suicide training and the NE Patriots

Tomorrow is day two of my ASIST training. ASIST is a suicide intervention program used by the army. I'll be certified to teach it to my battalion leadership. My presenter looked and talked and had the mannerisms of David Letterman. Sometimes I laughed to myself as I imagined Dave doing the presentation. Helped make the day go faster. Doing it all week. At least we get to wear civilian clothes.
What is hard about the training is that it takes me away from my soldiers for a week. I am feeling more and more "part" of the 2nd chemical battalion "red dragons" now. I am beginning to recognize faces and names and am at ease going just about anywhere I want. I have the authority (and expectation) to stick my head in any office and say "hey, hows it going?" Sometimes that leads to a longer conversation, sometimes nothing comes of it. I will say that more than once I've had a significant conversation after fighting the temptation to not go the extra mile or take the easy way out...kinda like, "eh, I don't feel like walking across the field to check on the 44th company, I'll just head back to my office..." This followed by a gentle, but firm feeling of conviction (God speaking). That, sometimes, followed by my obedience. The other day that exact thing happened and when I walked into this particular office I heard, "Chaplain, I'm so glad you are here...."

It was truly a privilege to be there as a young man earnestly asked Jesus to forgive his sin and give him new life. He prayed "the prayer", I prayed after him and at the end got up to give him a high five. He was hesitant, which made me assume the worst, but I had to laugh when he said he had to go back and finish the prayer because he forgot to do the "forgive me of my sins part". I gave him a bible study book on transportation, no transformation ( I was talking to Keri as I was typing) which he went through. He also made an effort to go to church on Sunday. I'd like to connect with him this week but see above about the suicide training.

The Souzas went to a carnival on Saturday night. We had fun, but the days of enjoying rides that spin me around 100mph are slowly fading. I had fun but round 2 of the spider nearly knocked me out.

I'm trying not to think about the Patriots. I was watching it in a deserted bowling alley on post. Some loud, friendly, obnoxious guy who innocently doesnt realize how obnoxious he is came in right as Bill made his fateful decision and made no bones in expressing his opinion. He was especially proud to call Reggie Waynes name before he caught the winning TD.