Ash Wednesday

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Though Baptist churches as a whole don't play too close attention to the church calendar, I personally love the liturgical year. Here at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, we had a brief ecumenical service at 0730, which I co-led with our Catholic Priest. Then I and other chaplains traipsed about the base hitting up various commands, spreading ashes wherever we went. I felt a little bit like Pigpen from Peanuts, with a cloud of black dust following behind me.

Anyway, the day started out appropriately enough for an Ash Wednesday, all overcast and gloomy. In time, it began to rain, the bitterly cold drops lashing at me as I went from building to building. By the time I returned home the rain had turned to sleet then to snow, which soon gently blanketed the earth. So, even on the dreary day when we kick of Lent, placing ashes on our foreheads to remind us of our own frail, sinful humanity, the Good Lord was reminding us that, as it says in Isaiah, “though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.”

In completely unrelated news, because this week was security exercise week, I stayed on base for lunch yesterday. The bowling alley just up the hill from the chapel offers free bowling from 1100-1400, so the RPs and I went bowling and had pizza for lunch. We got three quick games in; I hit a 119, 126 and an 89. My arm fell off on the last game as I was using a ball that was really too heavy for me (but had holes that fit my fingers). I could barely heave it down the alley by the end.

In more completely unrelated news, Melissa, Sarah Rose and I met a lady from United Through Reading (UTR) for dinner at Island Café. We hadn’t eaten there before so we thought we’d visit it for food and fellowship. Melissa and I are going to be helping publicize UTR on the base with all the deploying squadrons and train individuals to run the program for their commands. We have a fair amount of UTR experience, having run it for our friends in NMCB FOUR. Hoorah FOUR!