Happy Easter!

The tomb is empty!  He is risen!  Easter is one of the most important holidays of remembrance for us Christians.  I hope your day was blessed that day remembering what our Lord did in our place on the cross being crucified (Good Friday - the beautiful scandalous night), dying, and then raising from the grave Easter Sunday!

 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you." And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me." -Matthew 28:1-10 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:9

This post is a few days after the fact...belated.  But, I'm posting something nevertheless!

I wasn't able to get many pictures Easter Day for the services here in Kandahar that we did other than this one from out in the crowd at the Easter sunrise service.  There was some media at the different services, so I hope to get some more pictures and possibly video.  At the sunrise service I lead a group of us from the chapel Next contemporary Protestant service worship band in a song that morning, one of my favorites, 'How Deep The Father's Love'.  We did it in D so one of my friends could play her penny whistle to it.  It sounded beautiful!  This song is also important to Barby and I because it was performed at our wedding when we took communion together.  This picture is after we did the song and one of the chaplains was giving a message.  This was out on the big stage at the boardwalk.  It was a really nice morning Sunday.

Here is an interesting picture from earlier last week.  On my way out of the office at the end of a work day it was really hazy outside.  It was so hazy that the sun was really blocked out and you could look at the sun without hurting your eyes.  It was really interesting and I thought was a good opportunity for a picture.

A post for Spring

Back home it is now officially the first day of Spring!  Over here, however, it feels more like summer.  It's been averaging in the 80s getting into the 90s the past week or two.

Here are a few different photos from over these past weeks:

This first one is of me having pizza at the new pizza/Italian restaurant that opened up here.  The pizza really wasn't that good.  It was a bit weird.  $13 for that small pizza!  I figured I would try the place to see what it was like once.  That will probably be the last time.  

Here's an interesting photo.  I was walking to dinner one day and noticed some police lights flashing not too far down the road from my room.  The commotion was about this used up ordinance.  Someone threw this away, which caused EOD to be called.  Fins like a bomb sticking out of a dumpster usually will alarm someone.  You can see someone wrote on it, "Hey Dumbass Butts Only No Trash!"  I guess this was being used as a butt can before it became garbage...

Here are a couple pictures of a moth I found.  I was getting ready to go to bed a few days ago when I saw this large bug fly from beam to beam on the ceiling in our room.  I was curious what the heck it was, and also wanted to make sure it wasn't in our room while I slept.  It turned out to be this big moth.  Using a broom to brush it off of the ceiling beam it hung out there long enough for me to take some pictures and let it outside.

March Update

Today felt like an early summer day, like in May, in Seattle.  It was a blue sky clear day (every day here pretty much), the sun was warm, and there was a little breeze keeping you cooled just right.  I was walking on the boardwalk back to my room from chapel, and there was a BBQ going on.  The smell of BBQ in the air with the way the day felt reminded me of an early summer day.  It was an encouraging feeling because that means I am getting a lot closer to being done over here and getting home!  We have the rest of this month, and about 3 more months to go...

Last Sunday I went to TGI Fridays over here for the first time.  I got a mudslide, boneless buffalo wings, and chicken tenders.  Unfortunately, they were out of hot sauce, so the buffalo wings were just popcorn chicken, basically.  The mudslide was virgin, of course.  The food wasn't that bad, but WAY over priced for here and what you get.  They had real silverware and nice plates, which was surprising.  Below are some pictures from dinner there with Chen and one of his friends/co-worker.

A couple days ago I was coming back to my room from work.  I noticed the sunset and the clouds looked really cool.  I went to take some pictures of it and noticed a C130 was coming in for landing right under the sunset with the rays going through the clouds.  It was pretty cool.  I got a pretty good picture of the C130 coming in with the rays going over it.  If you zoom in on the picture you can see the rotors.  I like the picture of the sunset with the clouds blocking the sun and the rays peeking through around it.  It almost looks like an explosion in the sky.

Here is a link to some of the photos I took on the way home for leave on the different planes and in Kuwait, and heading back going through Shannon, Ireland and Kuwait. The first aerial shots are coming into Seattle, the last ones are leaving Seattle (you can see the Cascades, Glacier, the Columbia and Vantage), and some of Ireland:

Home on Leave Feb 2010

Home on Leave

It was wonderful to be home for a couple weeks in February. Here is a picture of Barby, Violet and I together thanks to our photographer friend Megan and Barby's mom friends.

After enjoying time with my family on different adventures going to a few places around the Northwest, eating some good food I haven't had in about 5 months, relaxing with my family enjoying being home, and catching up with a few people, I had to go back to Kandahar, Afghanistan. I got back here on Sunday February 21st after 5 days of travel and waiting in Kuwait.

It was hard to leave again, but this last time will be the last time I have to do that. I have about 4 months left until I come home for good. The latest I can be here is mid-July, but I'm hoping we leave sometime in June.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my 28th Birthday!  Of course, I would rather be home with my family and friends celebrating it there instead of here in Afghanistan.  However, only about 5 more days to go and I will be in the process of heading back home for R&R to be with my family!

I was reading some of 1 Corinthians today and these verses stood out to me in light of my birthday, chapter 1 verses 26-31:

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

It is by God's grace and mercy that I am here to celebrate another wonderful year of life.  More importantly, that I am able to continue to grow closer to Him with the Holy Spirit working me through my salvation.  I fear God's judgement, because I am a wretched sinner, and have to give an account for my family and my sins and actions.  Only through Jesus' blood am I confident in His forgiveness and grace.

While separated over here I am learning a lot more about trust and faith.  God is also teaching me more in humility through the people and circumstances I deal with over here.

A good friend directed me to this familiar verse in Philippians chapter 1 verses 3-6:

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.      

What an interesting year this last one has been.  I now embark on the next new year.  The first half of which is going to be anything from the ordinary back home since that is about how much time I have left in this deployment.

Here is a picture of me today, on my birthday, with the 'It's My Birthday' ribbon on that my mom sent me.

Yesterday, as I was walking back from my office to my room, I noticed a giant rainbow from the NE.  It had rained not too long before I had left.  I felt some of the final rain drops as the rain clouds were just about past, and you could see them sweeping by in the distance with more rain.  This is the first rainbow I've seen over here.  I am always reminded of what God did as a covenant promise in the sign of a rainbow in the story of Noah written in Genesis 9.  It's a beautiful sign.

Left side of the rainbow

Right side of the rainbow.

I couldn't capture the whole thing since I didn't have far or wide enough of an angle to get it all on one shot, but it was a complete rainbow left to right.

Smoking my birthday celebratory cigar

One Week To Go!

Only one week from today to go until I begin the process to start R&R/leave, and to no better place than home! I really cannot wait to be home with my bride and baby girl for 15 precious days.  It is going to be a nice break.

Some of the people in my unit that have already gone and come back tell of their experience traveling back home that a VFW chapter in Texas provides a very warm welcome reception once they arrived in Dallas at the gate and in the terminal.  That will be an interesting experience.  The airlines were generous to our people also by upgrading them to First Class.  The one thing that is a for sure consensus from the people who have already gone and come back is that it is a long ride there and back.  That First Class flight from Dallas to home probably feels great after flying government until Europe and then commercial to the US.  We'll see what my experience is and I may write about it.

After I get back from R&R I will only have about 4 months left until my unit and I come home for good!  

This Sunday, the 24th, is my 28th birthday!  It is going to probably feel like another day being over here.  A good birthday present is that not too many days after my birthday I get to come home to see my family.  I did get a package from my mom and a special one from Barby with some wonderful birthday gifts in it!  Not just gifts from her, but from many of you - friends and family - back home contributing.  Thank you very much!

Many of you may have noticed this in some of the pictures of me.  One of my goals to take advantage of while over here was to lose Barby's baby weight, about 30 lbs.  It was also my baby weight ;).  In the Fall of 2008 I weighed about 220, at least I found that recorded on a weigh-in sheet in my Army records.  When I was at Ft. Dix in August I weighed in at 213.  By this last November I was in the 190s.  I'm officially at about 190 now!  I'm pretty close to the weight I was at when Barby and I got married in 2006.  I've lost over 20 lbs since Ft. Dix, and just about that 30 lbs since the Fall of 2008!  I feel great that I was able to do that and get better fit and healthier during this tour so far.  It was one thing I could do to make the best out of this deployment.

I'll leave this post with a few photos of TGI Fridays that just got completed this week.  In fact, they are opening it for service tonight.  For my birthday this weekend some of us in the unit are hoping to go there for lunch sometime and check it out.  We don't have much else to do around here!  I'll get some pictures of the food and it busy during operating hours if we go.  It is going to be busy these next few days of it first opening, for sure.  All of us are still perplexed how a TGI Fridays got over here.

The front entrance, right off the boardwalk

Another view of front with the other sign

These signs are all lit up at night

This is right as you come inside and looking to the left. Notice the bar ready to be setup for all the booze.  However, instead of booze it is stacked full of just mixes for their virgin blended smoothies.  No booze here...

          More pictures of the inside. It really looks like one from back home inside. This will be the nicest spot in Kandahar for awhile.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  Goodbye 2009, hello 2010!  This means the end of my time over here in Afghanistan and the beginning of me being back home for good is getting closer.  January is our half-way point.  In about 27 days I go on R&R leave also!  It can't come soon enough...

For New Year's Eve I planned a big party for our unit plus other friends we invited.  We had a small ceremony for promotion and reenlistment, and then a lot of food, music, karaoke, smoking cigars, and having fun bringing in the New Year!

A funny thing happened with our food that night.  I had ordered a lot of food from this one dining facility that is more American called Harvest Falcon.  A guy with a thick accent from the UK (sounds Scottish) is the manager.  I ordered the BBQ menu, which provided BBQ ribs, hot dogs, hot wings, salad, dessert, drinks, etc. not a bad setup.  So, all food is suppose to leave the DFACs "cooked," even BBQs now.  They failed to mention that meant cooked but chilled.  We had picked up all the food, brought it back, set everything out, and were pulling the trays out of the hot pack box that holds all the cooked meat about ready to dig in and enjoy dinner when I realized, as I was handling the trays, that they were all ice cold along with the meat!  We were given fully cooked chilled meat.  What an important detail to forget to mention to us.  We then scrambled to figure out how to heat the meat up.  While our new acting commander ran to the PX to find BBQ briquettes, I searched around the compound we were in for a BBQ. Thankfully, there was one nearby and I grabbed some of our guys to carry if over.  Soon after moving the BBQ the briquettes arrived.  Next was figuring out how to light them.  Use JP8, diesel, gasoline, or is there lighter fluid somewhere?  It just so happens that hand sanitizer gel is flammable, and kinda worked for lighting the coals.  Thankfully, I found another BBQ that had some matchlight briquettes in it which allowed us to properly light the coals.  About 2 hours later after figuring out all the meat was cold we had found a BBQ, got coals, started it, and got all the meat cooked!  And the ribs, hot dogs, and hot wings were really good.

I hope you had a good New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  Happy New Year from Kandahar, Afghanistan!  May God bless you this New Year.

Cheers,
~Aaron

Here are some pictures from New Year's Eve:

Setting up

Part of the spread of food

Salinas reenlistment

Baker having fun being dj with his ipod

Cigars that night thanks to Thompson Cigar

Karaoke

This is interesting- there is a TGI Fridays being built here in Kandahar on the boardwalk!  We all noticed it just this week.  I wonder if they are going to serve any of their mixed drinks?...That would be nice, but probably not. Who would have thought a TGI Fridays would be built over here?

Earlier in the week there was a thunder storm with rain and hail.  These are a couple shots of the hail that day:

Out front of our office building

Hail on the ground.