Chaplain Larry Haworth
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Chaplain’s Corner________________________________ Chaplain Larry Haworth
LETTER TO TOM
A good friend of mine had been an Air Force pilot during the Viet Nam
War. I believe he had something like 136 sorties to his credit. He and
his family made a great trip to Viet Nam a few months ago. He wrote
about their trip in a personal report. He asked for input from me in
response, as he had from other friends. He touched on a subject that
I've believed quite strongly about ever since my own time in Viet Nam.
The subject was the outcome of America’s support for the war in Viet
Nam. I put into words some of my beliefs and observations. These
are completely my own although I know there are many who share the same
beliefs. Naturally, there are also those who see the outcome of the war
far differently. I thought I'd share my own point of view with you
because I believe you are interested in the subject, whether you see it
as I do or not. If you care to share thoughts in return, I'd be
interested. If not. that's OK too
Here’s my response to Tom:
Dear Tom:
I almost envy you your wonderful trip to, and throughout, Viet Nam.
Viet Nam is a country and a people that I came to love many years ago
after serving two tours of duty there. Both tours were a year long
and under largely combat conditions. The first year was in Soc
Trang, deep in the Mekong Delta, during the time of the Tet Offensive of
1968. My second year was in the jungles along the Cambodian border
northwest of Saigon with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. In
May-June of 1970 we led the incursion into the Fishhook region of
Cambodia. I had opportunity to observe and interact with many
Vietnamese people, particularly in the Delta where I made friends with
the local Catholic priest and the Protestant pastor. The priest
could speak English so we communicated easily and had a very active and
enjoyable relationship. With the Protestant pastor, we interacted
through the local school principal who was a member of his church and
could translate for us. Our soldiers supported orphanages and
medical facilities in town. Following the devastation of Tet
‘68, I coordinated with World Vision who provided enough clothing so
we were able to provide for a good portion of the local people who had
lost almost everything in that infamous battle. Needless to say,
we established a genuine positive image of the American character in the
hearts of those people. I’ve found that my experience was
typical throughout the land for the entire period of the “American”
war.
Move ahead several years: the Americans are long gone, our
politicians having handed the communist North their victory on a silver
platter. (This is a long story in itself). Since then the country
has opened for travel and Viet Nam vets have been going back to visit
where they had fought. They go to heal, to re-connect, to see, to
say good-by to buddies, to bring their experience full circle.
I’m chaplain for Point Man Ministries as well as 11th Armored Cavalry
veterans, as you may know. Quite a few of our men (and women) have
gone back and continue to do so. A good number go to do Christian
ministry on a continuing basis. This also is another story.
In Southern California for a few years, when Deanna and I were living
the motor home lifestyle, I fellowshipped with one of our Point Man
outposts in Orange County. Through “fortuitous” circumstances
our vets established a close relationship with a Vietnamese congregation
of wonderful Christians in the area. Healing and reconciliation
took place which was powerful and blessed of God. I’m telling
you these stories so you can see where I’m coming from when I say that
most of the Vietnamese people love, respect, and appreciate Americans.
Vietnamese people that I know appear to have a deep understanding of why
Americans fought the “American” War even if the American elite,
including the media and the political/educational establishment, does
not.
My belief and assertion of the love of the Vietnamese for Americans (and
usually vice-versa) comes from my experiences such as those above.
It also comes from stories such as this: Several of my vet friends
who’ve gone back to Viet Nam, especially in the early years of open
travel there, tell me about their experiences of interacting with the
people. Typical is that when meeting a Vietnamese person on the
street or some public place, the Vietnamese is rather skeptical of the
white westerner until they find out that he’s not Russian, but
American. Then they become all smiles and friendliness. When
opportunity presents, they become very outgoing and helpful. To
make my point I‘ll relate an incident that one of my close Viet Nam
vet friends told me. He’s a triple amputee having lost both
legs, an arm, and an eye to a buried mine when on patrol one day.
He went back to Viet Nam a few years ago and visited the Cu Chi tunnels.
The docent there was a former Viet Cong. When he learned that Jim
was a Viet Nam vet, he insisted that he, personally, would literally
carry Jim down into the tunnels and show him through the tunnel complex.
Jim was overwhelmed, of course. The healing and relationship that
took place was dynamic and real. It spoke volumes for
relationships, healing, and understanding between the common Vietnamese
and Americans, especially vets. The media will never say it, nor
will the educators, but it is my belief that the “American” War was
won, in large measure, by those vets who gave so much. I guess it
will go down in history as being a lost war. Maybe so. But
it’s more accurate and honest for history to record that the war was
won by those brave soldiers who went and did what their country asked.
Then it was given away by the politicians who had their own agenda and
understanding. That’s a more honest evaluation of the “lost”
war. Now, time has passed and Viet Nam is apparently thriving.
Most of the people were born after the war. Now the media, the
politicians, the businessmen, the tourists, and, yes, the Vietnamese
people, are benefiting greatly. And rightly so. Some of us
would just like it to be known that the present blossoming of that
beautiful country is built largely on the foundation of sacrifice of
those young Americans who gave themselves so this blossoming could be.
I believe the Vietnamese people understand this. Maybe someday
history will too. So, in a way, both sides won in the end.
Was it worth the cost? Put it this way, I’m one who believes
that our soldiers did not die in vain.
The USA wasn’t fighting a religious war. The war became very
complex and political. But I believe the American soldier fought
from right motives and, as I already said, he gained far more than that
for which he is credited (or discredited). Psalm 121 reflects
feelings of many of those soldiers: “I will lift up my eyes to
the mountains; From whence shall my help come from? My help comes
from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your
foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber (verses 1-3).”
It’s the prayer of many that the land of Viet Nam will continue to
prosper and history will recognize that the sacrifices of many young
Americans contributed their share.
God bless you. God loves you. So do I.
Chaplain Larry Haworth
HOBNOBBING WITH THE WEALTHY Do you know what “hobnobbing” means? I’m not being smart-alecky. A lot of people under 55 never heard the word or what it means. I think a lot of us older, even way older, wouldn’t know either. Actually, I’m most likely older than you, and I don’t know where I learned it, I probably learned it in an old time Sunday comic strip. Remember Maggie and Jiggs? No? Well, they were very funny - she was the boss, of course. They were a very, very wealthy couple - lots of moolah - but funny anyway. The strip was called “Bringing Up Father.” “So what does that have to do with anything?” you’re probably asking. I respond, “They were comic stories about very wealthy people hobnobbing with each other in ways that were very funny.” In those days I guess we had a primitive sense of humor. Anyway, the dictionary says hobnob means “to associate in a familiar way.” So, Maggie and Jiggs went around hobnobbing with other wealthy people. Got it? I’m making a point, so let’s proceed and it’ll become clear. For starts, I’ll remind you that I was a chaplain in the Army for twenty seven years, give or take a few days. Since I’m assuming that you’re a veteran or a vet’s wife or family member, having served in the Army (or another service). “So what?” you say. “Bear with me because I’m about to explain.” I contend that each of us, you, me, and anyone else who served in the military has hobnobbed with wealthy people as much as Maggie and Jiggs. I’m well into my retirement years now. This stage of life is fun and interesting. I look back to my school years when I planned to be a junior high school teacher or a church minister. In those days teachers didn’t make a whole lot and ministers often were paid according to The Deacon’s Prayer which was “Lord, you keep him humble and we’ll keep him poor.” That’s a joke, but it makes the point that I didn’t expect to ever be a wealthy man. Now I’m at this end of life and I’ve discovered that I’ve become a very wealthy man, same as you. For starts, I’ll let you know that I’m OK financially, not wealthy with money, but OK. However, get this: it’s not money I’m talking about, anyway. There are many ways to be wealthy in this world, and money is not numero uno. I hope this doesn’t disillusion anyone, but that’s the way it is. So, I’m a wealthy man. I expect you are too, unless you’re a woman, then you’re a wealthy woman. All kidding aside, think about it. I’m wealthy in many ways: I made it through twenty seven years in the Army. This included two combat tours in Viet Nam and six years along the East German border when the Cold War was a reality and the East German border was where it would get hot first. I’ve known many great people serving in our country’s uniform. I’ve had vet friends of every color, kind, skill, and economic status. Many experiences, places, people, situations, and conditions have filled my life. God has given me a purpose, a reason to live, to get up every morning, that has been fulfilling to me and helped me to contribute, to make the world better than if I’d never been here. God has given you and me abilities, experiences, and accomplishments that we look back on and wonder how they could have happened. That’s wealth. I’ll let you in on a secret that you and I probably share: If God had told me ahead of time what He was going to have me do and where He was going to send me, I’m not so sure I would have done it. That may sound sacrilegious; I hope not, but I think it’s probably true. Fortunately, God doesn’t tell us the details ahead of time. Then, when it’s over and done, we realize that we came through just fine. And so, here we are. Go ahead and think of your life’s personal wealth account. You’ll find that your account is full in ways money can‘t touch. Think about your family. You may come from a perfect family, but I doubt it. Most of us don’t. Family is a powerful and wonderful organism, whether perfect or flawed. For most of us, having a family is a resource for mutual love, support, understanding, and sense of place and acceptance. For anyone without such a family, substitutes are somewhere around: close friends, blood or adopted relatives, and “soul mates,” are some. Over a lifetime, these relationships bring wealth in ways we understand and feel but can never measure in money or possessions. Friends. My wife and I have friends all over the USA and around the world. So do you…. Well, at least in many places. Friends in Tennessee look forward to us coming to stay for a while, friends in Virginia love us as much as we love them. Vets in South Dakota are glad when we show up - we re-live old experiences that are healing for all of us. Cousins all over Oklahoma are actually glad when we come. Relatives in California, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Oregon, Arizona, and Colorado love us and we them. And the list goes on. The point is, relationships are powerful, permanent, and mean a lot more than any amount of money. Take stock once in a while - you’ll be reminded how wealthy you really are. What about your abilities? I fervently hope you are taking stock of just how wealthy you are in your abilities. Can you sing like Caruso? I doubt it. You probably can’t sing at all - so what? So your buddy can. Great! Can you build a house or take a car apart? Yes? Wonderful. I can’t. So what! I can do something else. I can drive a school bus, I can drive a forty foot motor home all over the US. I rode tanks around the jungle with the Blackhorse and flew in helicopters over tree lines taking fire. I was a chaplain resource for soldiers. Now I am for vets. See what I’m saying? You’ve developed your own abilities over the years. You have wealth in your account too. At the risk of overdoing it, I’ll point out one more account you have in your personal wealth: your memories. Think about it. Be specific. You married, raised children, and had grandkids too. You slogged through the bush on patrols, you drove tanks, you survived tough times, and you had precious buddies who gave their lives. You remember and honor them. Your life has been rich and full. Not perfect, with many blunders, but you are wealthy. It‘s real. The last account I have room for is your God account. That one takes in the whole thing. I’ll let God’s Word, the Bible, speak for itself: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” II Corinthians 9:8, 10-11(NIV). This account is full now and has been available for you all along. I hope you’re tapping into it. I am. It pays off. God bless you. God loves you. So do I. Chaplain Larry Haworth 6508 Bannocks Drive
YOU ARE IMPORTANT
How often do you call somewhere and, instead of a live human voice
answering, you get that all-too-familiar, “Please hold, your call is
important to us”? I get it too often. I’ll admit, though, that I’d rather
hear a recorded voice than just a busy signal. And, I do hope that the
recorded voice is speaking for the human and that my call really is
important to them. But I sometimes wonder.
Please take these written words as coming from the heart of a real
person, namely me, when I say, “you truly are important.” We live in an
age of synthetic voices, recorded messages, canned speeches, superficial
come-ons, and awful sales pitches. It seems that, no matter where we go,
what we do, or what channel we surf, someone is there saying how important
we are. Trouble is, it’s not always so clear whether we are important to
them because we are intrinsically important to them or whether they just
want to get something from us. How much junk mail do you receive? How
much spam clogs up your email? You know you’re important to the senders
of this unwanted stuff. You also know that you’re important only because
they want something from you, mostly money. Not that they are or are not
worthy organizations or people, but they may or may not even know you.
You are important, not for yourself, but for what they want from you.
On the other hand, as I already said, you truly are important. Like,
when you call a friend and get their answering machine. They aren’t home
at the time and the answering machine says to leave a message and they’ll
call you back. Then, a while later, they actually do call you back. That
makes you feel important to them, doesn’t it? Of course, it does. That’s
because when you’re important enough to your friend that he or she goes to
the trouble to return your call, you are reassured that you are important
enough for them to take the time and effort to call you just as they were
important enough to you to make the call to begin with. My wife and I
recently moved into a retirement community where we knew absolutely no
one. However, everybody who lives here is retired military, the kind who
are usually easy to meet. We quickly became friends with our neighbors.
They began calling us whenever they would be away to just let us know what
was going on with them. They were interested in what was happening with
us too. We were important to them and we felt it. They were important to
us, for sure. Within days of moving to a new home we’d gained new
friends! How can you beat that?
I assure you that you are just as important as our new neighbors or as
we or as anyone else. Think about it. Your importance isn’t dependent on
how you feel about it. I remember some years ago when I was in a real
funk. I was going through a hard time and I really felt down and very
unimportant to anyone, except maybe to my immediate family and they were
clear across the country. Then, a friend, who I’ll never forget, said to
me, “Larry, if you knew how others feel about you, you wouldn’t feel that
way about yourself.” That was well over thirty years ago. I assure you
that the same applies to you. You are important. You are important in
and of yourself. You are important just because you’re you. You’re also
important because someone loves you. You are important because you have
something worthwhile to someone else, whether near or far. It may be
great or it may be small. You may be overwhelmingly talented or you may
be normal like most of us. But you are important. You may or you may not
feel it, but you are.
Finally, let me remind you that you are important because God made you
and He says you are important. You are not an accident. You were planned
by God and you are loved by God. Whether you feel it or not, you are
loved and you are important. If God said you are worthy and you are
loved, then you are. Jesus said in Matthew 10:29-30, “Are not two
sparrows sold for a penney? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground
apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many
sparrows.” The Bible also says, in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world
that he gave His only Son….” The world includes you and me. That’s how
it is.
Indeed, you are important. So am I. Never forget that. OK? OK.
God bless you. God loves you. So do I.
12/20/08
HOLIDAYS
Christmas! Hanukkah! New Years Day! Valentines Day! Presidents Day
(George Washingtons and Abraham Lincolns birthdays combined)! Martin
Luther Kings Birthday! Easter! Memorial Day! Fourth of July! Veterans
Day! Thanksgiving! (Forgive me if I left any out) What great days!
What happy days! “Oh? What’s so happy about them?,” you might say. “You
gotta be kidding,” I reply. What’s so happy about them is we get time
off. We celebrate by having cook-outs and going away. “What do you think
I’m thinking?,” you might ask. What I’m thinking is that holidays are
wonderful days, fun days, days to take time off and do something special.
So I like having cook-outs and trips to the lake on holidays. But it
seems to me that there’s a whole lot more to these special days than just
doing something different and getting away from work, school, and
routine.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think that holidays are happy days, or
at least that they should be. I recognize that for some, there are
holidays that have very bad memories and associations because of terrible
things that happened to them on that day. Some may have lost a family
member on a holiday so they don’t like the holiday or it’s season because
it reminds them of that sad event. Others may remember being in a
terrible place on a particular holiday so they don’t like that day because
it reminds them of what they want to forget. Some are alone so they don’t
like the holiday because they don’t have family or close friends to
celebrate with - their loneliness is magnified on holidays because they
are along when others are enjoying their families or old friends. But,
aside from these negative associations some of us might have, almost all
of us really like and enjoy holidays in this blessed land of America.
Every holiday I’ve mentioned, and others I may have overlooked, is very
important to us, including our personal birthdays. The reason they are so
important is that each holiday has a special reason and meaning for being
a holiday. Sure, time off work, a change in routine, BBQs and picnics are
important. We have a strong need for family gatherings, for seeing old
friends, for getting together with neighbors. But please recognize this:
there’s a particular reason for why each holiday is there to begin with.
Each was set aside because it means something very important that no other
day of the year means in that particular way. The Fourth of July is to
celebrate the day when our Founders signed the Declaration of Independence
and we became our own independent, individual country with freedoms and
rights that no other country ever had before. Veterans Day is a day we
set aside to remember and show appreciation to all the men and women who
have served in our military to protect and preserve America - the land of
the free and home of the brave. Do you see what I mean?
For several years I traveled to Washington, DC to visit the war
memorials that honor those who’ve given their lives in the wars our
country has fought in order to preserve the freedoms that everyone
deserves. I love Memorial Day for what it means . I also appreciate the
time off and the activities that I enjoy. I feel the same for every
holiday and I try real hard to observe each one for what it means. I also
like to have plenty of fun on those days.
As I’m writing this, it’s almost Christmas. I’ve gotten into the
Christmas spirit. I enjoy the music, the lights, the food (uh-oh, too
much food), and all. But I also recognize why Christmas is a holiday
too. For Christians, it’s to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God and our Savior. For everyone, including non-Christians, it’s a
time to express our love for our families, for each other [and everyone
around us, I hope], to exchange gifts and bring happiness to others, to
enjoy traditions of happiness, joy to the world, and Santa Claus. So,
when we say “Merry Christmas” all of this is what we’re wishing for those
to whom we give the greeting.
So, guess what. At Christmas, I say, “Merry Christmas” or “I hope you’ll have a wonderful Christmas” or any genuine expression that specifically says Christmas. This applies to Christian and non-Christian friends alike (and strangers too). For a specifically Jewish friend, I also say, “Happy Hanukkah” because that’s exactly what I mean. Or I say, “Happy New Year” because I truly do hope you will have a wonderful year coming. Or I say, “Happy Birthday” because it’s your special day and I truly hope you’ll have a real nice and personally special day in whatever way you want it to be.
So guess what else, I say “Happy Holidays” because I want you to have a
happy holiday, whatever holiday you pick out, for it to be happy. Pick
out whichever one you want it to apply to because “happy holidays” is a
generic greeting and you can apply it however you want to. It’s a happy
greeting and it carries whatever meaning you want. Personally, I choose
to be quite specific in my greeting because I want you to know exactly
what I mean - at Christmas I really hope you’ll feel and experience the
joy and beauty of the season, to receive the love of God’s gift to all of
us, and you in particular. On Thanksgiving I’m specific in wishing for
you a share in the bounty of this blessed land and a true measure of the
prosperity that is ours as Americans. On your birthday, I’ve already
explained that I’m specific that this is your day and not just another
holiday lumped together with all others to be happy.
So, I do wish you “Happy Holidays.” But far more than that, since it’s
Christmas as I write, I wish for you “Merry Christmas.” May you really
experience the joy and full meaning of the season. Also, “Happy New
Year.” May you really have a wonderful, prosperous, and healing year of
2009. For my Jewish friends, “Happy Hanukkah.” May you experience the
meaning of the season as you light your candles and celebrate the freedoms
which your day celebrates.
God bless y’all. God loves you. So do I.
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