Kissed by a Girl

Ok. Ok. Before you get too excited or jump all over me please let me do a lot of explaining!

Most of you know that I've been saying for a long time that I want to wait and kiss my wife for the first time on wedding day. It's one of the extremes I talk about to help myself not fall into temptation early.

And...

Hopefully you are also wondering what the heck is up with my blog! It's gone and then it's back and I claim it will be to the glory of God and about His Love and then I post about being kissed by a girl?

Well, give me time, and you will see how this is exactly the love of God at work.

Let me start near the beginning...

Last Monday I went along with Captain Hodge and Sergeant Ferdinand to visit with an Imam, a Muslim leader. He lives in a town called Gornje Karacevo which is about the farthest away from Camp Bondsteel that you can get and still be in our sector. This town is right along the Adminstrative Boundary Line (ABL) with Serbia. In fact the main road to get there crosses over into Serbia and back into Kosovo due to the use of bad maps when they established the ABL. KFOR, the multi-national military forces here, actually had to build a gravel road bypass so that our military vehicles do not cross over into Serbia to get to the towns of Karacevo.

This Imam is a very young influential man in a town of about 1300 people. Boy is this Imam a talker. We spent three hours there and America has a lot to learn about hospitality. I hope to bring some of theier culture of hospitality back with me. As we were getting ready to leave his home, we stepped outside and begin to put our boots back on. There were 3 young children hanging around outside and of course I begin to interact with them. At first I was just doing my normal routine where I greet them in their own laungage and shake their hand. They think it's funny enough just hearing us speak to them in Albanian. Then I moved on pointing at things on their shirt and getting them to look down just to slide your finger up and bop them in the nose. Kids are pretty smart everywhere. They usually don't fall for it more then once per visit. There was one little boy about 2 years old and two girls about 2 and 3 years old. The boy was very outgoing and saluted and so I taught him how to properly salute and got him looking like a good soldier. Then something else came to mind that I hadn't done yet with the children in Kosovo before. Bear with me as I try to explain something techinal to do with your arms. Remember when you extend your arms with both palms facing outwards, clasped your hands together, then twisted your arms up and pulled your hands close into your chest? Unless you place your hands right to begin with you can't twist your arms inwards. Well, I did it real quick and off course the kids tried it and couldn't get it at first. Then I attempted to show them and help them get it right. The boy caught on quickly and smiled real big with a huge grin from ear to ear. Another older girl that was there had to help out one of the girls so she could figure it out. Then they both were smiling and we had to go, so I said my goodbyes. :(

But the story continues...

Today we went back to visit the Imam again. We had along some engineers and some TMK members to evaluate a project in the town that the Imam was wanting us to do. The Imam treated us to a very traditional meal and we spent a few hours talking with him, the municipality president, and other locals at the Imam's house. At one point early in the evening the same little girl that needed help to learn how to twist her arms tried to come into the room from outside but was shooshed away. Finally towards the end of the evening the little girl came from behind a curtain that lead to the rest of the house and saw me and waved. Of course I waved back and thankfully the TMK member next to me motioned and told her to come over. They greeted her and shook her hand and then she came down the line of us soldiers and shook and greeted each of us. The TMK member next to me then picked her up and sat her down next to him and wrapped his arm around her. After a little bit she looked over at me, put her two hands together, plams facing out, and twisted her arms up into her chest and smiled. I had to laugh. I pointed at her shirt and she looked down and fell for the classic old trick. So she did it back to me and of course I fell for it as well. You would think that I would know my own tricks! :) Then I pointed at the TMK member next to her and got him on the trick too. She looked up at me, pointed to the ceiling and I wondered what this trick would be but decided to play along and looked straight up at the ceiling. Next thing I know she wraps her arms around my neck pulls herself up into a hug and kiss me smack on the neck! I've just been kissed by a girl.

Everyone sitting around us laughed. I had to laugh and smile too as she definitely pulled one over on me. I praise God for this instance tonight. You see, what do you think really happened through all of the interaction between this girl and I? I know one thing for sure. I was kissed not just by a little girl tonight, I was kissed by God.

If it was my own love pouring out onto others as I play with the children through language barriers, it would get no where. My love would fail. But since it is God's love that is in me that I choose to pour out onto others through interacting with them, then His love is returned. This little girl may not have heard about the love of the God that I believe in, but I know that she has experienced it. For that I praise God. I thank Him for a little girl tonight that took His love and continued to pass it right on to someone else. I pray that some day she will understand the true meaning of God's Love in her life.

Here she is along with two of the gentlemen that treated us with much hospitality.



May you be kissed by God in your own life.