I Fly Away

Dear All,

We are experiencing bad sand storms here. You would not believe the inside of our car. When I get in it to go somewhere I have to turn on the windshield wipers to clean the sand on the wind shield so I can see out. It is nasty!

I was up and off to church this morning before going into the center. Our music tends to be the more contemporary worship songs and it is lead by a very humble young man. The worship team consists of troops from the Army, Navy and Air Force. They do a good job of leading the worship time. We had sung a couple of contemporary songs and then he went right into the old hymn I'll Fly Away. I grinned from ear to ear as it took me back many years to Irving Bible Church on Finley Road. I remember well one Sunday probably in the late 70's the choir was singing I'll Fly Away and a dear friend Rick Knight was in the choir that Sunday and was truly enjoying and worshiping as he sang and the memory of him was forever etched in my heart that day. When I think of him I always go back to that place. It was fun to stand there this morning a half a world away from Finley Street and remember such a sweet memory. Rick Knight you blessed my heart today.

The center has been unusually quiet and slow the past couple of days. The main thing the troops want is the Internet to instant message with their families or phones to call home. There is almost always waiting lines for those. Our snacks are pretty slim picking these days. We are grateful for all the Girl Scout Cookies that have come our way. If we did not have those some days there would not be hardly anything. The PX runs out of stuff so quickly and they limit us to buying only two of many items. Chips and things like that! I know I opened at least fifteen boxes of Girl Scout cookies today and I believe Angela did at least that many herself. It does not matter what we put out they eat it.

We had a USO tour come through today also. It was Operation Hoop Talk! Basketball coaches from several colleges. They walked through the center and visited with the troops and sign pictures for them. It is always fun to have surprises like that for the troops. They were supposed to be in Baghdad but the dust storm kept them in Balad. Fortunate for us!

Well I just wanted to say Hi. I am trying to write more frequently and give you more of the daily flavor of life in Iraq. Pray the sand storms go away. Sand Storms also mean mortar attacks so we need the sand to just stop blowing.

I love you all dearly and thank you for your support.

A Big Happy Birthday to my Johnny. You're the best!
In His Mighty Grip,
Linda