It's been almost two months since I last wrote. I arrived back in Okinawa after a very successful exercise and experience in Korea, which I shared in my last email. In the six weeks that I've been back on island I have continued my involvement in a very cool Christian community called the Harbor. It is a ministry/hospitality house run by Cadence International (a missions organization who ministers to the military throughout the world, where there is a US base, there is a Cadence ministry nearby almost without fail). This has provided the ministry outlet that I'd been longing for a few months ago. The Harbor is led by a pastor named Mark. He has a deep love for Jesus and the Truth, and has a very effective teaching ministry (he has a wife and three daughters too, please pray for them and their ministry to me and other service members like me). The Harbor has recently started small groups and my friend Jim (also a communications officer, and lieutenant, but in the Army ) and I have the privilege of leading one for single guys. We are examining "The Best Question Ever" (self-proclaimed of course, by the preacher/author Andy Stanley). The question is this, "In light of my past experiences, current circumstances, and future hopes/dreams/aspirations, what is the wisest thing God would have me do in this situation?" It is partly based on the verses Ephesians 5:15-16. Please pray for the group as we examine this and grow together as men of God and followers of Jesus, and pray for Jim and I as we have the privilege of being in leadership positions that afford us the opportunity to invest in peoples' lives in a small group/community setting.
Typical of when I've written my past emails, I'm either on my way back from somewhere or getting ready to go somewhere. This email proves no different; tomorrow I leave for Thailand. The circumstances, however, are quite different than the joint military exercises that have taken me throughout this region of the world, and I couldn't be more excited/thankful for this opportunity. I am actually going on a mission trip through the Harbor to work in a couple different orphanages that a missionary couple run in the Chiang-Mai area. As I seek God's continual call on my life, I can't help but think of my passion for Missions being in there somewhere - which is directly related to the joy, love, grace, passion (list goes on) that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given me.... and my desire to share that priceless gift with others. This trip will be a way for me to examine that further. While that may be a benefit that I get from this experience, the truth is that this trip has nothing to do with me and everything to do with God and His glory. Whether me and my other team members go to Chiang-Mai for the next two weeks or not, God is at work there, has been at work there for a very long time prior to our arrival, and will be for a very long time after we leave. But you know what the really amazing thing is? We get to share in the His Kingdom work for this short time. Amen.
Despite the impersonal nature of this email, I request that you reply and let me know what is going on in your life. I love hearing from anyone on this list and responding on a personal basis, so please do so if you have the chance. That should do it for now. Fight the good Fight of faith, and press on towards the Goal. - Philippians 3:14.
In Him who is able to do immeasurably more,
1stLt Steven R. Haack
If you wish to keep reading, please do. Significant spiritual insight follows from friends of mine on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are two of my best friends in the Marine Corps, and they are training each respective country's military/police to defend against terrorism. Listen to God at work in their lives and be blessed by them as much as I have. It is truly an honor and privilege to call them my brothers in Christ, and brothers in arms. Furthermore, be encouraged that these are the officers that are leading this Fight.
From Afghanistan:
I am sorry that I have not been better about writing. Things are going well, pretty low key. I have been on a COP that was shot with harassing fire but that is about it. I get to go outside the wire on patrols a few times a week. I was moved from a little COP out in the mountains to a bigger base because the Afghan staff needed work with their logistics. It was fun being up there because it was more like an infantry type billet, but it is still good down here. I am keeping busy, but still have enough time to get a good nights sleep; spend time with the Lord in the word and in prayer; and do a little bit of reading. This is a huge blessing, I thought that it was going to be so busy that it would be tough to get that stuff in.I just finished reading Watchman Nee's "Sit, Walk, Stand," and thought of you much. Like most of the books that make a lasting impression on me, I disagreed with it most of the way through, but by the end began to digest what the author was getting at. I have taken to the Puritan writers who have more of a bent towards laboring to kill sin, Jonathan Owen says, "If you are not killing sin then sin is killing you." The more that I have thought about it, I don't think that these two concepts are necessarily at odds. We must be sanctified though the strength of the Holy Spirit or it is merely self will, but we should labor towards that end eagerly pleading with God that the Spirit might work in power in us, and knowing that the battle is won.
From Iraq:
Things have been much more busy with the job lately. We have a lot of different things going simultaneously. It has actually been nice because we've actually been able to accomplish some tangible things. The past couple weeks we've captured or killed several key terrorist leaders, some of whom operate beyond Iraq. I was intimately involved with one of these and it was great to actually do something for which I've trained. I am extremely thankful for the opportunities that my job presents, but it is typically very passive, so it was great to be actively involved in securing this country rather than instructing the Iraqis on how to do it.
The high op tempo has kept my team split up for the most part in several different locations, so meaningful conversations have been more limited. It has been frustrating. After the conversation I spoke of in my last email, I was hoping I would be able to follow up with guys shortly thereafter. But God has been faithful to bring the opportunities in the past, and I believe He will continue to do so on His timeline, not mine. I have to learn to be at peace with that without growing complacent or losing my sense of urgency. This has also made my time with Lord more difficult to guard, and I have not been as jealous for as it I should be. Pray that I would be disciplined in this.
[After conversing with a friend who has had lots of questions about the Faith]
I admitted that there is plenty of emptiness in churches in America where emotionalism has become a substitute for truth. There is a equal amount dead intellectualism. But truth, when understood, should awaken the deepest passions within us. I went back over my testimony once again, emphasizing how life changed when I realized that fact. I took him to several passages in which we are commanded to to be joyful. I took him to Jesus' life and showed him who He really was. He could go toe to toe with the intellectual giants of His day, never back down, and shred them. He could then go play with kids, spend time with prostitutes, and spend all night in prayer and worship. He could go voluntarily to a cross, the thought of which caused him to sweat blood, without wavering. Then He could break down in tears over His dear friend. And it was all driven by love for us and for His father. That love made Him strong and it made Him passionate.
