God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1: 5  The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear?  Psalm 27: 1

I'm sure that most of you know what this is.  It is a night light.  Sometimes our parents put one of these in our room so that we won't be afraid.  Are any of you ever afraid of the dark?  When I was a boy, one of my jobs was to take out the trash every day.  Sometimes I would put it off too long and I would have to take out the trash after it was dark.  If I heard a strange sound, I would sometimes set a world speed record getting back to the house!

Are you ever afraid when there is a storm?  Are you ever afraid of the thunder?  One night last week we had a thunderstorm. The next day I was talking to one of my students at school and she told me that she and her brother had been frightened by the thunder so they went and got in bed with her mom and dad.  I think that all of us have times when we are afraid.  We have probably all gone and gotten in bed with our parents during a storm.

Sometimes there are dark and lonely nights in our life.  We aren't sure what is ahead of us or what is behind us and we often feel afraid.  Sometimes there are storms in our life and we are afraid.  When we are afraid, we have a light to make us feel safe.  That light is Jesus.  The Bible tells us that "God is light and in Him is no darkness."  The Bible also says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?"  In the dark and stormy days of our life, we have Jesus to be with us.  If  Jesus is with us, we don't have to be afraid!

Dear Lord, help us to remember that when the dark and stormy nights come into our life, you are there, and we have no need to fear.  Amen.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  2 Peter 1:3

Look at what I have this morning. How many of you have ever seen one of these? Did you know that these knives have been around for over 100 years? In the late 1800's, a knife maker in Switzerland named Karl Elsener designed a pocketknife that he called the Soldier's Knife. He sold it to the Swiss Army in October 1891 and soon they were being sold not only in Switzerland, but around the world. They became even more famous in the 1940's when they were shipped to the United States to be sold on U.S. Army bases. In fact it was American soldiers who gave them the name by which they are known today, the "Swiss Army Knife."

The purpose of these little knives was to give the soldiers an all-in-one tool which would meet their every need. It has a can opener, a screwdriver, scissors, and of course, a knife. There is a tool there to do just about anything you might need to do. There a lot of cheap imitations of the Swiss Army knife, but the real thing is still made in Switzerland. It is one of the finest pocketknives available, and is backed by a lifetime guarantee.

The Swiss Army knife reminds me of Jesus. Every day we face many difficult situations. The Bible tells us that Jesus will meet every need that we have in life. It doesn't matter what situation we may face, Jesus is the answer. There are a lot of cheap imitations out there that claim to have the answer to our problems, but the real thing is Jesus, and He comes with an everlasting life guarantee! He is the only one that can make that promise!

Don't accept a cheap imitation. Choose Jesus. He is the only one who can meet your every need!

Dear Jesus, may each of us choose you to be our "all in all" and to accept your everlasting life guarantee. Amen.

washingtonpost.com
A War Dog's Faithful Friend
Back From Iraq, Md. Reserve Officer Launched A Mission to Rescue the Buddy He Left Behind

By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 20, 2005; B01

Laurel lawyer John E. Smathers, a captain in the Army Reserve, returned from a year in Iraq with a broken arm, a wrecked knee and a chest full of medals.

During his tour, Smathers helped thwart a bank robbery and assisted in recovering stolen Iraqi artwork. He survived an ambush and a high-speed auto crash.

But when he got back in March 2004, he was determined to complete a final mission: to rescue Scout, a dog he and other soldiers had adopted, from the increasingly bloody streets of Baghdad and bring him to his Howard County home. Scout was resolute, loyal. So was Smathers.

For 17 months, Smathers engaged in a campaign that involved intelligence gathering, secret Iraqi contacts and a foiled border-crossing into Jordan.

Finally, in late August, Scout was driven some 280 miles from Baghdad to Basra, where he was delivered to a British woman who runs an animal shelter in Kuwait.

Within days, Scout was on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport, where he was met by Smathers, dressed in desert camouflage so the dog would recognize him. Scout scampered out of his cage and went straight to Smathers, resting at his feet.

For Smathers, it was a rewarding end to a difficult quest.

"It was frustrating. Every door I tried was getting slammed in my face," he said. "I just kept knocking. As long as Scout was alive, I'd keep trying."

Smathers, 47, was a member of the Riverdale-based 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. His unit was among the troopsthat invaded Iraq in 2003.

After U.S. forces took control of the Baghdad airport in early April, Smathers's unit needed a place to stay for a few days and settled on an old catering building. Inside, Smathers and his fellow soldiers encountered a Canaan dog about 2 1/2 months old.

"He was alone, confused, didn't know what was going on," Smathers recalled.

The unit adopted the puppy, which Capt. Kevin Guidry named Scout. When the unit left the airport for Baghdad, some 12 miles away, the soldiers took him along.

In Baghdad, the unit took over a two-story, three-bedroom house near the Tigris River. Worried about attacks by enemy fighters, the soldiers slept on the roof, their M-16s at their sides, while Scout stayed in front of the building.

"Scout was our early-warning system," Smathers said. "If someone came by who he didn't recognize, he'd start barking.''

Smathers and Scout bonded. At 5:30 a.m. most days, Scout would put his paw through the mosquito net Smathers slept inside. Smathers would awaken, and the two would run by the Tigris.

"Sometimes he'd jump into the river. I'd yank him out by the scruff of his neck," Smathers said.

At one point, Scout became gravely ill with parvovirus, a disease that leaves dogs dehydrated. For four days, Smathers and another soldier took turns administering intravenous antibiotics.

Scout and Smathers were inseparable until Smathers and other soldiers were ambushed Feb. 21, 2004.

Smathers was in a convoy of three sport-utility vehicles headed to villages south of Baghdad. The soldiers planned to assess whether villagers had enough food and water.

Just south of the city, the convoy was ambushed by fighters shooting AK-47s. The driver of the SUV that Smathers was in floored it, and the vehicle overturned at 100 mph, landing right-side up. The Iraqi translator sitting next to Smathers had been shot in the head and killed.

Smathers had braced his arms against the SUV's roof, and his left forearm had snapped.

Smathers crawled out, and the attackers left. Three weeks later, Smathers was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, recuperating from the broken arm and a damaged right knee.

Via e-mail, Smathers kept in touch with members of his unit. One soldier wrote that for the first two weeks Smathers was gone, Scout remained outside the front door of the house, as if waiting for the captain.

Eventually, Smathers's unit left the house, and Scout was on his own. In an e-mail, a soldier told Smathers that Scout had been picked up by a dogcatcher and was going to be euthanized, but that he escaped by digging under a fence.

For four months, Smathers sent e-mails, sometimes with photos of Scout, to every soldier and civilian he knew in the area, asking if they had seen Scout. By then, Smathers was being helped by Bonnie Buckley, a Massachusetts woman who runs a Web site dedicated to helping soldiers rescue animals overseas.

On Aug. 5, 2004, a soldier sent an e-mail to Smathers and Buckley. "Guys, I see Scout almost every day," the e-mail said. "No one is taking care of him. He is looking pretty skinny, and a vet needs to look at his left eye.'' The soldier wrote that Scout hung out near the pool of a large house.

Smathers e-mailed a soldier and asked that Scout be captured, caged and taken to the Baghdad Zoo, where Smathers had become friendly with a veterinarian. Within days, Scout was at the zoo, where he would stay for a year.

Smathers couldn't get Scout out on a military flight because U.S. soldiers are not allowed to bring back animals from foreign soil, he said.

Just after Scout was taken to the zoo, Smathers cooked up a scheme: An Iraqi picked up Scout and drove him eight hours to the Jordanian border. The plan was to drive Scout to Amman and put him on a plane to the United States. But Jordanian border guards turned Scout away. Smathers's Iraqi contact had to drive back to Baghdad.

Smathers said he could not identify his Iraqi contacts because their lives would be in jeopardy if insurgents learned that they were helping an American.

Finally, Smathers said, Buckley found the British woman who runs an animal shelter in Kuwait, and she was willing to help. The woman took Scout to Kuwait, put him on a commercial flight to the Netherlands and then to Dulles, where Smathers met him Aug. 22.

Scout's life is much different now. Every Sunday, Smathers's six sisters bring their young children to his one-acre property, and the kids frolic with Scout.

Smathers is taking pains not to lose sight of Scout again. He erected an invisible fence, with an electric current, around his property and outfitted the dog with a tag that reads "Scout. IRAQ WAR DOG."

October 19, 2005

Japan, U.S. discuss reduced military presence at Okinawa

Associated Press

TOKYO — Japan and the United States are discussing reducing the number of Marines and aircraft flights at bases on Japan’s southern Okinawa island amid tensions caused by the U.S. military’s presence, media reports said Wednesday.

The talks are focusing on moving some F-15 flight exercises from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa to Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu and shifting hundreds of Marines at Okinawa’s Camp Courtney to Guam, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.

Tokyo and Washington have been discussing realignment of U.S. military bases, and Japan’s defense chief Yoshinori Ono has said he wanted to reach an agreement by the end of October.

The realignment is part of the Pentagon’s push to streamline its overseas bases and create a more flexible military while Japan has been pressing Washington to reduce the U.S. military’s presence on Okinawa.

Crimes linked to the U.S. military are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where more than half of the nearly 50,000 American troops in Japan are based. Three U.S. servicemen were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl there in 1995, sparking massive protests.

Meanwhile, training of Japanese defense forces may also be moved to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Hansen on Okinawa, Kyodo News agency reported.

Defense Agency officials refused to comment on the reports.

The two countries failed to resolve disagreements over a relocating Futenma Air Station on Okinawa in two-day talks last week.

Okinawa is about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Executive order sought on prayers
By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published October 20, 2005
Lawmakers yesterday said Christian chaplains throughout the branches of the military are being restricted in how they can pray, and President Bush should step in to protect religious freedom.
    "We're giving the president an opportunity to use the Constitution to guarantee the First Amendment rights of our chaplains," said Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican.
    He is circulating a letter to send to Mr. Bush explaining that Christian military chaplains are being told to use general terms when they pray publicly, and to not mention the name of Jesus.
    "This is a huge issue with many of the chaplains in the military," said Mr. Jones, whose letter has 35 lawmakers' signatures so far, and will be sent later this week.
    He cited a letter from one Army chaplain who said it was made clear in his chaplain training course that it is offensive and against Army policy to publicly pray in the name of Jesus, and he later was rebuked for doing so.
    "Much to my great shame, there have been times when I did not pray in my Savior's name," the chaplain wrote.
    Mr. Jones cited similar complaints from the Marine Corps and Navy.
    The lawmakers said chaplains of all faiths should be able to pray as they wish, since diversity is the very reason the military hired them in the first place.
    "Chaplains ought to be able to pray based on who they are," said Rep. Mike McIntyre, North Carolina Democrat. "Otherwise, it's hypocrisy."
    There has been much focus recently on proposed Air Force guidelines that some say unfairly would restrict Air Force chaplains' prayers, but lawmakers yesterday said the problem extends beyond that branch.
    "We're seeing the same pattern ... and it's a pattern of hostility to freedom of speech," said Rep. Todd Akin, Missouri Republican. "The chaplains have complained, and it's been increasing and more widespread and not only limited to the Air Force."
    The proposed Air Force guidelines say prayers should not be offered during official military staff meetings, but that a brief, nonsectarian prayer may be offered in nonroutine military ceremonies, celebrations or events. An Air Force spokesman said the guidelines are not final and that the Air Force is "still soliciting feedback."
    Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd said that branch's chaplains may speak freely if they are addressing a service of their specific faith, but in general military assemblies or services they should take a more general approach.
    "They call for a slightly different approach," she said of general gatherings. "The Army wants chaplains to show respect for all faiths."
    But Mr. Jones said it's not fair that any chaplain -- Christian, Muslim or otherwise -- should have to speak in such a way as to mask his beliefs. Mr. Jones' letter asks Mr. Bush to issue an executive order allowing all military chaplains to pray according to their faiths.
    White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said she would withhold comment on the issue until she sees Mr. Jones' letter.
    "It's astonishing to me that we're even having this conversation," said Rep. Trent Franks, Arizona Republican. "I hope the president will respond. I think he will."

That's just a BubbaGator.

Naw he looks too friendly, besides I can tell you made those teeth for him like you did with the gecko.

Yeah, those teeth are too friendly lookin'. A gator gots real mean lookin teeth. The bigger and more pointed the better. Those make for better eatin.

The following is a statement made in regards to this incident.


"According to Postal Service officials, it wasn't the religious motto that caused the original posters to be removed from its offices in Texas. The problem was that they were created and distributed by a private citizen, Frank Williamson, a retired engineer who wanted to remind his fellow Americans after the events of 9/11 that "our nation has always been successful because our forefathers put their trust in God."  Postal Service regulations generally prohibit the posting of printed materials by private citizens on its premises."

I for one do not believe that this was the reason behind the removal of these posters. Privately made posters have been and are posted in many post offices around the nation and nothing has been done to remove them because they don't mention God.

I currently have a return address stamp that says "one Nation Under God" on it. I am thinking of getting a stamp made that says "In God We Trust" also for the back of my envelopes.

Not afraid of no gator. I can see a gator coming. Spiders though are more sneaky. I'm not afraid of just any spider though, just the really bad ones like the brown recluse. My wife got bit by one of those and it took a very long time and surgery to take care of it.

[Die spider!!!!!!!!!!!!]

I have to agree she is less seasoned, but even when she gets older she will still be a bigger chicken than me she's even scared of dumb little things like spiders, and lizards.

And whats wrong with being scared of spiders?  Die spider!!!!!!!!!!!!  Never mind, I'm saying no more.

I have one thing to say about spiders ......


*SPLAT*

Better Wilma than Bam Bam?

A beigger chicken or just less seasoned?

lol ....  I lived in Calif for 6 yrs, too.

Yes, Amen, we will no longer have to contend with such in heaven. I have accepted the fact of such here on earth a long time ago and am no longer as concerned about them as I used to be. I know the Lord will protect us.

ROFL


Did you offer her some depends??

Yes, Amen. we here in Florida will need all the prayer we can get. Some folks still have unrepaired roofs, from last year's storms. In my own yard there are trees that look like they are about to fall from  fungus , I guess they got sick with all the humidity from all the rain last year and even in the begining of hurricane season we had a lot of rain in June and July. One tree already fell into my neighbor's yard in the begining of July, and it wasn't even windy. I was out of town the weekend it was the weekend we had the funeral for my nephew. He drowned in a lake in Arizona. Maybwe you've heard of it DW, my nephew lived in Sierra Vista and he and his wife and friends from their church were having a picnic at lake Patagonia, that's where it happened. Anyway, back to the trees. My neighbor next door just had a bunch of branches and limbs cut down from his trees and the mulching truck is out there now finishing up. This house I live in now is a rental, my husband and I own a house in Jacksonville, that house over there is pretty much free of trees colse to the house..

I lived in Guam when a super typhoon hit and later when a cat 3 typhoon hit. I lived in Memphis, TN when an abnormal ice storm hit and destroyed trees that weren't accustomed to that sort of storm. A whole lot of damage. I was in Boone, NC when they had a flash flood and lost a lot of furniture and big home appliances.

I live now in the area where I was raised. Tornado alley. We get hit with some pretty big ones all the time. So I can appreciate the concerns of what you and others in your area are going through.