How great your love is Father, that you can love me; and others in a position of absolute depravity of what's familiar, to cling to you and you alone. To seek not only what it means to live this life with you; but to live with you at the steed of my ship; and head of my soul. For I am a child here, and you are a good good father.

I know this simple lesson has been said so many times before, yet I need to write it down, and reiterate it in my heart again and again. Traveling across the world, going to do missions, or working in a field of service, doesn't change your heart, only your circumstances.

When you immediately get here in Iraq, you're not changed, only the boundaries and devices of which heart goes to, to find escape or love does. It's strange. It only gets harder I believe. You go from familiar to complete unfamiliar. Children know how to speak better then you; and most frequently you feel more about what it's like to be a child then an adult. Learning how to say "right" or "left"; learning the simple daily words that we so often take for granted.

This time here this far has taught me to be simple, and embrace that simple sometimes is best. It's showed me a deeper view into my heart, to allow to see that I've always looked at how good I feel or how great something is based of what it can offer me? When instead of looking at what I can offer it and how I can make it to the benefit of others.

Oh, how sings my soul; how great your love is Father, than you can me me; and others in a position of absolute depravity of what's familiar, to cling to you and you alone. To seek not only what it means to live this life with you; but to live with you at the steed of my ship; and head of my soul. For I am a child here, and you are a good good father.

Iraqi Journals Pt. 1