Lifetime Confession...pray for me

All,

Please pray for me as I prepare for my lifetime confession next week...or I guess I should say finish preparing. It has been a struggle as I suppose these things often are. My Chrismation is scheduled for 16 Nov and of all things...I'm really nervous. It is sort of like that happy yet uneasy feeling you get ahead of a first date. I know that is probably a stupid description but, for me, it is apt none-the-less.

In Christ,
Matt

Thanks, all. I'm thankful for your prayers. Right now I'm flipping between serenely calm and unnecessarily nervous. This will pass, I'm sure. This has been quite a journey for me which I'll explain a little more when I post pictures etc from the big day.

It is a very basic Orthodox existence out here in Iraq (indeed...except for the main chapel which is generally used for the big Protestant praise band / charismatic events it is a very basic Christian existence). In many ways it has been interesting stepping away from the awesome nature of an Orthodox church to a fairly bare chapel which isn't even permanently Orthodox. There are the basic accoutrements of Orthodoxy which are setup every week but the entire liturgy is in full view of the laity. No choir either...it is us. Candles are not allowed to freely burn here (though I'll hold one next week during Chrismation) and the last time they sent a bunch over they melted into one unusable brick due to the heat. Incense, however, is allowed and is used heavily.

Right now the chaplain is an OCA priest. The congregation is a mixture of Eastern European soldiers (who are mainly slavic) and US soldiers / support staff who are Greek for the most part. The music we use is Russian in style. The new chaplain that is here to replace the current chaplain is Greek and he joking noted that he didn't know any of the music we were using. It will be interesting to see if we'll transition to a more Greek-style of liturgical music in 2009. On the plus side, they're moving pretty much all of the soldiers etc from the International Zone (Green Zone) to Camp Victory / Liberty here by Baghdad Int'l Airport so the congregation is set to almost triple in size by the end of Dec.

So, probably a bit more info than necessary.

Thanks again.