Back in the routine

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Wanted to post a blog just so everyone knows that I'm still here and doing well.  I've gotten back into the daily routine of a 7-day work week and have actually started a new routine too, a heart healthy one!  :)

I'll get to the healthy one in a minute but one of my standing routines for the last 13 weeks has been facilitating a women's Bible study at the Combat Support Hospital chapel.  The study is called "Live Fearlessly: A study in the book of Joshua" by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose.  The study is the same one the ladies at Calvary Chapel O'Fallon, Mo., are doing right now.  If I hadn't deployed I would have been going through the study with them.  

Well, I was praying before I came over about my desire to participate in a women's Bible study and maybe find a group of ladies interested in doing the Joshua study with me.  Tommy order copies of the study and had them sent over, and our chaplain, Daniel Middlebrooks, was all for the study, so we got started in early January.

The study was really good and I learned a lot.  It was my first time studying Joshua.  But I think the greatest lesson for me was just remaining faithful to completing my study every week and being there every Monday night regardless of how many other women were there, and not getting discouraged after such a large number of women expressed interest in doing the study and then ending up with about 3-4 faithful participants.  I hoped it wasn't my leading style but simply hectic schedules that kept them from coming.   

Now that we are done with the Joshua study we are getting ready to start another study...discussion on week 1 is this coming Monday.  We are reading a book called "Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  There is a companion guide that goes along with the study and we are doing that too.  While I plan to participate I won't be leading this study...one of the nurses from the CSH will be leading.  I also won't be here through the whole study but I will be here for 6 of the 10 weeks.  

So the new healthy habit I have started since getting back from R&R is that I'm going to step aerobics at Liberty Pool, a recreation center here in the IZ, which is only a block away from our compound.  The instructor teaches three times a week and I've gone to 5 classes so far.  I'm really enjoying it.  I'm going to try an aerobic kickboxing class this Saturday.

So, the work of communicating the reconstruction of Iraq continues and I'm finding positive ways to fill my time in the evening.  I continue to be grateful for this experience but certainly look forward to heading home the first week of June.        

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