After a couple of years
assignment in the States I was shipped off to a small island in the Pacific
called Okinawa. Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan and is located in a tropical
region several hundred miles south of the mainland. It's a beautiful
island with great weather in the winter time but unbearably hot and humid in the
summer. Naturally I
would have to arrive in the middle of summer. I recall the day I arrived in
Okinawa. As I stepped out of the plane door to the open air ramp, I remember the humidity running up to
greet me with a big warm hug. I literally gasped
for breath. My only thought at the time was to turn around, get back on the plane and
convince the stewardess that I had gotten on the wrong plane.
After a few days of getting use to
constant sweat I
finally settled into the reality that I would be staying for awhile. I comforted
myself however with the thought that just because I had to stay didn't
mean I had to like it. So, I adopted the standard Navy issue 'bad attitude' and
proceeded to do all of the things that people with bad attitudes do in order to
justify their bad attitudes, such as drugs, getting drunk and keeping company with
other people with bad attitudes.
This went on for several months,
almost a year in fact, and I had pretty much thought that this is the way life
would be from now on. But I was wrong.. One night while out bar hopping with some friends I
happened to talk to a Christian who was passing out pamphlets. I had met
Christians witnessing on the street before and usually just listened and walked
away. But this night something was different. This night I prayed and asked the
Lord Jesus Christ to come into my heart, into my life, and change me. And from
that moment on He did. It seemed gradual at first but there was no
mistaking that I wasn't in the Navy anymore, I was in the Lord's army.