Making Time Count - Week 37

I feel like I am counting down the traditional 40 weeks it takes to carry a baby full term. Only, at the end of this term there is a ministry to finish and a page to turn to the next chapter of life. I have been just as busily preparing for that day when I turn the page and allow the next Chaplain team to take over the responsibilities I have been doing here. As a Boy Scout, we were often taught to “leave it [the campsite] better than you found it.” Well, after all these months of hard work developing products to better perform religious support operations, as well as lessons learned I want to pass on, I continue to stay busy leaving this position better than I found it. Just a few more weeks and I will be making my way back to the U.S. for more de-mobilization and “reintegration training.”
Many people have asked me how much time I have left, or how long I have been here. I am trying not to count the days until I leave, like so many others do (it’s actually discouraging to see people mark off days on a calendar like they are serving a prison sentence or something). While I am excited to get back home to see my family and spend time with them, I also want to work hard until the end and leave here with no regrets or wasted time. I promised the Lord I would consecrate myself to this ministry while I am here and I intend to carry that out to the last day. I remember this same feeling as a missionary. I later heard John Bytheway (LDS Speaker) describe it as: “Instead of counting time, make time count.” I am using that idiom now.

One of the ways I have been making time count is through counseling Soldiers who are going through tough times. One in particular is a young woman who has been through much trauma in her past and has been trying to cope out here in many unhealthy ways. The day I saw her sitting on the bench outside our office in the middle of the hot day vaping and listening to heavy metal music, I asked if she was okay and she said, “I’m just enjoying the fresh air.” That seemed incongruent so I looked at her compassionately and asked again “Are you sure? You look like you are avoiding something…” She started to open up and I invited her into the office to discuss this in a more confidential setting. 
She had a lot to let out and we began to meet weekly over the last couple of months. We have worked on healthy coping skills and preparation work for trauma therapy. She has improved significantly at setting better boundaries with herself and others, seeing that she does have value, worth, and potential. She has come a long way in a short amount of time, and we had our last meeting this week since she is going home soon. We reviewed all the challenges she has faced during this deployment and how she has grown. I provided encouragement and empowerment of her efforts that have helped her come this far and to continue that progress when returning home. I felt the Lord inspire me to say certain things to her. I know it was inspired because I was learning as I was saying it. I could feel a portion of the love that God and Christ had for her and was reminded of how my own challenges have helped me grow too.
I know the Lord has put me here at this time for a reason, actually many reasons. I am reminded of that each week as I reflect on the hand of the Lord in my life every day and share some of these experiences. I just hope I can continue to make time count so I don’t miss anything He wants me to accomplish with the time I have left here. Thank you all for your sustaining prayers for me and my family that help us to endure well (or at least better). May the Lord continue to strengthen us all to make time count with each day He has given us.

In His Service,
Chaplain John Critchfield