Thursday, February 07, 2008

Specialized Ministry

During my battlefield circulation, I visit the Latter-day Saint members of our battalion. As occasion permits, we conduct brief, field worship services, in which we bless and partake of the Sacrament: the LDS equivalent of Communion or the Lord's Supper. It is a simple ceremony, but its familiarity and meaning provide us with a profound sense of peace. Of course, our services seem woefully incomplete without the beautiful distractions common to the worship experience with our families back home: holding my wife's hand, cheerios between the folds of the pew cushions and wrestling with the children to pay attention are a few of my favorites.

The group photo above is of the of Latter-day Saint Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines who worship on Sunday evenings at Camp Ramadi. I visit SSG Risperess (pictured here in his maintenance trailer) and SPC Robinson at JSS Zeimer. SFC Stock and 1LT Denning are pictured below on the occasion of our setting apart Brother Denning as an assistant group leader. PFC Dinkel is the medic for the platoon that has moved from Hurricane Point to Cop Charlie, and recently to COP Bravo. The picture here was taken of us in his aid station, where we had our sacrament meetings. The final picture is of COL Rod Allen at the Government Center. He and I met at Camp Blue Diamond and got to know one another quite well. He's since redeployed, and is back home with his family in California.