John came home... and now he has to leave again.

Well, most of our friends know that John left in August to go to training with the Army for Signal Corps. He was gone for 6 long months but we were fortunate to have him come home about every other weekend since he was stationed in GA. Well, on Jan 13th he graduated from BOLCIII and came home.
We have spent the past 6 months looking for a job for him to come home to and had found nothing. The day we got home from GA, after his graduation, we got a call, his first job offer. After 6 months time we finally recieved a job offer, for a job in Iraq as a civilian contractor.
We had to weigh our options. He could take this job or we could go back active duty (which would certainly include a deployment and a 3 year commitment to active duty.) After prayer and looking at our budget we decided that God had placed this job in our lives. Better to take the job and be able to pay rent and pay off debt accrued while in gradschool, than to not have a job at all. Or, better to do this for one year than lock ourselves into a longer commitment with a sure deployment, maybe two. So, we decided to accept the job offer. The next day, the offer was retracted because John did not have a pasport yet. Our emotions were getting pretty raw. John went ahead and persued getting a pasport expedited with the assurance from the company that he would be next in line for a job.
John's pasport arrived a couple of days ago, and with it another job offer to work in Iraq with the same company. We have accepted the offer and have filled out paper work. Now we are waiting. Waitiing to find out when he flys out. It could be as early as Wednesday, 2 days from today. Or it could be this weekend. It all depends on how fast they can get paper work taken care of. They want him there as soon as possible. We told the girls tonight at dinner that tommorrow may be the last day they have with him before he goes. They understand as we have already told him that he has taken the job. Still, it is not easy. Below is a copy of an email we sent out to our church.

Thanks so much for your support for our family while John has been away at training. We have greatly appreciated it. He returned home last Tuesday the 13th after his graduation from Signal Corps training at Fort Gordon. We have enjoyed him being home! Thank you as well for joining us in prayer as we have looked for a job for John when he returned. After about 6 months of looking for a job we have come across very few opportunities. John has, however, gotten a job offer (the only offer he has received) and has decided to take it.

It is a civilian contract job in Iraq. He will be serving as a security team supervisor at an Army Base south of Baghdad for a company that is contracted with the Army. The girls and I will be staying here while he is gone.

While this is a choice we know most people would not choose to make, we feel like this is the correct direction for our family at this time. I'm sure some of you are asking, "why?!" God has prepared us for this in many ways including our recent separation and a previous deployment. When John enlisted in the Army 7 years ago this is the lifestyle we signed up for. Though he is not deploying as a soldier now, he is still going and serving the same mission that drove us to enlist in the Army in the first place, a mission we still very strongly believe in. Still, this would not have been our first choice of employement, but we fill that God has provided it as a way to provide for our daily needs as well as get out of 100% of the debt we accrued during John's time in Grad School. For this we praise him and thank Him for freeing us up in the future to serve him with our finances instead of being held back in our debt.

We ask for your prayers in these things:
· That John would be safe as he serves in Iraq. He in not going to be in the dangerous situations that he was in while he was deployed in the past, however, Iraq is not the safest place to be and he will be carrying a "big gun" for a reason.
· That he would find Christian fellowship and encouragement while over there.
· That our relationship would stay strong during his absence and we would stay emotionally connected
· That the girls would cope well with his absence (thankfully, they are kinda used to this), they are used to him coming home every other weekend and now he wont be able to come home for 4 months.
- That I would be able to hold down the fort while he is gone
- That I would not get lonely
- That homeschooling would continue to go well as Hannah has recently been diagnosed with a learning disability that has cause problems with her learning to read.
- John has applied for a position with the Secret Service. It is a 6-9 month application process. If he gets the job they will pull him out of Iraq before his year is up. We really would love for him to get this job and we have word from someone who had worked in SS that there is a good possibility. Please join us in praying that he will get this job and will be stationed at the Greenville Branch.
Thanks again for all you support and love.
John and Betsy Clark