Sorry I left you hanging there, but blogging wasn’t top on the list once I got home.  I’ve been spending time with family, went to Hawaii and then Memphis for the New Year and I’m planning a trip to Nashville next month to visit one of my best friends.  I’m waiting to see if the TV show will take off and if not, the plan is to study for the GRE and go to graduate school for public relations/integrated marketing communications.  Wish me Luck!

For all of you who faithfully read and followed my journeys, Thank You.  This time was harder on me emotionally and mentally.  It took me a good 2 weeks to adjust to life at home and I’m still processing it all.  My family and friends are awesome and I just had my first real Shreveport outing this weekend when I went to a baby shower and saw a lot of old friends.  Other than that, I’m mostly hanging out with my bestie, Amanda, and the family.  I’m slowly easing into the social scene.

Hope you all have a great and joyous 2010.  God Bless you and our troops.

xoxoxo – Kristen

On call 24 hours a day for the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting nearly 900,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. The Way We Get By is an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Bill Knight, Jerry Mundy and Joan Gaudet find the strength to overcome their personal battles and transform their lives through service. This inspirational and surprising story shatters the stereotypes of today’s senior citizens as the greeters redefine the meaning of community.

Watch the trailer here – http://www.pbs.org/pov/waywegetby/

Children as weapons isn’t a new theme on this blog, but it’s appalling every time I read something new about children trying to kill or being trained as suicide bombers (I don’t even know how you begin to train a suicide bomber).  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
RELEASE No. 20090606-02

June 6, 2009

Children used to carry out attacks

Multi-National Division – North

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARRIOR, KIRKUK, Iraq—A teenage boy was seen throwing a grenade at a combined patrol of Iraqi police and U.S. Soldiers, Thursday in the town of Hawijah, approximately 30 kilometers west of Kirkuk city in northern Iraq.

The grenade failed to detonate, and the suspect fled into the mix of local shops, but the incident is part of a growing trend of children carrying out attacks on Iraqi security and U.S. forces in the province.

Maj. Warren Sponsler, the operations officer for 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based near Hawijah, says he believes teenagers are being recruited by insurgents to commit the attacks.

Days earlier, a 15-year-old boy was apprehended, after throwing a grenade at a combined team of Iraqi Police and U.S. Soldiers on patrol in Hawijah. The grenade detonated against one U.S. vehicle. No one was injured and minor damage to one vehicle was reported.

The same unit reported that a boy between the ages of 14 to 16 threw a grenade at a combined convoy of Hawijah IPs and Soldiers from 1-8 Cavalry, May 26. No one was injured nor was there any damage reported in the attack.

In Kirkuk city, a boy—possibly as young as 14—was the driver of a vehicle used in a suicide car bombing that killed five Iraqi policemen, wounded five others and also wounded 11 civilian bystanders, according to Kirkuk police, May 12.

Also in Kirkuk city, a 19-year-old would-be suicide bomber was detained by Iraqi police while attempting to detonate a suicide vest in a Shia Mosque, May 1.  According to Iraqi police, he confessed to have been fighting insurgents in Iraq three years by the time of his arrest.

“To endanger children with acts of terrorism is despicable,” said Lt. Col Hugh McNeely, the deputy commander of 2nd BCT, 1st Cavalry.  “But when terrorists actively recruit them to risk their lives for goals that the child probably doesn’t even understand is evil.  There’s just no other way to say it.”

Four members of a group known to recruit young children because of the reduced  scrutiny they encounter from security officials, were arrested April 14, in Kirkuk by soldiers from the 12th Iraqi Army Division for suspected insurgent activities, according to Maj. Charles Assadourian, the intelligence officer for 2nd BCT, 1st Cavalry.

Assadourian said the youths were being trained to avoid detection while carrying out insurgent activities and were being taught to become suicide bombers.

Terrorist groups are capitalizing on the fact that children do not draw as much attention and Soldiers do not want to harm them, according to Chief Warrant Officer Two Michael Hyatt, the 2nd BCT 1st Cavalry fusion chief. Children that are hurt while carrying out insurgent activities are also being used in propaganda campaigns by terrorists depicting them as martyrs.

Check out the newscasts at The Red Bulls video page

I’ll probably post a little about the book once I read some more, and I encourage whoever wants to develop their relationship with God to get it.  It’s amazing and touches on God’s greatness and unchanging character.  Something that really convicted me was when Packer said this:

“Amid all the changes and uncertainties of life in a nuclear age, God and his Christ remain the same – almighty to save…… If our God is the same as the God of the New Testament believers, how can we justify ourselves in resting content with an experience of communion with him, and a level of Christian conduct, that falls so far below theirs? If God is the same, this is not an issue that any one of us can evade.”

Wow, talk about the truth hitting home and hitting hard. I see such faith in the New Testament believers and such a willing, loving heart to follow God. So, why aren’t we more like them? God hasn’t changed, why have we? We’re so content in our bubble, knowing we’re Christians and thinking that’s enough to please God.

In other news, Stone emailed me this great article about the dating game via cell phones in Iraq.  Check it out here.