John will be having a torn meniscus repaired on the 29th. Please keep him in prayer as he goes through this with out me. He will spend 24 hours in the hospital and then go to the Hospitality House for a few days of aftercare. Pray for a good outcome and speedy recovery!
Just a quick update on John. He turned 42 on the 17th. He has taken a trip to the DMZ, can't wait to hear about it. He was awarded Volunteer of the Year. We are planning on his being home before the 15th of June and leaving for Utah around the 4th of July.
I had a blessed day today. I started at my normal time and headed for the bus stop this morning. I was reading more of the book Fasting that you sent me. I am really enjoying it and I think I am going to try to fast for twenty-one to forty days. I am not sure yet. I am ready for God to work a miraculous thing and revival on this base. We did have a wonderful trip to Seoul today. We took six children up for the Bible quiz competition. They walked away with two master quiz; and two first place team awards. I did feel for one young lady as she knew her stuff and was the best there. But because the rest of the team got sick and did not show she participated as one person. She was given third place. The other two teams she was up against had more than one player. Here is where I like Rangers better. We have a formula to even the teams. I feel that she should have been the first place winner. She outscored the rest of the members by a hundred points. But the program is all about team work and they play by those rules. I will suggest something to the headquarters. I do not feel it is fair to the smaller clubs. If they do not have three in the same book they are penalized.
Over all I feel that our clubbers did an outstanding job. After I got back I went to the Hospitality House and said goodbye to another brother. I will still give him a big hug tomorrow. I am getting closer to going home, I can tell as I keep saying goodbye to those that got here right before me.
Commander John E. Hall Not-A-Rock
But he (Jesus) said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise." Luke 19:40 (The Message)
I had an opportunity to go with some folks from the praise team to Seoul today. We rode the train up to Seoul. Then we walked around and found a Pakistan restaurant to eat at. The meal was wonderful. It was a buffet and the best part was the desert. There was a variety of items to eat. There were four different types of meat, and three vegetables. The interesting vegetable was like a puree soup of greens with chunks of cheese. You ladled it over your rice. After dinner we walked around some of the shops in Itchewon. There was one store that had a lot of ship equipment. There were about twenty different sextons. There was even five of the speed control post. Like the ones you see in the older movies like Titanic. After the stores we went to Starbucks and had a coffee before starting back. On the way back we started a quick tour of the war memorial. We got to the main entrance and saw the sign for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The rest of the folks did not know they were there. I got an email on Thursday night about the exhibit. So we all decided to go in. I had seen them in a museum in Jordan. Well I will say this was a better set up then I had in Jordan. It was in the basement of the museum and the first part was a video about how the boys found the scrolls. And they had the original pots that they were in sitting there. The next part showed the map of the country and where they were found. The next room was dark other than some special light. The scroll of Isaiah was rolled out in a glass case. The linen wrap that it was found in was in there also. In the case across the room was a section of Exodus and some plates that they made off them to study the manuscript. The rest of the rooms had mosaic maps and pictures that are from the same area of the original discovery. It was very wonderfully laid out. I would recommend it to you if it comes to a museum near you. I would definitely like to see it again. The main reason I would like to see it again is so I can read what all the displays were. This was all in Hangeul and none of us could read it. After we left we rode the train back to Songton and that is where I left the group. I walked back to base and the team went to the Hospitality House for the evening.
I had a blessed day as we were the noisy Americans that were singing praise songs every place we went. Oh I forgot to mention the train station stops in the basement of the largest mall over here. There are four floors and it covers four blocks. We spent an hour in the music section alone. We checked out pianos, guitars, drums and we were singing as someone was playing on all the instruments. We even got some applause as we left the piano store. I do not know if it was because we were leaving or he liked us singing.
You all have a blessed day in His will.
Love , John
Commander John E. Hall Not-A-Rock
But he (Jesus) said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise." Luke 19:40 (The Message)
This is what John sent in an e-mail to me: We had a blessed weekend at the retreat. God is totally awesome and He moved in a wondrous way. We were all praying and I, for the first time, stepped out on faith and read scriptures that were given to me while praying. After I gave the scripture three others gave the ones laid on their heart and they were all in line with the same theme. God is awesome. I just thought it different for me to do that. I am praying that God will use me more for his service. So I guess this is the start. I will be obedient in what He tells me.
Greetings - this is Kathy. I thought I would give an update since John doesn't have the time right now. This weekend he is on a retreat to a prayer mountain - I think that is what he said. I hope he will be able to share his experience with us some time this week. Between work and his involvement with the Base chapel he stays really busy. But that is a good thing as it keeps him out of trouble! He will be returning home for his mid-tour leave on the 12th. We have been blessed with the ability to return to Alaska for 5 days to renew our residency and visit with friends. We are so looking forward to the cold, snow and most of all the Northern Lights! John will return to Korea after the first of the year. He will return home in June to pack us up and move us to Utah. Blessings to all, Not-A-Rock written by Kathy per POA!
It is hard to believe that I am almost half way through the deployment. I was happy to be able to purchase my plane ticket to come home. We once again are in the middle of an exercise. It seems that is the only time I have to spare. I am currently attending a financial management course on Mondays. I am teaching the Tuesday night Bible study for the men. We are going over the book 'Every Man's Battle'. I am a Co-Commander for the Wednesday AWANA's clubs. I am very busy running and filling in where needed. It is more work then I was expecting. I now understand why the secretary did not want me to have a club of my own also. However I did sneak in and get a club by default. I am now co-teaching the Trek and Journey club that meets on Thursday night. The previous leaders left this month. We have not been able to find two leaders yet. I was attending to get an idea how the club was run so I could get more experience. I am still setting up and tearing down all the sound equipment and running the board for two services on Sunday. I do have some others that I am training so when I leave on mid-tour there will be someone here. I do get to slide in and enjoy the preaching of a third service on Sunday. The only thing I do in that service is listening to the sermon and I am one of the users that count the offering.
I am doing well. I am busy but I think that is one of the things that help the time go by. I have been looking online for a church and some houses in the Ogden, Utah area. I have been in contact with the Royal Ranger sectional commander. There are three outposts in the area. Two are small and only have the younger age groups. The third is a fully functioning outpost and even has four active Expedition Rangers. This will be a good thing for Nathan. The church that has the Ranger program also has a school with over 600 in attendance. I have been looking and praying that God will direct our path as to where He wants us. I know that God is in control and He will reveal His purpose to us as He needs. I am learning to trust and follow more. I am looking at how to finish my education so I will have a job when I retire from the military in three years. Kathy has been after me to finish for a few years. I just need to do it.
I was looking at the site for the church and I was happy to see some faces that I recognize. I know that the church is growing and there are a lot of new folks that I will get to meet in a month. I hope you all have a blessed holiday this weekend. If you can find a few veterans around there and I know there are some in the church give them all a hug from me for the sacrifices they endured to get us to this point. I have heard numerous horror stories about this place just twenty years ago. If you get a chance check out the following web site about Veterans Day.
Hello to you all, Well today has been an interesting day for me. I went to breakfast and one of the guys that I went to NCO Academy walked in to the dining area and proceeded to tell me about his day. I tried to brighten it up for him he did not like that. His day did not start well - the base has a policy that the last person and every fifth from the last has to report for a urinalyses at 0500 in the morning. Well he got woke up by the First Sergeant to take care of this. By the time he was done and needed to walk back to the dorms God decided He needed to wet the grass, with some mild to heavy rain. By the time he had made it to the dinning hall he was soaked. Like I said I tried to brighten his day. I even tried again as I was leaving for church after we walked to the dorms. He now had his umbrella and was smoking. He did not like me anymore than earlier. We all need to be ready to talk to the ones that are having a bad day and try to brighten their day some how. The world is watching all of us and they are waiting to catch us in a slip. We need to be above reproach with our walk. That does not mean to be unapproachable. Jesus said to be in the world but not of the world. We need to go with these folks on the streets to find and meet some of the lost. I had a good Friday night as I joined up with a local Baptist Church that was doing the series "The Way of The Master". They had just finished the series and were going to put what they learned into practice. I had heard about it through some of the folks in the chapel. So I was down there and I was approached by two different people and they wanted to witness to me. I told them that I knew what they were doing and that I wanted to join them. I should have led them on and see how they handed it. I guess that night I needed to be saved by these folks. After they left, the guy I was with and I, walked and we tried to look for someone to hand out some tracks. We ended up at the Hospitality House. It is a house that is ran by missionaries that cater to the military. They have home cooked meals and games on Friday night, then the meal and Bible study on Saturday nights. It is a good alternative to going to the bars downtown. I started the Bible study "Every Man's Battle" on Tuesday night. The first night I demonstrated how we give up part of ourselves and absorb a part of the partner we are with. This helped demonstrate the oneness of sex. I also used TV theme songs to demonstrate how fast we can remember certain triggers. The main one for me was "The Walton's" I can remember setting down with the family and watching the show. I also remember the trademark sign off. But just the first notes take me back. Well the devil is just as conniving. He will use sight, sound and touch to take you back to a time "he" had you not God. He will remind you that you did certain things to break you down more. Normally he plays this trick when you are at a low point in your walk. You need to make the decision at that time who you will follow, and remember he does not have a gun to your head. You just might have where you will spend eternity on the line. While I was in the first service the chaplain asked what was special about today. Well not knowing better I raised my hand and let the congregation know that I was celebrating my 18th wedding anniversary. He congratulated me and asked me to pass that on to my loving wife. Then he said what was special was that it was Agape Sunday. So I did not have the correct answer that he was looking for at the time. After all was done with the third service and we were putting the equipment away the praise leader asked if anyone was celebrating a birthday. I informed him that I was not celebrating a birthday, but I was celebrating an anniversary. So he invited me and three other guys to go to Chili's for dinner. It was a nice time for fellowship and I had a wonderful meal. I hope you all enjoy reading this I will try to be more diligent about writing more often. Love you all in Christ, Commander John E. Hall Not-A-Rock
But he (Jesus) said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise." Luke 19:40 (The Message)
