A Good Man

Hello All,

I am headed back to the states tomorrow. I feel as if it is a good time

to be leaving Kabul. Things have been pretty crazy here.

I have a quick story to share with you before I go. It is not related to flying, but is still good. You may or may not remember I have been friends with a man here for a while. He is an Afghan security officer name Colonel Aziz. Anyway, we have spent quite a bit of time working together on various things. Over the many discussions and cups of tea we have become really good buddies. His wife and 7 children made and gave gifts for my entire family. It was a extremely nice to which Hollie and the boys and I responded with numerous small gifts back to him.

This last sixty days we have spoken together numerous times but today was the most significant. As I said he is a security officer. Actually he is in charge of security on the base that I live while I am here. Colonel Aziz has always made me feel as if he really cared about keeping me and my team safe. Today he explained why and it was very humbling.

As I was thanking him for his hard work and dedication to the safety and security of our team, Colonel Aziz told me how he has lost four brothers in this war and he was very tired of the fighting. One brother was very recently. He explained that sometime before the US showed up he and his father were captured and beaten by the Taliban. He explained how after being beaten unconscious he awoke to see his father's finger nails being pulled out. Very long story short; both he and his father were let go. Sometime later after the US had arrived Colonel Aziz had been involved in many battles, and on one particular day he actually captured the two men that had beaten him and his father. Aziz carried the men to his house and offered them up to his father to be killed. These men had no shoes and were close to 17 years old. His father instructed Aziz to let them go, but before they were allowed to leave Aziz's family clothed them, gave them shoes, gave them chores, and kept them fed. Finally the two boys did leave. Amazingly the two boys quickly returned and asked to stay and serve the Aziz's family; he indicated that they stayed and did chores for nearly two months before finally leaving again. In that two months they adopted Aziz's mother as "mom".

Many months later the Taliban moved back into that village and were destroying people and homes. When the Taliban arrived at Aziz's home it was the two boys. The Aziz home was not harmed and "mom" was actually somewhat reunited with the boys. Pretty amazing story.

Aziz shared many other stories of different battles dating back to the Russian wars. He is very clearly tired of fighting and wishes for peace in Afghanistan. Colonel Aziz has attended training in the USA a couple of times over the years. He mentioned how it is so quiet and peaceful in our nation and how he hopes his nation will someday be like this.

Trust me, Aziz is a good man. What we are doing here matters? When we do leave a huge gap will be left that is why it is so important to do all we can why we are here.

Finally, we have so much to be thankful for in our country. While sometimes things seem grim, and actually may be, we still live in the greatest country on earth. Thank God for that.

God bless and fly safe.

Matt

ARE WE REALLY THAT DIFFERENT?

Hello Crossroad Afghanistan!

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks I can't even describe it. So much going on in Afghanistan. For those of us in Kabul the word of the day is "Transition". All efforts towards getting the Afghans in front of everything. I guess we have always had that mission, but there seems to be a renewed emphasis with this. Finally!

I have been flying quite a bit. Every time I see a Black Hawk flying by I wonder if it's someone I know; I wonder if it's one of you. I trust you are flying safe and "keeping your head on a swivel".

Raise your hand if you have done any snow landings. I had alot of fun flying from Kabul to TK. Everything above about 10,500 ft was snow, so we took the opportunity to discuss the differences between "white out" landings and "brown outs". Pretty cool. Unfortunately the snow covers the "red rocks", so landing off-site is a bit more tricky. If you don't know, red rocks indicate an old Russian mine field, so....don't land on those. They paint the rocks white when the area has been cleared by US or other coalition forces. Anyway, good luck with the cold weather, remember to review icing and other limitations you may not have looked at in a while.

Here's a quick word of encouragement for you.

This week I was doing some reading and thinking about Christians throughout the entire world. How it was amazing that what started out as a small "fringe religion" more than 2000 years ago is now holistically looked at as a "Christian Movement", and has literally spread across the globe.

How did this happen?

I believe that this happened because of the commonalities found within God's human creation. Put another way, one reason Christianity has grown over the past 2000 years, to nearly all peoples of the world, is due to our God given commonalities.

The fact is that God placed inside His creation (all humans) the longing to know more about eternity with Him. You can see this in Ecclesiastes 3:11, "...he has put eternity into man's heart." This is a huge commonality among all human beings; the longing to know more about the Creator. It's pretty cool that the Creator placed within His creation (us) the desire to know more of Him who did the creating. I am so glad God did this!

A second commonality amongst all peoples is that we share dominion of the created world. Genesis 1:28 & 29 shows us that we "have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You have them all for food."

A third commonality is that God can also be seen within His worldly creation. Romans 1:19-23 details, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." Very Cool!

So we can see three commonalities that tie all human kind together. The truth that reveals that all people have a longing to know God and eternity with Him, the truth that we all have dominion over the world He created for us, and the truth that He can be seen in the world itself.

Where does this truth leave us? Christianity is for everyone in the world, including all those you encounter while serving in Afghanistan. It is not a United States of America belief system, but a belief system inspired by God himself. Everyone in the world has inside of them these common truths. So no matter how different a person may look on the outside, remember that we are much more common on the inside than you may think.

God Bless!

FLYING

Hey Roadies! I was out and about a little bit this last week and every time I saw a Black Hawk flying around I was thinking of you. I would love to see you while we are here. Check out the link I have provided below. Our Mi-17's conducted the air assaults for these missions, and yours truly actually got to fly several of the targets, so that was COOL! My door gunner, who sits behind a mini-gun, had a HD helmet cam for each LZ. The footage is pretty great. I need to keep this one really short. I hope you each are finding time to read your bibles, pray, and interact with God. I know at least for me, my time with the Lord while I am in Afghanistan seems so much sweeter. Don't get so busy that you don't find the time to let Him love on you. God Bless! Matt STORY HERE

I'm Ba-aaaaack!

Hello all. I am in Kabul and all is well. I will be out and about and would love to see or talk to you. KAF and TK this week. Let me know if you are in that area. My Afghan cell is 070-734-7915. Call me. Even if we haven't met. I can tell you from experience it feels good to see people from church while you are here. Well, it was an exciting time right when I got here. I actually was delayed from coming into Kabul due to last weeks shootings downtown. I live on the airport in a triple secure area, so I am somewhat removed from that stuff. We get an occasional rocket attack, but they are never close. Please remember that you are in the thoughts and prayers of so many, including myself. Keep up the good work and remember that while you may not always see the fruits of your labor, your steps are ordered of the Lord! I wanted to share with you a word of encouragement real quick. My team and I hired a man a few months ago for our flight operations section (John). He is very experienced and I was glad to have him. From the first day on the job he started hitting home runs with all kinds of needed refinements. Anyway, once I got back to Kabul I felt kinda down. Not sure why. I increased my prayer and reading time and just attempted to power through it, but my first few days just seemed dumpy. I had lunch with John today and found out the most important thing...that we both know the Lord! Immediately we began to speak like brothers. Not only did we hit if off professionally and personally, but now we had Christ in common. Very cool, I love when this happens. I won't go into how we immediately began to minister to each other, but I will say how the Lord spoke to my heart through this meeting. Look for God. Look for God in everything. Everything we do. Everything we see. Every relationship; good and bad. Look for God in your painful times; great joy can come from hard times. God allows our trials and bad times to refine us, which helps us to know Him more. God is with you. He is directing your paths. He can be seen in all things. You just need to look for him. Read Psalm 23. The world we live in is the "shadow of death". Afghanistan feels like "actual death" much of the time, but God is still with us. Fear no evil, for he is with you. Look for Him...every moment of every day. Allow the knowledge of His precence to give you peace! Peace. PS. Seriously....go read the 23rd Psalm.

Pastor Matt Back to Afghanistan

OK I have to admit; it's been 12 weeks since I have blogged and I feel a little guilty about something. I don't feel guilty because I haven't blogged, but today I am heading back to Afghanistan and am just now thinking of how all the while I was home and enjoying my family, and the good ole' US of A, you guys have been there nugging it out. In the heat! I hope all of you have been well.

I know that each of you would have wanted me to enjoy the family time, I definitely did. Just as I will want you to enjoy your families when you rotate back home.

Well, let me just start of with a reminder. A reminder of what this "Crossroads Afghanistan" is all about.

While your there it is definitely hard to think of Ft. Rucker, but rest assured there are many eager and anxious pilots and soldiers right behind you. They are uncertain of the "when and where" for their turn to the giant sand box, and their thoughts are on you guys...the tip of the spear. You are the ones on the front lines of this now ten year old war. My thoughts and prayers are with you, and it is my great honor to join you on the field of battle.

I said all that to say that this blog is designed to keep us all connected. Those that are overthere, and those that are waiting in anticipation of going; as you read, whether stateside or from overseas, know that many are using this blog as a connection to a piece of their time while at Mother Rucker.

Let me encourage you to respond, comment, or join in. I will be blogging from my foxhole in Kabul. From time to time I will get out to the FOB's and would love to see you. Let me know where you are. Even if it's someone you know only attended Crossroads once, or not even once, welcome them to read the blog.

The most important thing is that we know each other are out there. I know many of you don't get to go all over, but just like it's comforting to know if your flight school buddy is somewhere overthere with you, it is even more comforting to know that your brother or sister in Christ is somewhere out there too.

Talk to you soon!

God Bless You,
Matt

Hey Roadies.

I will be rotating back to the states this week! As you can imagine I am very excited.

Looking back of the past 90 or so days I can remember so many different challenges. It seems like everything is a Leader Reaction Course (LRC) drill. I am sure most of you have done this type of thing. In military training you are given a challenge with a task to solve a problem, of which, there may or may not be a solution. It seems as if my time in Afghanistan is one impossible challenge after the next. These LRC type events seem to have littered the past 10 weeks; one challenge after the next with each challenge having completely unique characteristics from the previous one. I seriously think I might lose my hair……too late-).

In the middle of all the chaos I have also had some wonderful personal experiences. Each personal experience seemed to impact me in a great way. I am sure the depth of emotion I felt from each experience was due to the other chaotic things going on around me, and in many cases it was a shared experience with someone else. Here are a few.

In the middle of very challenging times; I along with a colleague had been having a rough few days. In the midst of our rough times the topic of God and the Lord came up several times. One evening as I was finishing a long day he asked me a question about God as I was walking out the door to the office. He knows I love and know the Lord, and it was almost as if he had been lacking the courage to ask me right up until I was leaving. We talked about God for two hours. We talked about who Christ really was and what faith in him really meant. Our talk ended in a prayer of praise and humbling acceptance of the forgiveness that is offered by having faith in Christ. After a bit more talking we both went in for the night. I walked into my room exhausted; fell to the floor and wept. Crying out praises to God, I felt so humbled and exhausted and the same time. Any person that has had the Holy Spirit moving inside them before knows how exhausted you feel when it’s over. That’s how I felt. Praise God. This was a great day in heaven and earth!!!

Another experience dealt with a friendship I have established with a man named Joia Aziz. He is the head of the Afghan security forces that provide us protection. I had met him several times due to several security things that have gone on here. He doesn’t speak any English and always has several men sitting around him in his office. I went into his office one day to discuss a routine security concern and we ended up talking for a couple of hours. We drank tea, and talked about our families and our faiths. I very much enjoy my relationship with this man and look forward to seeing him when I get back. A couple of days later I went into his office and he gave me a bag full of wonderful gifts. His wife, and their 7 children, had each given me a gift for me and my family. This was very humbling and will be something I remember forever.

Another experience deals with a new friend I have made in the past couple of weeks. The program I am on in Northrop Grumman is designed so that I will rotate in and out of Kabul with another program manager every couple of months. That way each of us will not get burnt out on being away from our families. Doug has just been hired onto our team and is a retired US Marine Colonel. He is very smart and very funny and brings a lot of experience and knowledge to our business team. He has five children and has been married for over 30 years. Another interesting fact is that he is a Muslim. Do you think that it is coincidence that a Christian minister and follower of Christ Jesus, is teamed up with a Muslim man. I can’t accept that it is. Again, I found myself humbled and feeling very inadequate at what the Lord has put before me. I have never prayed so much.

These last two experiences lead me to a huge thought. In the past several months I have spoken about Jesus to a Muslim on numerous occasions! Again, I feel very humbled and with this in mind I feel very weighted down by the enormity and burden of what I am to doing. Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world”. This is so easy to preach and proclaim from within a church deep inside the United States. Yet here I am talking to men who do not know the truth of Jesus Christ. The truth is the truth though and someone must pass it forward. Yet you can’t just bang someone over the head with it. It takes relationship; specifically with such opposing cultural and religious belief systems.

Follow this chain if you will. John 1:1, John 8:32, Isaiah 40:8, and John 14:6. These versus have been on the fore front of my mind over the past several months. Christ is the word, which is truth, who is standing now, and will stand for eternity, and no one comes to the father except through Him.

How did I end up with this? A long time ago I got rid of my way and got real with God’s way. Do you want that in your life? Ask God to break your heart for his people. Ask him to melt away the cares of this world with only the broken left to be seen. Ask him to burden your eyes for the lost; to only see the lost as he sees them. Ask him to give you courage to be courageous! Tell him you want to sell out to him. He already knows it’s hard for you….just acknowledge your desire to sell out to him and his desires….and watch him transform your life.

God Bless you Roadies.
Matt

Hey Roadies!

So who felt the earthquake? I know I did. I was dreaming that my older brother was picking on me and shaking my bed to wake me up....ouch! What's that all about? The reality is that a hundred or so miles north of Kabul there was a 5.9 quake last week. Exciting right! There's more.
Some rocket attacks and an explosion downtown at the Hospital. Can't we all just get along? I mean if you want us to leave, quit blowing stuff up. Wait a minute...they don't want us to leave because we bring money and work right. Sorry, looks like I am drifting into other topics.

Anyway, for the most part things are back to normal here in Kabul. I am getting back to a steady state. I know things are really busy down in Helmond. Our guys are playing a part in quite a bit of that.

Couple of things. I need to know you’re out there Roadies. Where you at Lauren G.?? I know you’re out there. Call my Afghan cell: 070-734-7915. For that matter, any Roadie in this nation call my Afghan cell. I don't care if we have never met personally. It would be "most excellent" for my cell to ring and here any of your voices.

Also, sound of if you are enjoying the 120 days of wind. I have decided I don't like wind any more. It's good for a little bit, maybe a day, but it seems like we have 30 to 40 knots all day....everyday!!!

Maybe I should rebuke the wind like Christ did in Mark 4…..ok maybe not.

Either way, my prayers are with each of you. Don’t hesitate to call me. I know one thing is for sure about serving in Afghanistan….time goes by pretty fast, so hang in there.
God Bless,
Matt