Another Chaplaincy Update!

It's time for another Chaplain update! It has been a while since I have had anything worth mentioning about it, but after a phone call a few minutes ago, I have a lot! I had a lot of questions about my eligibility, ministerial experience, and the Chaplain Candidacy Program. I just got off the phone with the nearest Chaplain Recruiting office, and here is what I found.

For my eligibility, I was (and still am) concerned about my knee. I have a permanent profile (for non-Army folks, medical documentation laying out physical limitations, to be reviewed every five years) which states that my running is at my own pace and distance, and that I use an alternate event for the PT Test (I walk instead of run). I AM still fully deployable-- I am able to run, but the pain it causes is the reason for my limitations. However, if deployed, you betcha that I will run if under fire! So needless to say, my concern is my ability to pass my commissioning physical. I was correct in my assumption that I would need a medical waiver, and I was given advice to try to track down my medical records currently held by the VA and request a copy. Once I have acquired all applicable records, the Chaplain Recruiting office will forward the records to a doctor who does the physical and get a preliminary verdict. Because of the current shortage of Chaplains, as well as the nature of my profile, my chances are fine, though not certain.

I found out that I have two options for the Chaplain Candidacy Program: I can either accept or decline tuition assistance. If I accept, I will owe the Reserves four years as a Chaplain before going to Active Duty; if I decline, I can skip those four years and jump straight to Active Duty once I have fulfilled all of my requirements. Let us look at each option:

• Reserves (accept tuition assistance): The tuition is fully covered, so financially the only issue is rent and bills. It also, however, means four more years before I can collect an Active Duty paycheck. Boo! But the plus side is that the two years of ministerial experience is much easier; first of all, it is only required to go Active, so that gives me an additional four years to get it out of the way. Secondly, four years in the Reserves can substitute those two years, although if I can get some full-time ministry during those four years, that helps my application for Active Duty. The drawback is I have four more years in which I have to find a way to survive financially! (But if I can get a full-time ministry position, that will certainly help!)
• Active Duty (decline tuition assistance): Financially more burdensome, but not impossible. I do have $10,000 available from the Reserves for tuition, and student loans are not impossible to pay off, especially with an Active Duty paycheck, especially once I am an officer. I also have the rest of my GI Bill, though I am hoping to transfer that to Deanna, though as long as one of us is using it, it doesn't matter who as long as it helps pay for schooling for one of us! Active Duty also would require those two years of experience to be gained during my three years of Seminary, which would require a full-time leadership position at a church before being fully qualified for such a position-- a hard sell, but not impossible depending on the church and pastor. My Seminary years would definitely be more stressful, but the light at the end of the tunnel would come four years sooner than in the Reserves.

I also will have five or six years during which I can be in the Chaplain Candidacy Program, so it is not impossible to get my ministerial experience done during and after my schooling, though it would depend on discussions with my Chaplain Advisor. Also worth note, I do not have to choose right away; I can use my $10,000 of unrelated tuition assistance, and if, when it runs out, I look at finances and say "WHAT am I DOING?" I can still opt to accept the tuition assistance and do the Reserves option.

Phew... that is complicated! So anyways, the quick summary is: after getting my B.A., I'll need about three years of Seminary, and depending on my path, either four years in the Reserves, or any remaining time needed for my ministerial experience before I can go active.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. Sort of... not the official holiday, but for me, it might as well be. I am just reminded of how blessed I have been, so this morning I spent some time to reflect.

I am thankful for...

...my wife. Ten months into marraige, I have two more months to claim the title of "newlywed," and I am loving it! My marraige is also put into perspective by the marraiges of several of my friends. Two couples I know who were married relatively recently are either seperated or divorced. I don't know the details, nor do I particularly want to know, but it is enough to really make me thankful for a wife who loves me, especially in this age of acceptance of divorce. As for me, I take my vow seriously: til death do us part!

...my family. My only sibling and I are very close despite a decent age difference; how many brother/sister pairs are likely to be each other's Best Woman and Man of Honor? That says it all. My parents are also very supportive of me, and have always been fair, and they always will be there for me. I am closer to my extended family than ever before. On my wife's side, I know my sister in-law more than I thought I would get to since she moved out to Oregon shortly after we did, and during our recent trip to Ohio, I felt very comfortable and "at home" with the extended family. I can safely say that I have no quarrels with any family members on either side.

...my faith. While I have had some extreme highs and lows, my faith has never wavered. It has been tested, but never completely broken. When I am especially close to God, life is at its best. When I am not as close as I should be, returning to where I need to be always seems to make everything better, even things which would seem to be unrelated, like finances and relationships. Through it all, I know that I have placed my trust in a savior that will never falter even when I am not at my best. A very comforting feeling.

...my country. While I am not as patriotic as I used to be due to the decay of America's moral foundations, I still love my country and am thankful to be a part of it. Even though our constitution has been wildly misinterpreted from the intents of our founders, America still remains a country where at least I am not persecuted for my faith, which is much more than many Christians can say about their own countries. The more I delve deeper into American history at school, the greater my respect for our beginnings and the greater my appreciation for what our forefathers had to go through to make our country a reality.

Happy Independence Day!

This weekend was my first 4th of July since 2003 in which I was not at work. I was not home in Oregon, but I was in Ohio with the inlaws, and that is more than good enough for me! There is just something so refreshing about celebrating our nation's birth on the same day that I meet with family and do not shave, sit on a bus, or play music in a concert that is stressing out my leadership just prior to fireworks.

We had a great meal during which I used a fork and knife for my ribs after watching the others at the table to see what was "appropriate" for the crowd, although had I watched a few minutes longer I would have seen some of the guys use fingers and therefore avoided a comment about how I was the rare guy to be civilized. We also had Mel's Macaroni Salad-- Deanna's mom's recipe. She gave Deanna the recipe, and it is a family favorite. At the dinner table, we also heard the shocking news that her grandmother's "lady fingers" (actually they were "closepin cookies"-- she liked to use the wrong name) were not actually homemade like everyone thought, but were actually store-bought! She sounds like she was a very tricky woman who I would have loved to meet.

We finished the evening out with fireworks at the local minor-league stadium. It was nice, though I was annoyed that people stood and removed their hats for God Bless America (it is NOT the national anthem), and that the REAL national anthem was not announced when it played first in the fireworks display. But I have discovered that I care about such things more than the average American, especially after the last several years. This year was my first year adjusting to a "normal" culture, and it really showed.