The Hounds of Heaven

Greetings, 

I pray that God is blessing you on this day!  I wanted to take a moment and continue from my last post.  I wrote that I had been shipped to Galena, AK to begin a one year remote tour with the Air Force.  I also wrote that there was someone waiting there for me.  So..let's hear the rest of the story!

I arrived in Galena on a summer day by way of a C-130 transport plane.  We were seated in jump seats, which are just fabric netting strapped to the inside walls of the plane.  In the middle of the plane were all of the replenishmnet supplies needed for the base in Galena.  We landed in Galena and the rear of the plane opened and I got my first glimpse of a fighter intercept base not 50 miles from the Russian border!  How was I to know that this tour was going to be even more exciting and more life changing than I could have ever imagined.

Immediately after deployment f the tail section a staff seargent boarded the plane from the rear and said, "Welcome to Hell".  Still fresh from the leaving of my wife I was sure that he was correct and that some where during my long flight to Alaska Ihad somehow missed my connection and, inadvertently, boarded the plane that was destined for hell!  The tempo for my stay in Galena began when the first things that were unloaded from the plane were not it's passengers but the four crates of beer that had filled the aisle of our transport plane.

I soon found out that Galena was a small village that the Athabascan Indians called home.  Galena Air Base took up nearly 90% of the village.  I don't want you to misunderstand me the base was not that big, it was just that the village was that small.  Upon arriving in Galena you quickly realize that there is one street down the middle of the base.  On one side there is the chapel and the other side there is the bar.  Not having any thought of reconciling with God for sending me to this God forasaken place I chose the side of the street with the bar.  I would soon realize that this place wasn't "God Forsaken".  In the depths of my sadness of leaving my wife  I would find that God had, indeed, followed me to Galena or, rather, I met him already there!

The story of my encounter with God is a very interesting story and I will try and tell it in the manner that it deserves.  It will take a number of posts to let you enjoy the true magnificence of God and so I will let my story play out over those posts.  Suffice it to say, I found God in Galena, Alaska.  In my attempt to blame God for my lot in life I had missed the part where Hehad promised to be with me during my year at the top of the world.  If God could not get my attention in my past circumstances in life He would surely seek me out in the frozen world of Galena, AK.  God had set the hounds of heaven out after me and they had picked up my scent!

Join me in my next post to read how the creator of the universe hunted down one of His creations!

Until the next time!  Blessings!

Derek