I've been back in the office this week after paternity leave. It's nice being back in a routine. I suppose I should say a little about ministry here. I normally don't allow myself to make comparisons for the first six months in a new ministry, but I think I can make a few comparisons. My battalion is very small in comparison to 1-12 Cav. The entire BN is roughly the size of a mechanized infantry company. It's nearly half civilian. It's obviously signal instead of combined arms, which is a drastically different mindset. It's also not a unit that deploys, so the pace of everything is much, much slower than anyone in 1 Cav. So what does that mean as far as a chaplain goes? First of all, I've found that a little more of Cav than I want to admit probably rubbed off on me. My assistant has to remind me about once a week that I'm no longer at Hood. (Speaking of which, I seem to have landed the best Chaplain Assistant in the region yet again).
It's harder to catching many of the soldiers just to check in on them. Many of them work shifts and we're spread out so ministry of presence is not as easy as I would have imagined. The ministry has more events (and resources) than I did at Hood. In some ways that's nice,o learn a new set of skills for navigating requests and some of the paper drills.
I'm enjoying 39th SB. The commander is extremely supportive of the chaplaincy. Both company commanders are as well. The unit is a very tight knit community. Actually it's a tight knit community within a tight knight community b/c SHAPE and Chievres are not exactly large duty stations. I am speaking in chapel services about once a month, which is great. I'd like to speak more, but at least I'm getting to speak.
That's the brief overview of work and ministry for me.
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