FELLOW SOLDIERS- TOUR DEVOTIONS 2.

The Apostle Paul often called the believers traveling with him 'fellow workers', which is understandable, yet he also called them 'fellow soldiers', which is more of a challenge to understand considering Paul had often been on the wrong side of the Roman army. What did Paul notice about soldiers that could be applied to living as Christians? The New Living Translation defines a soldier as 'a person on active military service'.

*A person- male and female are both qualified to be part of God's army. We met many women serving in the US military. One lady, a Lt. Col., pictured with me, was responsible for Human Resources and her job was to safely get all the soldiers safely in and out of Kuwait and onto Iraq. She's in the National Guard and had also deployed in the first Gulf War.
*Active- there is no room for passengers in an army, everyone has to be involved. Our liaison officer Woody's job was Mortuary Affairs officer, ensuring that the remains of the soldiers who had been killed were returned to the USA with as much dignity as possible.
*Military- there is a battle between good and evil, it's not for nothing that the church is called the army of God. We met a number of soldiers who were out on patrol each day in hostile territory, and we came home from Iraq to Kuwait on an 'Angel flight'- carrying the casket of a fallen soldier who had given his life the previous day, killed by an illegal explosive device.
*Service- Serving is at the heart of Christian life and at the heart of army life. Time and again we met military personnel who just wanted to serve God and Country and were proud to do so. Some pay the ultimate sacrifice. Compared to them, the sacrifcies we make are trivial. Here are the crew, along with Chaplain Peter Fischer in the middle, the tour was his vision, and Lt. Col. Wood, our liaison officer on the right.The picture was taken inside Al Faw Palace, previously a residence of Saddam Hussain and now US Army HQ Iraq.

Comments

[Joan Young/Godgrl Gomer]

*big welcome home hugs*

[Jessica Stanton]

I am a wife of one of the soldiers that was privileged to worship with Third Day at Camp Victory, Iraq. Jim was thrilled and blessed to have the incredible opportunity offered by Third Day to play one of the songs with the band during the concert. What an amazing blessing it was to have Third Day go there and encourage the many soldiers! Thank you for doing that. It gives my heart joy to hear how blessed Jim was during that concert. It gives me more of a peace of him being over there. Thank you, thank you, thank you! ~In Christ, Jessica Stanton