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| Hi everybody! It's Syttende Mai, Norweigan Independance day, that holiday that every Norweigan remembers and very few other people have even heard about. I'm not Norweigan myself; I guess I'm just lucky enough to have been around enough of them at various Lutheran churches that some of the Syttende Mai spirit has rubbed off. This morning I read about how the Norweigan people declared independence and wrote a constitution back in the very early 1800s, but that independence wasn't recognized until Sweden finally accepted the independence in 1905. I wonder how long it will take for independence to take hold in Iraq? I wonder how many decades longer it would have taken if we weren't here?
One of the common questions from back home has been, "How does real life over there compare with what the media is saying?" Honestly, I haven't seen much of what the media has said lately, so I can't make a comparison. I can only tell you what I see, and you can compare for yourself, I guess. I'm more than willing to answer any specific questions about life in general, if you have them. We had our first combat casualties this week. Thankfully, no one was killed, and only one person was seriously injured (and he's expected to recover). We also had our first "critical incident" that involved waking me up in the middle of the night. I won't give you details, but I will tell you that it was an incident where several people could have and should have, given the circumstances, been killed except for the strange, unexplained malfunction of not one, but two very powerful weapons. This malfunction was not an accident. Your prayers are protecting us over here. Thank you, and please keep praying. God be good to you! |