Hugh's News & Commentary

"Songs of Deliverance"; the Lord’s Day in a Detention Camp, January 8, 2012

January 8, 2012, was day 366. I had been in the assignment to the Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion (NEGB) for one year, having arrived on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on January 8, 2011. In some ways the work of one year culminated in the events of that morning.

          
           Navy Chaplain Marc McDowell at GITMO

This photo of Chaplain Marc McDowell with General David Petraeus was taken in Afghanistan on a previous deployment in 2008.

The moon was full in the night sky as I drove up to the Joint Task Force checkpoint into the area of the detention camps. It was a Sunday morning, two days prior to the ten-year anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, which began in January 2002.

The time was 0500 hours and I was going to the Guard Mount or shift change in the largest of the detention facilities. As I walked from the parked car to the main gate of the camp I heard the Muslim call to prayer in the distance coming from inside the camp, wafting through the pre-dawn stillness. It was an unwelcome reminder that I was once again entering the presence of my enemies.

The purpose was to first visit with and encourage the Sailors and Soldiers as they were about to start another twelve-hour shift doing guard duty with the detainees and then announce to the group that I would be providing a worship service at 0800 hours. Much preparation, planning and prayer support from my wife and family had taken place in order to gather in Christ’s Name in such a place. The location was the same place of the Guard Mount, a building approximately ten feet from a fence line which is the edge of an outdoor recreation area for detainees.

At 0800 hours 8 guards were present for the brief service. In the announcement earlier that morning I had mentioned that the music would be by Switchfoot, which drew some reactions from the group. I read from Psalm 32:6-7 and spoke about how "God is the God of deliverances and the God of escapes from death" (Psalm 68:19-20) for those who know Him.

Then I related the story of being shot at as my aircraft left the Kandahar airport on the night of January 10, 2002, and how God had been for me a God of deliverances, and escapes from death. My wife and partner Norma Gaye (the former Norma Gaye Ford from Franklin Springs) had been led to pray at that time, and learned only later about the events at the Kandahar airport. The Taliban had recouped and attempted to take down the first flight of detainees bound for Guantanamo Bay. They assumed that the USMC KC-130 that I was aboard was the detainee flight.

So there I was ten years later holding a service for guards in the vicinity of America’s enemies, some of them the same individuals that were present at that previous event.

Before the final prayer of the service I played a song entitled “All Your love is a Song” by Switchfoot. The lyrics speak of Christ’s love, saying that “all your love is a song, your love is a symphony; underneath me, running through me, running to me. All your love is a melody: your love is my remedy.” This was introduced in regard to Psalm 32:7, which states that “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance” (NIV). The message that morning was that our God is a God of deliverance, the God of escapes from death. My story from January 2002 demonstrated how God has been faithful to me, but most of all how Christ has ransomed me from sin and eternal death through His death on the cross.

Psalm 32:7 tells us how God cares for us and surrounds us with the songs of deliverance, the Hymns, Gospel Songs and new songs that have emanated from the struggles and victories of numerous Christians, and that we are part of that group, the Church, even in that place of sharp wires and bars: in the presence of our enemies. To God be the glory!

[Editor's comment: Things during deployments don't always work out as were originally planned by the military.

As I was reading Navy Chaplain Marc McDowell's message to those that were gathered on Sunday, January 8, 2012, I thought of the words that Jude, a half brother to Jesus, who along with his brothers had not placed their faith in Jesus until the resurrection of our blessed Lord and Savior. That was the turning point in their lives.

In verse 2 of Jude's tiny epistle, he writes these words, "Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance."

Later on in this one chapter, Jude writes in verse 22, "Be merciful to those who doubt." Jude like Thomas doubted the resurrection, but when they saw Him, their doubts turned into faith.

Jesus told Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29, NIV).

We learn from Jude that God has an abundance of everything: mercy, peace, and love.

May God help us to appropriate His abundance of mercy, peace, and love in 2012.

Whatever you need this day from God receive it in the Name of Jesus.