Sorry so long.

So it has been a week since my last post and to be honest I don't really have a reason for the delay. Things have slowed here at ODS, we have most evenings off now and we are allowed to go anywhere on the base. This upcoming weekend is our first full liberty and Annie (my wife) is going to fly in to see me, it has been about a month since I have seen her. The first week being gone was terrible, whenever she would send me a picture of her and Bella I would have a hard time looking at it because I would get so emotional. Now I have gotten in the groove a little bit, I miss them both very much but the initial shock of being gone has past and I am just doing what I need to do.

I am trying hard to understand and feel my way into what the role of a chaplain should look like. Some chaplains want to have a say in everything and they think that if there is any kind of problem the chaplain can solve it. It kinda feels like going to a church where everyone always says "we give the glory to God", but they never explain what that means and most of them have no idea what it means. What I mean is that they are going off a notion that the chaplain should be involved with everything and that everything needs to be a drawn out churchy answer instead of working hard to be authentic and someone that real people, or sailors can relate to. I don't know, I think I am rambling a bit.

It still hasn't sunken in that I am in the Navy. At every turn I think the truth is going to be revealed that this has been one big mistake and I am not really in. My pay was a little late, that must mean that I am not really in, the list of people going to chaplain school came to ODS I thought for sure my name wouldn't be there because they figured out that I am not really in. I thank God everyday that He has allowed me to be able to do the thing that I have dreamed of for the past 6 or 7 years. I hate it though that my time in Lynchburg is over, I loved it there and I loved our group of friends there.

Ok I end this post with a passage from Psalm 118,

25 Save us, we pray, O LORD!
O LORD, we pray, give us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
27 The LORD is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever

Dear Lord thank you for answered prayer. Thank you for the support of friends and family. Most of all thank you for your Son!

God bless
Joshua Earls