Good News from AJ

AJ called on Sunday to chat. He is finishing a semester at Fuller in Pasadena, Ca., a non-denominational seminary. AJ will be taking a physical fitness test before starting a Chaplain Candidate program. He can take three years to be ordained and won't be deployed in the meantime. Whew! What a relief...I have been on pins and needles about him being redeployed. He did one year in Cuba and that is enough. AJ feels as a chaplain he will surely be deployed, but hopefully we will be out of THAT place by then. A chaplain is a non-combatant. According to the Geneva Convention a chaplain cannot carry a gun and shouldn't be shot at. (Tell that to Al-Qaeda). A soldier is assigned to protect the chaplain. So he/she gets shot, too. I am hoping he is assigned to a US base to do counseling with the poor families struggling with a loved one involved in the senseless war. AJ has to decide what church to be ordained in for the Army to sponsor him. He has very definite ideas about what he believes in, which don't exactly conform to any established religion. I am looking forward to him performing any necessary preacher functions in our family, like marrying, burying, etc. And good news...he is flying home in September and will take me to Vermont Sheep and Wool. I'm thrilled to have help setting up, taking down, and someone to drive me there Friday night after work. Best of all, we will spend "quality time" together.