“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”

Acts 4:32 (NIV)

The sight of a large truck being loaded with household items will elicit the following prayer from me, “Lord, thank You that this truck is not parked at my house.” Our family has moved many times because of my husband’s military career. After each move, there is a tremendous push to put things away. Inevitably, I run out of energy and cannot face another decision on where something should go. Therefore, piles of items remain in various rooms to trip over or maneuver around as we settle into a new place.

One such pile was in the middle of my bedroom floor. It contained seventeen pairs of my husband’s shoes, boots, and sandals. I did not want to put his shoes away, but he could not put his shoes away since he was deployed to Iraq with an additional four pair of boots and one pair of running shoes

His shoes were a constant reminder of his absence and how desperately I wanted him to return safely so I could berate him in person about his extravagant number of shoes. I was unwilling to face the pile of shoes, because I could not face him being so far, far away. When I told my youngest son that Daddy was far, far away, he replied, “Zeke go far, far away!” I wished we could, but we could not.

My husband collects both shoes and coffee cups. My parents’ neighbor collected so much more. He moved out of his house after living there for 30 years, and his children discovered he owned thirty-two coats and three anvils. The children were unsuccessful in their attempt to convince their father that he did not need three anvils.

Watching the excess of unused items being removed from her neighbor’s house, Mom was inspired to clean out her basement and give away all the strange gifts she had received from me. I told her to donate it all, except for the saber. You never know when you might need a saber…probably as often as you need an anvil.

Mom planned to donate the gifts to the thrift store where she volunteers. All the money earned at the thrift store is used to send Bibles to countries around the world. Yet, donating these items was difficult for her, for she felt as if she was “giving away a small part of someone she loved.”

We all keep piles in our life that we are unwilling to face. The piles may be in our basements, in our cabinets, in our attics, or in our hearts. We must ask ourselves if we are holding onto these things for a useful purpose. Do these items inspire us to pray or give thanks? Do we truly need them to reinforce our memories and hopes? Can we give away something we value for someone we value more – our Savior Jesus Christ?

The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12: 15-21) describes the imbalance of storing up for the future while not being rich toward God. When we trust God to provide for us in the future, we do not need to hold so tightly to what we have and are therefore freed to meet the needs of others in the present.

Dear Lord, You have provided for me abundantly and I have so many blessings in my life. Help me to understand the value of my possessions and awaken in me the awareness of other’s needs. Grant me the energy and the perseverance I need to transform my blessings into blessings for others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Application Steps:

Evaluate your belongings and locate items to give away or sell. Find someone in need and bless them. Sell items online or at a yard sale and donate the money to a ministry you feel prompted by God to support. Donate items to a thrift store in your area that supports the Lord’s work.

Reflections:

Do you need all of your possessions?

Does someone near you need assistance?

Can a church today have “no needy person among them”?

Power Verses:

Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV) “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Acts 4:34-35 (NIV) “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

This past summer, I attended a writer’s conference which emphasized the benefits of blogging because you capture a story, idea, or thought as it happens. (Dale was so happy to hear that he was right.) They termed it banking your writing ( a new way of saying: keeping a journal). Later, you rework the writing for a specific purpose: devotional, teaching, article, book. “Book” was too overwhelming to me, so I started with “devotional.” With my mom and many others praying for me, I hope one day “book” may be possible.

For now, I am focused on blogging and devotionals during my writing time. Hopefully, I will not fall off the wagon again. It gives me great joy to know my writing has made someone laugh, ponder, or pray. I thank you for reading and I sincerely appreciate your encouragement and prayers.

Gary has been with USACE in Erbil since March 2005. We farewelled Tiffany in Mosul on Friday night. I sent out a picture of Tiffany with her embroidered Engineer flag, our standard departure gift. Gary replied to the email saying he liked the flag and that he was jealous. I told him he could get one of his own if he ever actually left Iraq!

On the way to the project, I snapped a picture of a field of sunflowers. I know it’s blurry, but I didn’t think the security team would like it if I asked to stop to take a picture of some flowers.

The project engineer, Engineer Nawzad, gave me a tour of the ongoing construction, along with Gary. In the photo below, I am leading, followed by Engineer Nawzad and Gary. We are in the courtyard of the main police headquarters building. From the look of the photo, I appear to be saying something really insightful like “Look at that dirt”.

The quality of the construction and the professionalism of the contractors are very high in Erbil and Dahuk. I always appreciate the opportunity to visit their projects. Earlier this week, I went to a new project in the Sommer neighborhood of Mosul. We went early in the morning before the contractor had arrived to get a look at the foundation work. After we returned to FOB Marez, the contractor called Nazar, the project engineer, to tell him that the Iraqi Army wouldn’t let him work on the site that day. We had to make numerous calls to get things cleared up for the contractor to get back to work.

That’s why it’s so nice to visit Erbil and Dahuk. We generally don’t encounter the security problems there. But on the other hand, we do have to worry about picking out paint colors.

Our project is to build a new immigration building. So we drove up to Rabiyya in our REVAs to take a look at the project site. In the past, this same drive would take approximately 4 hours because we had to avoid most of the major routes heading west out of Mosul. But because the security situation has improved, we were able to take a much more direct route and arrived in Rabiyya after driving for only a little over 2 hours. Unfortunately some Iraqi government officials from Tal Afar were killed by insurgents on this same road earlier this week. So the improved security comes and goes right now.

To get an understanding of the project, we basically walked the route an Iraqi would take if he were crossing the border into Syria. Here we are heading into the first check point for border crossing processing.

In addition to my normal security escort, we were supported by Eagle Troop, 3/3 ACR. They live at COP Heider right on the Syrian Border. It was pretty quiet this day because the POE was closed. Notice the lack of any traffic in the photo below. The large yellow arch is the actual border looking from Iraq into Syria. Compare how empty that is with the number of trucks lined up to cross the border in the first picture.

After spending about 30 minutes on the ground, we went back inside COP Heider, used the latrine, drank some GatorAde, and got ready to head home. We discussed the project with LTC Preskitt, the US Army Officer who runs the POE Transition Team (POETT). The POETT is a group of US Army personnel who advise the Iraqi Army unit responsible for running the POE. Unfortunately, the project is currently on hold while the Iraqi commander of the POE tries to get more funding to increase the scope of the construction project. After that discussion, we had the fun of another 2 hour drive in the REVAs to get home.

I have a dream. In this dream a construction project goes smoothly from start to finish.

The lunch venue ended up being the Hawler Water Park. Erbil is also referred to as Hawler by most Kurds. The water park is a public park owned and operated by the government in Erbil. The main attraction is a giant pool with water slides. Fortunately for everyone around, I did not bring a pair of swim trunks.

We arrived at the park a little early. So while we were waiting for the governor to arrive, the park operator showed us his bowling alley. How many people do you know that have gone bowling while deployed to Iraq? Maybe the Army will have to take back my Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) and Danger Pay (DP) for that day. Since I get $100 per month for HDP and $225 per month for DP, I stand to lose about $10.83 for one day. I definitely prefer the danger pay the Aussies receive!

It took me a little while to get warmed up. But I blame that on having to use an alley ball. It didn’t fit right and kept slipping off my thumb! COL Pfenning looks like he has spent some time in bowling alleys in the past. After the governor arrived, he and COL Pfenning bowled 5 more frames together. Governor Nawzad uses the brute force approach to bowling and slings the ball down the alley as hard as possible. He reminded me a lot of Jeff!