Baptism for SPC Mitchell (D CO MEDIC)

Not everyone comes from the same faith tradition as I do. Yet it is a sacred calling to support our Soldiers in any way that they are striving to grow spiritually and personally, regardless of their background.

In this case, SPC Patrick Mitchell wanted to declare his faith publicly, in front of his peers. As a chaplain who follows Jesus Christ, it was my great privilege to help him do so through baptism.

In this event, Soldiers got to witness how faith makes a person stronger and more resilient.  

BAPTISM:
As I explained in SPC Mitchell's baptism, baptism itself does not take away anyone's sins. It is an outward sign of obedience that represents an inward reality of the heart that one is turning away from sin and placing their faith in Jesus Christ to remove their sin and replace it with the perfect righteousness of Jesus himself. 

A Letter to our Leader Rakkasan Families

Dear Spouses and Families of our Leader Rakkasan Soldiers,

As I prepare to step on a plane today I feel the gloom and sadness of departing from my own wife and family. As I do, my mind immediately turns to all of you who have already said your goodbyes, or are going to today. And as if the pain wasn't bad enough for you, many of you have children at home who had to watch Daddy explain he was leaving for a long time and will be back soon. There aren't any words to make this separation any easier or to make it seem more tolerable. The pain is just there, and the sooner you can put your Soldier on a plane, the sooner you can get into your routine without him, and then the sooner you can forget how much it hurts, all the while marking off the days of the deployment calendar. For many of you, you've had to do this more times than you care to remember. For many of you, this is your first time. In any case, my heart is heavy for you. 

Although there is nothing I can do to take away the pain of this absence, as your chaplain, it is my sacred calling to serve your Soldier in any way I can to help strengthen his heart and mind while he is engaged in the fight so far from you. I make a commitment to you to do everything I can to be there for your Soldier and to offer him everything I am able to in way of spiritual and emotional support. I cannot ease your own sadness, but you can be assured that your Soldier will have a chaplain downrange who is caring for him, praying for him, and encouraging him in the difficulty of deployment.

As for you, my ability to support you will be limited. However, you can be assured that I will be praying for you. Furthermore, you will always be able to reach me via email. Let me know if you need me to make a personal visit with your Soldier to discuss anything specific and I'll do my best to make it happen. You are not alone or isolated. There are many people at home who stand ready to support and encourage you. All you need to do is ask.

One of my prayers is that many of our Rakkasans will take advantage of this time to grow spiritually. While we're downrange, I will be offering opportunities for spiritual growth to your Soldier. I will be doing my best to travel to each COP to visit each company on a regular basis--as weather and the fight permits. We will be having Bible studies, and I will begin preaching a series in the book of Philippians. I will try my best to upload some of our sermons to this blog so you can see what your Soldier is experiencing. Also, I will be posting to this blog different articles and devotionals throughout the deployment. I invite you to sign up if you'd like to be notified whenever I share something new. (just enter your email address in the "follow this blog" window to the right).

I know that not all of our families come from the same faith tradition. Nevertheless, this can still be a time for you to grow spiritually according to your own faith. Just like I do for our Soldiers, I make myself available to you to give encouragement in your own pursuit of spiritual growth.  Don't lose this time. Make the most of it!

I am so proud of you and your Soldier. I consider it the greatest privilege in the world to serve as your chaplain. May God strengthen you and our Leader Rakkasans as we set out to accomplish our mission.

Sincerely,
Chaplain Stone
pete.stone@us.army.mil

Promises for Tomorrow; Strength for Today Part 1

 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die.  Then they will hand him over to the Romans* to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” ^{[1] Mathew 20:18-19}

As I prepare to depart to Afghanistan for nine months, I feel the gloom of departure and separation from my loved ones hanging over my head. It’s a deep, heaviness that sits in the pit of my stomach. It reminds me of what all of us as humans confront in one way or another in our every day lives.  It’s the dread one feels the night before a big exam, or when the bills are overdue and we don’t know how we’ll make the payment, or when we’re about to find out if we have cancer, or if we’re able to have children. In one way or another, we all confront difficult ordeals in our lives.

When I consider Jesus’ final days before his death, close observation of the Scriptures reveals heaviness in Jesus.  He knew his closest friends didn’t understand or know what was about to happen and he felt alone and sad. Yet when I consider what Jesus was about to endure, I’m ashamed to say I feel skeptical of the difficulty.  I think to myself: “Well, easy for him to endure it! He’s God for crying out loud, and he knew he would simply rise from the dead!” I’m ashamed to say that I secretly think it must have been easier for Jesus to go through that ordeal than it is for many humans to go through what we have to go through at times in this world. After all, we don’t have the luxury of being GOD!

However, truth confronts my skepticism about the magnitude of Jesus’ pain and our own ability to face suffering with the same kind of poise and confidence as Jesus did. Philippians 2 teaches us that Jesus laid aside his diving privileges when he became a human (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=phil%202:6-8&version=NLT ).  That means that he became fully what we are and emptied himself of any luxuries that would have made life any easier than it would have been for any of us. In other words, as the hour of his death approached, he encountered the difficulty with as much pain and grief as you or I encounter difficulty.

At this point I ask myself the question, what carried him through? What propelled him forward into the very teeth of that horrible death he knew he would suffer?

I think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives us a clue when he says that it was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross.  Jesus’ joy was based on a reality that had not yet fully come to pass. His joy came from faith in the promise of his Father that through his death, all things in heaven and on earth would culminate in perfection. All the pain and suffering, grief and injustice of this world would be eradicated and replaced by Earth 2.0—the New Heaven and the New Earth. This promise for the future is what sustained Jesus in the darkest hour of his painful ordeal. 

I confess that such a promise—that is, the promise of the New Heaven and the New Earth—often seems far off and intangible in light of what many of us are facing today. But that might be an indicator that we have far too small a vision of how marvelous that reality will be when we finally arrive there. God gave us that promise for a reason. It was what sustained Jesus. It can—and should be—what sustains us. 

So while the gloom of departure still looms, I’m comforted to know that the promises Jesus hoped in are the same promises available for me. The same tools Jesus had at his disposal to endure the cross are the same tools available to me to endure my trial. 

God, deepen my understanding and appreciation for the significance of this brilliant truth! Please teach me more about the future hope you have given me through Christ that all things will be made perfect in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Teach me more about how that sustains me in my trials today. Give me an unshakable trust in your promise that lifts me above my circumstances and propels me forward with confidence so that I can live with joy in the face of difficulty. In Jesus’ name I pray.

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^[1] Tyndale House Publishers. (2007). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (3rd ed.) (Mt 20:18–19). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.