blast from the past

Last night I couldn't sleep so I went out to the living room and was surfing the internet (thanks to the wireless router that my wonderful wife gave me for Christmas). I was doing some searches for e-sword modules and stumbled across a blog that had a review of the software. But that wasn't what caught my eye. On this blog the author mentioned the 80's Christian metal band Stryper with a link to their website.

Huh? Their website?!?!?

I thought Stryper died long ago. But I have to admit that in the 80's I loved this band. The tape player in my car had a different opinion. It ate one copy of Yellow and Black Attack and two copies of Soldiers Under Command. It never ate anything else. I guess it just didn't appreciate good Christian metal. Anyway, I had to check out this website and when I got there I discovered that Stryper is not only back together, but they have released a new CD titled Reborn. How could this news not have been splashed all over the internet?

Stryper lives! The world seems right again. You may now go about your lives.

The price of freedom

I have a nephew who is serving in the Navy as a construction engineer and this year he spent 7 months in Iraq helping to rebuild the infrastructure there. We see more and more from the MSM about how this war is wrong and how it is like Vietnam in that our troops don't know what they are fighting for and don't want to be there. Well I thought I would present a little different perspective. This is a letter that he wrote while he was serving in Iraq. I think this shows more of what our troops feel.

I learned a lot this July 4th. I spent my 4th of July defending freedom for I proudly answered my nation's call for help and volunteered to go into harm's way. I hope that the sacrifices that I've made over here will help to ensure that our nation is free of terrorists for years to come. I also hope that one day the children of Iraq and other nations will grow up in a world of peace - a world free of terrorists. I think the hardest part of this war is seeing the children endure this hell hole. During my time over here, I've seen thngs that I hope to never see again in my lifetime, but I'm a better man for having seen them because I now know firsthand the true price of freedom.

Happy birthday America!

Derek Cherry
Navy Seabee

Enough said.

One semester down...

Well my first semester of seminary is officially over. I took 2 finals on Tuesday and 2 finals today. I'm glad to have a chance to sit back and catch my breath for a few weeks before I have to dive back in again. Well, actually I won't be able to sit back just yet. If you read my last post you saw that I was having questions about God's plans for my future with the Air Force. I received some great encouragement from some incredible friends and then on Tuesday, out of the blue (pun definitely intended), I got a call from Chaplain Dave Markwalder with the Chaplain Candidate Program asking if I was still interested in the program. After I hung up with him I just had to look up to heaven and say "Yes Lord, I get the point." To make a long story at least a little bit shorter he faxed my information to the recruiter for this area and I will be meeting with him on Monday to finalize my application and schedule my physical. So this weekend will be filled filled with completing a stack of forms for the Air Force and ordering transcripts and whatever else the application process entails. Hopefully now that the semester is over I'll have a little more time to keep this blog updated so those of you that actually check it periodically will know what's going on in our lives. Well, it's late and I have to get up for work tomorrow so I'd better sign off.