The Thanksgiving meals were over abundant. The contracted food service people here do a great job in making it special. They're from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other Asian nations and they are very skilled in carving melons, baking intricate breads, molding butter into shapes, and ice carving. I even saw an alligator made out of pineapples, with pointy crab legs as his jagged teeth. He was about 7 foot long! I hope to post some photos.
I got to serve the meal at lunch time for a couple hours. Several of the officers and senior NCOs volunteered to work the chow line, dipping, and ladleing, and scooping onto the Soldiers' plates.
At 1100 this morning we had a combined worship service. Let me back up...
Yesterday morning I fell out of bed and was stumbling along the rock trail to the shower chu when I noticed a billowing tower of thick, black smoke in the near distance. As I cleared the Hesco barriers I could see that the smoke was originating from the building that housed my TV studio...plus the theater, an MWR center, gym, coffee shop, several small offices, and the chapel.
Come to find out, the building was indeed on fire, completely gutting the building. We were wondering, among other matters, where would we do the Thanksgiving service. Plus, what was the condition of all of the musical instruments and sound equipment that were in the chapel.
As things would have it, country music star Aaron Tippen was here Wednesday night to perform for the troops on a USO tour. The MWR folks decided to leave up the stage in the main gym, and to provide us with instruments and such that they had in storage, so we could have our service. And they have set aside a room for us, with instruments, to have our services every Sunday. What a blessing!
So, we executed our worship service which was a combination of the contemporary service I regularly attend and the gospel service. I didn't play for the service, but I wish I had...I just couldn't commit to the extra practices. The contemporary "Spirit of the Rock " band played two songs in our style, the gospel "Spirit of the Rock" played three in their style, but when the two groups came together on stage, it was simply wonderful. Not only was the music so much better, but it was a grouping of Christians the way Christ intended...people from all sorts of backgrounds coming together in praise. It was truly an amazing thing to see. The songs were interspersed by prayers of thanks lifted up by the Chaplains. It was a very nice event.
So, in between all of that, I did my regular work: press releases, powerpoint slides, working groups, meetings, etc. Sort of an unusual Thanksgiving. But I was so thankful to have it.
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