Army
Chaplain Offers Baptisms, Baths
By Meg Laughlin
CAMP BUSHMASTER, Iraq - In
this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support
system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there's an oasis of sorts:
a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.
It belongs to Army chaplain
Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands
of filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an opportunity.
''It's simple. They want
water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,'' he said.
And agree they do. Every day, soldiers take the plunge for the Lord
and come up clean for the first time in weeks.
''They do appear physically
and spiritually cleansed,'' Llano said.
First, though, the soldiers
have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor
tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting from the Bible.
''Regardless of their motives,''
Llano said, ``I get the chance to take them closer to the Lord.''
A blue-eyed 32-year-old with
an abundance of energy, Llano goes out every day to drum up grimy soldiers
for his pool.
He talks to truck drivers,
tank drivers, computer specialists -- anyone and everyone. He goes out
to the combat zone to the fighting soldiers and the combat support soldiers
who keep them in supplies.
''You have to be aggressive
to help people find themselves in God,'' he said.
He calls himself a ''Southern
Baptist evangelist,'' and justifies the war and killing with a verse
from the Gospel of Matthew, which he often recites: ``Give unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.
''This means we are called
upon by our government to fight and that is giving unto Caesar, as the
Bible tells us,'' he said.
Earlier this week, word went
out that portable showers might be installed here soon, but Llano was
undaunted.
''There is no fruit out here,
and I have a stash of raisins, juice boxes and fruit rolls to pull out,''
the chaplain said optimistically.
(This article first appeared
on Miami Herald)