I just wanted to take a minute and thank you and your congregation so very much for all of your prayers and support, it has been pretty hard for me over here, I am married and have two boys they are 16 and 11yrs old, they are staying at home with my husband who is also in the Oregon Guard, he was actually called to active Duty in August and September to the Hurricanes in Louisiana and Texas so my boys stayed with my mother, thank the Lord for family.  I have really enjoyed the gift boxes that we have been receiving, I just got some really great shampoo and lotion and I know that when your in a combat zone you shouldn’t worry about what your hair looks like but let me tell you that as a woman I really appreciate anything that can make me feel feminine.  I also got some wonderful beef jerky from Tillamook and a Kenney Chesney DVD, I was feeling really homesick on the day I got a package and I have to tell you that it really lifted my spirit to know that there are people that do not even know who I am but care enough to take time and the money from their own pocket and send me something, please thank everyone for me and please keep the prayers coming. 

Katherine

Thanks,
Mike

Sincerely,
     John

I started out with 147 boxes and had asked our community group for prayers that all would be taken. I was hoping that 50-100 would be requested. I was not prepared for what happened. After first service, the boxes lasted for about 6 minutes and the project quickly became one of taking down names and number of boxes needed. By the time second service started, I had a list of 84 boxes needed. This was repeated in the second service and the booth was swarmed again with people anxious to sign the list. I am honored to report that I have in my possession box requests totaling 246 boxes!

I would like to share some examples: One community group has requested 20 boxes to have a group packing party. I will be receiving military addresses from 3 more soldiers. I was approached by the wife of a Navy special forces soldier who had been spending $50 to send packages to her husband and was unaware of the savings on using the flat rate boxes-she wants 25. I will also call the Oregon Military Public relations officer and pass that on so spouses can afford to send more packages to their loved ones. The leftover candy from the fall funfest is now dubbed operation “Sweet Tooth” and 4 boxes are  being shipped today to Lt. Col. Bill Schutz in Bagdhad for the troops to distribute to the Iraqi kids in the field. The
more positive relationships the troops are able to make, the sooner our soldiers will be home.

I wish all of the Morningstar staff would have been present to receive the heartfelt thanks that was graciously tendered upon myself by Mrs. Jan Schutz and Mrs. Shannon Smith. While their husbands are away, these heroic wives have to run the household, work etc. and are often overlooked as to their day to day needs. (The Church may want to look into this). It was everything I could do not to breakdown in public.

One teacher is taking this idea to her school.I will be ordering 500 boxes today and have already made plans to return to Morningstar on Sunday December 4. This will allow us to provide the same Salem area troops with another round of boxes that if sent in a timely manner will arrive around Christmas. I want to thank again the Board for allowing this to happen. My only wish would have been for each soldier serving away from home to have been standing behind the booth, as I was, seeing the huge crowd of their fellow Americans patiently waiting to express their love and affection through these boxes from home to them for their service on our behalf. I am and will remain your most obedient servant,

John

Bill

Hands of Victory:  To celebrate his “victory” over Iran, Saddam decided to build a Triumphal Arch. The concept of a triumphal arch is a European import, without precedent in the Middle East since Roman times. The colossal Hands of Victory monument has dominated Baghdad’s skyline since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Built in duplicate, it marks the entrances to a large new parade ground in central Baghdad , towering 140 feet above the highway. The triumphal arch is shaped as two pairs of crossed swords, made from the guns of dead Iraqi soldiers that were melted and recast as the 24-ton blades of the swords. Captured Iranian helmets are in a net held between the swords. And surrounding the base of the arms are another 5,000 Iranian helmets taken from the battle field. On the ground are helmets that soldiers step on, further depredating the Iranian soldiers, when entering the parade field. The fists that hold the swords aloft are replicas of Saddam Hussein’s own hands. The German company that built the monument, H+H Metalform, said it was given a photograph of Saddam’s own forearms to use as a model. When Saddam inaugurated these triumphal arches, he rode under them on a white horse — an allusion to the steed of Hussein, the Shi’ite Muslim hero martyred at nearby Kerbala. The day before the first bombing run on Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi TV showed a mass of Iraqi soldiers marching beneath the huge crossed swords of the Victory Arch, to the theme music from ‘Star Wars’. In April 1998 Iraq’s “volunteer army” paraded for six hours in Baghdad’s “Grand Festivities Square,” the large outdoor arena marked by the two sets of enormous crossed swords.

Monument of the Unknown Soldier:  The Monument to the Unknown Soldier is said to be inspired by the glorification of a martyr from the Iran-Iraq war. What looks like to many as a flying saucer frozen in midflight, represents a traditional shield (dira¹a ) dropping from the dying grasp of an Iraqi warrior. The monument also houses an underground museum. The artificial hill is shaped like a low, truncated cone of 250 m diameter. It is surrounded by slanting girders of triangular section that are covered with marble. Red granite, stepped platforms of elliptical form lead to the dome and cubic sculpture. The steel flagpole is entirely covered with Murano glass panels fixed on stainless steel arms and displaying the national flag colours. The cantilevered dome is 42m in diameter and follows an inclination of 12 degrees. It’s external surface is cladded with copper, while its inner surface features a soffit finished with pyramidal modules alternating steel and copper. The promenade is covered by a semi-circular, flat roof supported on a triangular steel bracing. The roof is covered with a copper sheet and the soffit displays V-shapped panels of stainless steel and Murano glass.