage for all my Soldiers. I achieve that through various ways. One way is what I call a site visit. It is where I go and visit another camp then the one that I live on. A recent site visit took me to the country of Qatar. It is a small country off of Saudi Arabia south of Kuwait.
It was one that I fought against going. No just kidding this was a trip that I could not wait to go on. In fact I fought to go for the fact that one of my beautiful daughters is stationed down there. Cherish is deployed with a medical logistic unit to Qatar. I can't tell you the pride that I have in my girls. They all serve or served in one way or another. Either as a Soldier or a spouse of a Soldier. I am indeed blessed.
I spent the days down in Qatar visiting my units and since my daughter works nights I would go to her office area and spend the evenings visiting with her. It caused me to recall the times I worked or served with my Dad. It has been such a highlight of my time here knowing that Cherish was deployed with me. Though seperated a bit and we don't get to see each other all the time it has been still a special time.

On my last day there Cherish and I took an MWR trip in to Doha. Qatar was and somewhat still is known for its Qatari pearls. So in the top picture you see Cherish and I standing in front of a giant pearl on the water front of Qatar.

The gold market or Gold Souk was amazing. It was literally streest lined with gold. The gold here is typically very pure and is sold by the ounce not by the piece. The gold sold here tends to be 18 to 22 carat. Beautiful hand made intricate pieces. The price is quite high because of the purity and selling the gold by the ounce.

I did find some beautiful pearls sets. I think De'Dee will look beautiful in the set I got for her. Shhh it is her Christmas present. LOL No she already knows. She likes knowing what her gifts are. I have never understood that part. It has something to do with the excitment of knowing instead of faking.

We then went from the Gold Souk to the Old Souk or Old Market. At the Old Souk there was about anything you wanted. To include restuarants and various shops.

One of these shops was the hunting Falcon shop. They still use Falcons to help in their hunting. What they hunt I am not sure but they were amazing birds to see.

As we were leaving the Old Souk to head to a dinner at a local resturant I snapped the next picture of Cherish in the market. The lit tower behind her is actually the top part of a three story building. The bottom part of the building has a bank. I cannot remember what was on the second floor but the third and final floor which you see a part of with the tower is a mosque.

The local food was very good. Cherish was not impressed that I was attempting to take her picture while she was eating. Obvious by the look she is giving me. Kind of Dad, knock it off and let me eat.

It was nice to see something other then what is inside the wire of Camp Arifjan but in many ways it was just another middle eastern country.

The trip there was made worth while in the fact of getting to spend time with Cherish. The memories that were made being a father and a daughter are ones that last a life time.