the church in iraq

I thought some of you might be curious about how we worship while deployed. There is Servicemens Group Leader called and he coordinates with the military chaplain who then helps him out by providing resources for him like reserving time in the chapel, making sure Soldiers are aware of worship times, and sometimes they can provide a list of members who designated themselves LDS to find out some of the ones in hiding. The group leader usually holds a one hour sacrament meeting and a 1 hour family home evening during the week. The group leader is definitly not meant to function as a bishop, he cannot administer the repentence process like a bishop or collect tithes among other things. Members can be asked to give lessons, and home teach, though I havent seen that because work usually doesnt allow time for home teaching. I was told in Kuwait by the group leader there that there is a stake that covers kuwait and iraq. There are 3 of us from our ward who received the Bishop's permission to be group leader if needed but officially it will depend on the stake who gets chosen. THe unit we are replacing is still running things and there are alot of members. there were about 30, 3 were female. We are on the chaplain's worship schedule right next to all the other mainstream services, meet in the same chapel and sometimes fill up more aisles. We are definitely a mainstream religion in the military. Although we are still not allowed to proselyte to Iraqis or other local nationals here. I got here late last night and was lucky enough to find the chapel right when the LDS group was a half hour into their service. I was afraid it would be in some other location across the base but it is right across from where i work and live.

I am on the outskirts of tikrit. Again this is one of the largest and well developed facilities in iraq so i still can not get over how good we have it. It is also because I am on a division staff instead of down at the company level like the first deployment. I know there are some folks who are having it really rough because they are doing patrols or even worse just drive trucks back and forth across iraq day in day out. They need prayers more than us. The General Lindsey was talking about is the current commander of the 1st armored division. He (and we) are responsible for the northern part of iraq. He has 2 sons serving in iraq so i have lots of respect for that.

We live in Container Housing Units which are just what they sound like: a rectangular container. I will have a roomate. LTC and higher get a room to themselves. It has a bed with a real mattress n0t an army cot, wall locker, nightstand. Its like a dorm room. Some people are really hooking them up by buying dressers, TVs X boxes, you name it. It is even possible to have internet and satelite tv but there are some approval processes from chain of command and they are paying out the nose. I am too cheap for all that. I did not leave my family so I can make AAFES rich. AAFES is the company that tries to sell you a new car and Harley on the 1st day of a 15 month deployment. Okay, again my time is up.

Hans