Saturday, March 31, 2012

Murray's Mission Report

Jim, Ashley, and Margo outside the 101st Airborne Headquarters at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky

Dear Prayer Warriors, Family and Friends,

We are finishing up our first week at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky! We arrived safe and sound Sunday, March 25th and Jim reported on Tuesday, March 27th.

Praise:

* We arrived safely with no vehicle trouble!

* Jim did his oath of office to Active Duty Chaplaincy on this past Tuesday, March 27th which means that is when his active duty time starts. We are blessed that there have been no issues with transferring to Active Duty or the Chaplaincy.

* Jim has been assigned to the unit he was planning to be in. He is stationed with the 2-17th Calvary of the 101st Calvary Aviation Brigade (CAB). Chaplain Billy Graham is his supervising chaplain in the unit!

* We are part of a very strong and healthy unit ministry team (made up of chaplains, chaplain assistants, and chaplain wives) that has met with us twice since we have arrived.

* Margo has adjusted very well so far. She is excited about meeting new friends, enjoys the playgrounds around post, and is very inquisitive about all the new surroundings.

Prayer:

* The on-post housing wait list is longer than we anticipated. It is currently at a 6-9 month wait. Pray for God's clear direction in the seemingly overwhelming task of finding a temporary place to live in an area that we know little about. We need to make decisions still about the area to live in, apartment or house, monthly lease or one year lease, furnished or unfurnished... you get the idea! :) We also still own our home in Aiken and will have to look into making it a rental property in the coming months which is a whole other set of decision making. Pray again for God's timing and our patience in everything.

* Jim is still in-processing into Active Duty because he is coming from the Reserves. This has added more steps and hurdles to his paperwork and he will not being the "regular" orientation for another week or so. Pray for Jim's paperwork to be expedited and available at the right locations for him to complete in-processing. A praise with this is that we have had extra time to adjust (Jim has been released earlier than expected on most days so we have been able to do additional paperwork and processing for on-post) without compromising the long list of things that need to be done.

* Pray for me, Ashley, as I try to give Margo a sense of normalcy, try to keep family and friends apprised of our situation, and try to be the primary one coordinating the move... notice the optimal word - "try"! :) I have felt MUCH grace from the Lord in sustaining me through this transition. I have already been to one play group, connected with several women through Facebook who are in the area, and given my phone number to several moms to coordinate getting together with them once we all get settled into our new Army life.