THE CAMPAIGN
Like Caesar of old, we have crossed  the Rubicon...  And like Caesar, we do not intend to re-cross this river again...  The die is cast... 

In relation to Donna's health, it is forward movement... War to the death with the adverse things that beset her.  The surgery we fought for has now been accomplished.  There is no returning to any previous condition.  All ground is new from here to eternity.  A major campaign has been fought.  The immediate goal has been achieved.  The next action is the aftermath, cleanup and recovery and we press forward into that fray with gusto and determination.  She is fighting for her life.  I am fighting for her life and mine.  We are two years in this battle...  With the last six months, a fierce fighting for her health and survival.

I have been ministering to her for her health and survival for 7 years in my home.  Off and on, we have been fighting for her health for 30 years, since she was 17 years old.  I have tended wounds and injuries of many kinds in her and in many other people.  I have held the bloody hands of injured officers.  I have tended the fallen.  I have helped to remove the dead.  I have seen human bodies in every imaginable condition. 

I managed the health and welfare of my wife for 20 years... Tended her when she had bones so soft they would break for no reason at all... Ran Hemodialysis on her for the last year of her life and carried her to all medical treatment and handled her during any treatment process because I knew how to handle her so that she would not break...  By Grace I was able to revive her from death several times and my daughter once...  I was there for my dear wife's last moments in this life when she asked me to release her and let her go to be with the Lord...

The God of all Glory has led us all.  My daughter and I come to this place of respite and restoration.  Now the knitting back together must be experienced...  And we rest in Him for it's fulfillment.  I once would have been standing on the brink of the horizon of time gazing forward straining to see the next step...  But no more is that my method.  I have learned to rest when available...  March when necessary...  Fight when there is no other useful course...  Do in each moment what must be done with that moment.  Weariness must now be replaced with restoration...  Discomfort replaced with peace... Hindrance replaced with advantage.  Then we must solve the problem with her lower back and how it is affecting her hips and legs. 

Full victory is not yet in sight...  She is still in the hospital recovering...  But full victory shall be ours, one way or another, for we will settle for no other as long as we live in these bodies and breathe the air of the Earth.

That was my commitment to my wife when we began in 1957...
That was my commitment to my daughter when she was born in 1961...
That was my commitment to Law enforcement when I took the oath in 1962...
That was my commitment to those in need when I was commissioned as a chaplain
in 1976...
That is my commitment to the chaplains who serve under my supervision...
That is my commitment when I am running the roads looking for problems and bringing solutions as a traffic safety officer...
That is my commitment to you as a reader of this message...
That is my commitment to every Peace Keeper with whom I have contact, whether in person, by telephone, by letter or by e-mail...

I speak from first person accounts because I have been there and I know from experience.  I do not speak from theory.  A person with experience is never at the mercy of a person with a theory.

If you contact me for any reason, I will do the best that I am capable of doing to assist you in any manner in which I am able and pray for you in the process of giving that assistance just as I pray for all of you everyday.

Daily life...  I see it as either a battlefield upon which I have just won...  Or one upon which I am engaged in battle...  Occasionally it is a place of the deepest rest after the perilous journey I have just made across it.  This field of life is well described in a rendition of the 23rd Psalm...

The lord is my Shepherd… that's relationship...  He watches over me!
I shall not want… that's supply...  Everything that I need!
He makes me to lie down in green pastures… That's rest!
He leads me beside the still waters… That's refreshment!
He restores my soul… that's healing!
He leads me in the paths of righteousness… That's guidance…
For his name sake… that's ultimate purpose!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…  that's testing to instill resilience …
I will fear no evil… that's peace!
For You are with me… that's faithfulness!
Your rod and your staff they comfort me…That's protection, guidance and discipline!
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies… that's hope and courage!
You anoint my head with oil… That's consecration, His covering over me!
My cup runs over… That's abundance, more than I need!
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life… That's blessing!
And I dwell in the house of the lord… That's security, safety!
Forever… and that's eternity...  No End!

My Commander-In-Chief has well equipped me for this journey...  Provided me armor and armament for my battles...  Support when I need it...  He carries for me what I cannot provide for myself...  Plus He makes provision for what I will need.  It's all there, from water, food and rest to more than I will likely think about...  And a most enjoyable destination when it is all done!!!!  The Apostle Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit said, "Follow me as I follow Christ."  He meant,  Use me for your example...  Do as you see me do...  Same attitudes...  Same actions...  Same effort...

I use my knowledge and experiences to encourage you and entice you to apply actions and attitudes that will help you get to where you need to go so that you may experience the best that is available for you in this life as you currently serve or have served as Peace Keepers.

My major prayer for each of you today is that you might come to know more than I have learned and experienced... So much more...  That you might come to know my Commander-In-chief far, far better than I do now!

I actually think in terms of battlefields, campaigns and strategy...  I think about what I must face and how to approach it...  I see the victory before I take up the attack...  I think through the situation by envisioning the result I desire and then formulating how to achieve that result.  I know before I begin what I want to achieve.  That is my usual procedure...  It is instilled in me from initial training and years of handling crisis events...  I must always use it even if it only takes less than seconds...  Safety is first and foremost...  Provide for the safety and welfare of all who are or might be involved!

Sometimes the result is unbelievable to anyone except myself.  That is when I depend upon the information in Psalm 23 and begin the journey knowing that I have the provider traveling with me to meet the needs as they arise.  Some campaigns I can plan and carry out in each detail.  Some campaigns must be approached with the faith that I will have just what I need just when I will need it.  Faith - seeing that which is hoped for and needed as being just as real as the things I can see/feel and acting like I already have them - is doing the best you can with what you have where you are and leaving the rest to God or whomever else is responsible.

I am a planner and a detail oriented person but I have been trained by the presence of the Spirit and the written Word plus all of my experience to go the route I am inspired to go to achieve the ultimate goal even when I do not know all the details between the beginning of the trip and the end of the trip.  Plan and prepare when you can but be ready to act on whatever happens while you are making the journey.  That is a good definition of patrol.  You are looking for what is wrong or needs attention even as you are hoping that nothing serious happens... But you are prepared to handle anything that does happen to the best of your ability when and if it does.

Why do I pray for you and what do I desire for you?  I pray for you because my Commander-In-Chief in His Operations Manual for Life tells me to pray for you.  I follow orders. 

What do I desire for you?...  What He desires for you, plus whatever you need, plus peace, power, protection, prosperity, health, strength and to be so happy as to be envied by others. 

Why do I write these messages?  I write in hopes that something said will click for you and give you the opportunity for a better life than you have even if it is very good already, and no matter how good it is already.  I write because I wish someone had been around when I was young and new in peace keeping who could have and would have provided to me all that I try to provide for you.  There were no old troopers who tried to help the younger ones.  When I became a chaplain there were no old chaplains close by who wanted to help me, I had to go away to conferences and take extra training courses.   I always wanted to be involved in training the recruits and I did that for many years for my department and others.  Now I try and let the Spirit lead me in what simple thing He wants me to provide for you that might assist you.  I want to make your journey easier than mine if I can...  And I will make the effort for as long as I can.

I plowed through education and training doing the best I could to learn all that might be useful to me and others.  Much of my education was gained by personal reading and study plus working through courses to gain degrees that were made available to me.  My Peace Keeper training covers several thousands of hours.  My service in peace keeping covers 46 years of ongoing training and service as a Trooper, officer, chaplain, Chaplain Supervisor, Chaplain Trainer, Certified Police Instructor, Chaplain Director, Administrative Chaplain, Police Recruiter and Community Service Officer (traffic safety).  Even when I was a middle aged man, I ran and trained with the youngsters and did well.  Pursuit Driving was one of my most enjoyable courses during my last retraining.  In my career I have been with Peace Keepers through most everything that can be experienced.  None of that is brag...  It is just fact.  We, my Commander-In-Chief and I, want you to know we have been there in the thick of it, sometimes with other Peace Keepers...   Sometimes alone with no backup but my Commander-In-Chief to guide and assist me.

I know what it is to be in mortal danger...  Been close to having life taken numerous times.
I know what it is to face an angry mob with nothing between you and them. 
I know what it is to work with a downed Peace Keeper and hold their hand and give comfort while emergency medical evaluates and prepares for transport. 
I know what it is to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with a Peace Keeper who knows he cannot survive and looks to me for comfort. 
I know the duty of sitting in a waiting room with a family while a surgeon works for hours to reconstruct bone and repair flesh on a beloved Peace Keeper. 
I know the far away look in the eyes of Peace Keepers gathered in a Garden of Stone as we experience our goodbyes, go through Military Honors and absorb the fading notes of Amazing Grace as the Piper walks away from the grave site, or of Taps just before we all utter hushed words of parting as we leave that site to return to life, duty and our own thoughts.

In reality I know far too much from experience for a man of my age...  But there it is...
All of that, and more, is the reason I was called to communicate with all of the Peace Keepers that I might be able to reach...  To let you know that there is someone who has been where you are and made the long, long journey to the end of the career, survived and now,  I want to be of any service that I can to you...  Anytime.

My day of not returning to the street and the field may come anytime.  You have become my field over the last 32 years of being a chaplain and through the last 5 years of writing this weekly message.  When I was requested to begin this weekly writing effort over five years ago it was a fulfillment of a vision I had nursed and pondered on for years.  I knew one day I would be called upon to do this.  I just did not know how it would come nor when it would come.  Now that this assignment is being accomplished I have several more assignments that need attention. 

I hope to complete a book already begun, JOURNEY TO SEE GOD,  and to compile another book or two from messages already written.  All of my future assignments are contingent upon my daughter recovering her strength and health to the point where she no longer needs my constant care.  She is my most immediate and most important assignment as long as she needs the care, but no matter what she needs, I can carry on my assignment to care for and about you by prayer, personal contact with those close by, telephone and e-mail with those separated by distance and I can do it from my office right here in my home...  Plus other personal business that needs close attention...  All of this from a man that the system says is too old to be a Peace Keeper anymore!  I intend to be busy until my last assignment is to report to the office of my Commander-In-Chief for reassignment to the other realm for which I am destined.  Before that order comes I would like to become an Honorary U. S. Marine since I could not become one by choice and service in my early life.  Semper Fi!

On one office wall hangs a Scottish Claymore (two handed broadsword) representing my warrior/scrapper ancestry from the Battle of Hastings in 1066; a case presented by a U. S. Marine Corps Colonel containing a U. S. Marine Kabar Combat knife presented for service given to the Corps training young Marines headed for Iraq; an oar upon which is displayed a U.S. Navy Combat Knife presented by Steven C. Bronson "Chief"  - Boat Guy USN Ret. for service given in Anti -Terrorism Training Programs he put on; a presentation case containing my Glock 17, which was my last duty weapon, presented by friends in the department upon my retirement as an Auxiliary Police Officer with 29 years of service; a large number of awards, plaques and diplomas covering all of my career framed by two quadrants of flag bunting and accompanied by a display of models of the Harleys I have owned, ridden and would like to ride... Plus a red headed doll in leathers that looks a lot like my dear departed wife Sue when she was young. 

Another wall contains my plaques, awards and degrees pertaining to ministry.  All of this is there to incite memories and feed the flames of my desire to be of yet more service to any and all Peace Keepers and the Body of Believers.  If we do not keep our own fires of patriotism and peace keeping service burning, surely no one else will do it for us.

When I look at these walls I am caused to remember faces, uniforms, duty, incidents and Peace Keepers...  And I am inspired to continue doing all that I can....  And the messages come through the fingers and the keyboard.  All of you are often in my conscious thoughts and never out of my mind nor my spirit.  I always have you with me.  That is my assignment in these days of my life.  That will never change as long as I have a mind and can think.  Even when I meet Michael in Heaven and talk with him, you will be my subject for inquiry and discussion.

No one man can ever deliver to you the fullness of the care, concern and appreciation that my Commander-In-Chief has for you.  In the Operations Manual you are called Ministers of Rightness, a Minister of God to the people for their good...  And I have always marveled at how well you do the job and survive...  At how much you do and still come back to do more.  No words that I have are expressive enough to convey anywhere near the fullness of what you mean to my Commander-In-Chief and I, but I will keep trying to tell it to you for as long as I am able.  THANK YOU...  THANK YOU... ETERNALLY THANK YOU!!!!  Without you we would not be as we are in this nation and we could not do what we do.  This world would be a terrible place in which to live if it were not for you in it.