Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog, but I think I can catch you up on the events for the past few months...
In February, Em and I both were preparing for our Unit Compliance Inspections (mine in March, her's in April). I also finished my first 5-week long Korean language class since I graduated DLI back in July 2009.
08 March, we celebrated my beautiful wife, Emilee's, 28th birthday, 18 April was Elijah's 3rd, and 21 May was Riley's 6th. We also finished up AWANAS with Riley in May. In May I think is when our chapel switched chaplains again (not a very great decision, I'm afraid).
June, I moved back to DOA and am currently off 3 days throughout the week (loving it!). Emilee and I are also taking classes to pursue our degrees. I'm taking World History to 1650 while she's taking Spanish with Rosetta Stone and Human Anatomy & Physiology. I was selected in May to go back to Defense Language Institute in Feb '13 in Monterey Bay, CA to be a military language instructor (MLI) for 3 to 4 years. Em and I are both excited to return to the place our married life truly began and also the birthplace of Elijah. Without the stresses of studying a CAT-IV language, we'll be able to explore and take more adventures than we did before.
So let's talk Chapel. Let's see if I can condense a looooong story into a short time line:
11 Sept 2011 - Family issues/kick one of our friends out of our lives; talk w/ chaplain
Sept to Oct 2011 - not on worship team (thanks to the chaplain)
Oct 2011 - return to worship team (and under a newly arrived chaplain)
May 2012 - Prior chaplain takes service back over; decides to do things differently (i.e. his way)
May to July 2012 - I get my butt kicked as praise team leader at one-on-one weekly meetings (examples: told my method of music selection is broken; I or someone on my team is spiritually sick; two other guys get uplifted constantly in my face and I get told basically I have a lot to learn about leading worship though I've been doing it for 10+ years; constantly get told he's praying for another spiritual leader for the praise team (...okay.... so what am I, chopped liver?!?)... etc etc etc).. I'm also told not to do any worship songs before the year 2005, and we're not allowed to do the song "At Your Feet", a 2009 song by Casting Crowns, because it reminds the chaplain of mine and Emilee's crisis in Sept 2011... he also constantly brought up the fact that "we have this history" referring back to Sept 2011...
4 July 2012 - a trustworthy friend comes to me and informs me the chaplain informed him he doesn't want me leading the team anymore and it was clear to this friend the chaplain (even through his body language while discussing the current praise leadership....me) wanted me gone.. Em and I talked to the head.. I sent a message to my team to stop any one on one meetings he was trying to pursue with them due to my fear they would go the same way my mtg's with him went. Then another member of the praise team provided my message to the chaplain, we met the following wednesday, and he wouldn't take ownership of anything he had done, even the discussion behind my back about my leadership.. he simply asked if I, ME, was apologetic for what I'd done... he didn't really want to discuss the conversation he'd had behind my back... instead, he stated he didn't think I could trust him after this, and then said I had two options, then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to resign from the praise team...
Longer story short... Em and I are no longer on the praise team, and we're no longer at the service because this man has made it clear I and my family are a stumbling block to him and he cannot serve with us, no matter how hard we've strived to do everything he's asked us to do.. even when learning new songs, he'd sit with me afterwards to critique how we "performed".. I stepped down from the team for a few different reasons.. one, it's better for everyone else in the community.. two, I really had no other choice.. since I'm under contract and it doesn't end til September, any severance of the contract would mean potential for losing my job/clearance.. So I'm kind of forced into not being allowed to fulfill the remaining two months on my contract because I shared information back in September with the wrong chaplain.. lesson learned.. be careful which chaplain you entrust with information you need counseling for..
TAKE-AWAYS: I will never EVER stop protecting those God entrusts to me under my leadership. I will never EVER conform to man's standards, but will always do my best to conform to GOD's standards for praise and worship.... it's not a performance, and it's not about us.. it's about Jesus. Though we have 5 months left here in Korea, and we're not able to return to the contemporary service (the only service my job allows me to go to right now), Em and I are focusing on our family... we're going to also focus on our education more and continue to hone the abilities and skills God has given to us to upbuild and edify the body of Christ.
We miss our church family.. each wkend that goes by that we're not with our worship family is tough, but in Jesus' name, we'll keep pressing on. We look at it like this: at least there's one less scape goat for him to blame his problems/issues on. We pray God will work in his heart and his life to get him centered back on Christ.
Em and I are excited about returning back to the states to visit with friends & family between January and February. Cannot wait to get away from Korea and find a place we can go to church again.
God bless! Please keep us in your prayers. Go with God!!
In Christ,
Brad
