Giving you the cliff notes version of my testimony, I was raised Catholic and age 15 when I became a born-again believer. My spiritual growth was slow at best, due in large part to --I had very few (if any) mature spiritual mentors and I did not have a church to attend. I don't want to linger here long --going this far back in time so for now, I won't explain that any further (no secrets or shame, just lack of time).
During my time in Germany I'd say my spiritual life was stagnant --I lived "one foot in the world", so to speak. There was one small chapel on our kaserne which alternated different religious services each week; one week it would be a Jewish service, one week Catholic, etc. So at best, I could maybe catch a service once a month. I did try a few times to go but --I think I was one of three people in attendance, and that included the Chaplain. I tried a German church once and I don't think I got through the entire service. No one, and I do mean NO ONE attempted to talk to me (in fact they out right went out of their way to ignore me) and there was that tiny little problem of the entire service being in GERMAN (what was I thinking????). For all I knew, they could have been worshipping Satan but I'm pretty sure they weren't however; I'm not totally sure what denomination it was either. There was a church on Katterbach Kaserne which was only a 15 minute drive from us --DRIVE being the operative word, which remember --I did not. I did manage to catch a ride once or twice to Katterbach on a Sunday morning and attend chapel but mostly, soldiers weren't up on Sundays that early nor interested in going to church or taking me to church. I mentioned my predicament to one of the JAG Majors one time and he graciously offered to pick me up each Sunday and take me to church with his family. I did that for several weeks until I got bored out of my flipping mind with it. The church was a small military chapel (different from the one on Katterbach, which was larger and much nicer) interested only in serving families, so it seemed. It was quite odd to them what to do with this single 20-something soldier so they thought it best to simply ignore the fact that I was there. So as far as spiritual food, there was none. I had my Living Bible with me. Read that. And . . that was basically it. Whenever I asked my sister Val to send my Christian music, she would and I'd listen to those 80's greats like Amy Grant, Petra, 2nd Chapter of Acts (whatever happened to them?), Sandi Patti --and the like.
In "worldly terms" I was a goodie-two-shoes, their words, not mine. I was always being called that by someone and in fact, it was a certain Staff Sergeant I would later meet that would call me that ALL of the time. In fact, if you can manage to keep your minds out of the gutter, I will tell you that same certain Staff Sergeant (Newsome) used to always tell me, "You wear too many clothes." In that, he meant I dressed very conservatively. But aside from the unfortunate Madonna 80's fashion, the 80's were kind of conservative with the longer dress/skirt lengths (below knee if not to ankle), and that layered look like a button down shirt, sweater AND jacket. That was kind of my style then. In spiritual terms, I was a mess. My faith waivered often. I was discouraged often. I compromised my biblical beliefs often. It seemed like my whole future and everything I ever wanted, longed for or loved was in Chicago and until I could get back there, I was just marking time in Germany. I think spiritually, I was just marking time as well. So it didn't bother me to hang out in German clubs or taste German beer (which I never did like) and quite honestly those things wouldn't bother me now either though for much different reasons (but I'd probably never be a band groupie again).
So where God was simply is where He is now --with me. I guess the real question is, was I with Him?
During my time in Germany I'd say my spiritual life was stagnant --I lived "one foot in the world", so to speak. There was one small chapel on our kaserne which alternated different religious services each week; one week it would be a Jewish service, one week Catholic, etc. So at best, I could maybe catch a service once a month. I did try a few times to go but --I think I was one of three people in attendance, and that included the Chaplain. I tried a German church once and I don't think I got through the entire service. No one, and I do mean NO ONE attempted to talk to me (in fact they out right went out of their way to ignore me) and there was that tiny little problem of the entire service being in GERMAN (what was I thinking????). For all I knew, they could have been worshipping Satan but I'm pretty sure they weren't however; I'm not totally sure what denomination it was either. There was a church on Katterbach Kaserne which was only a 15 minute drive from us --DRIVE being the operative word, which remember --I did not. I did manage to catch a ride once or twice to Katterbach on a Sunday morning and attend chapel but mostly, soldiers weren't up on Sundays that early nor interested in going to church or taking me to church. I mentioned my predicament to one of the JAG Majors one time and he graciously offered to pick me up each Sunday and take me to church with his family. I did that for several weeks until I got bored out of my flipping mind with it. The church was a small military chapel (different from the one on Katterbach, which was larger and much nicer) interested only in serving families, so it seemed. It was quite odd to them what to do with this single 20-something soldier so they thought it best to simply ignore the fact that I was there. So as far as spiritual food, there was none. I had my Living Bible with me. Read that. And . . that was basically it. Whenever I asked my sister Val to send my Christian music, she would and I'd listen to those 80's greats like Amy Grant, Petra, 2nd Chapter of Acts (whatever happened to them?), Sandi Patti --and the like.
In "worldly terms" I was a goodie-two-shoes, their words, not mine. I was always being called that by someone and in fact, it was a certain Staff Sergeant I would later meet that would call me that ALL of the time. In fact, if you can manage to keep your minds out of the gutter, I will tell you that same certain Staff Sergeant (Newsome) used to always tell me, "You wear too many clothes." In that, he meant I dressed very conservatively. But aside from the unfortunate Madonna 80's fashion, the 80's were kind of conservative with the longer dress/skirt lengths (below knee if not to ankle), and that layered look like a button down shirt, sweater AND jacket. That was kind of my style then. In spiritual terms, I was a mess. My faith waivered often. I was discouraged often. I compromised my biblical beliefs often. It seemed like my whole future and everything I ever wanted, longed for or loved was in Chicago and until I could get back there, I was just marking time in Germany. I think spiritually, I was just marking time as well. So it didn't bother me to hang out in German clubs or taste German beer (which I never did like) and quite honestly those things wouldn't bother me now either though for much different reasons (but I'd probably never be a band groupie again).
So where God was simply is where He is now --with me. I guess the real question is, was I with Him?
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