The Long Awaited Call

Well, its finally official.  On Friday, May 15th 2009, I got the call I'd been waiting for.  It came in the middle of my graduation rehearsal.  It was from CH (MAJ) Sifferd he said,  "Congratulations Chris. You've been selected for Active Duty Chaplaincy."  

I was smiling ear to ear.  He said I should be hearing from the Chaplain Accessioning officer in about a week.  He will be giving me my first assignment.  

What a weekend.  I was able to celebrate the

 finishing of my degree (Masters in Divinity) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and being selected as an Active Duty Chaplain in the same weekend.  This was the culmination of over 6 years of hard work and God's grace in pursuing my call to the Chaplaincy.  Wow, I can hardly believe its finally going to happen. 

Christina and I couldn't be happier!  Now we are just waiting to hear where we will be moving to.  I have to finish up the 2nd half of the Army's Chaplain School (called CH-BOLC: Chaplain Basic Officers Leadership Course).  I completed the first half back in 2006 when I was still a Chaplain Candidate.  Now I get to go back and finish it as a official Chaplain.  I will be attending the school at Fort Jackson, SC from July 12th through August 28th.  7 weeks apart from my hunny.  Not looking forward to that!   Hopefully she will get to come out and see me once or twice on the weekends.  

Then in September its off to our first duty station.  We put in our preferences in this order:

1) Fort Carson, CO (Colorado Springs)

2) Fort Dix, NJ (about an hour east of Philadelphia)

3) Fort Bragg, NC (Fayetteville... like anyone NOT in the Army knows where that is =)

Sometimes the Army is able to match up their needs and your preferences and sometimes they can't.  We will wait and see what they give us.  There are a few bases that I'd rather not sent to, but we'll deal with that if it happens.  

So for now we are packing.  Our lease on our Chicago apartment is up at the end of the month.  We will move our stuff into storage and live with Christina's parents in Wheaton, IL for the month of June.  After that, I will be at training and Christina will stay with her family until I am finished and we can move to our duty station.

We will be saying good bye to New Life Community Church in Chicago (www.newlifechicago.org).  What a great place to have called home for the past 5 or so years.  Thank you Pastor Kevin for all the hard work and mentoring you've done for me.  We will miss all of you guys especially our small group and the Sunday Night Service at Lincoln Park.  

Hopefully we will get some more news soon.  Till then,

God Bless