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Pastor of Joplin church leads service on Christmas Eve from military post in Iraq
Dec 25, 2009 (The Joplin Globe - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
In many ways, it was a typical Christmas Eve service.
After the call to worship, those gathered in the pews Thursday morning at Generations Free Will Baptist Church at 2301 S. Connecticut Ave. in Joplin were led in traditional hymns such as "Joy to the World," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Silent Night."
Darrel Nichols, the church's interim pastor, led the congregation in prayer and then introduced the speaker for the special morning service.
"It is now our great privilege to hear a sermon from Iraq, from our own pastor, Jerald Bass," Nichols said.
Bass is serving as an Army chaplain in southern Iraq with the 389th Support Battalion out of Fort Totten, N.Y.
Cassie Bass, his wife, said her husband enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2002.
"His dad and brother also served," she said. "And, of course, he's a preacher, so serving as a chaplain was the natural way for him to go."
Bass, who left in September for his yearlong deployment in Iraq, has kept in contact with his wife and five children by e-mail and phone. Cassie Bass said it was his idea to try to set up a live feed to do the Christmas Eve service.
The feed on Thursday morning also was carried by churches in New York, Oregon and Washington.
Nichols, a Pryor, Okla., resident and former international missionary, said he has been impressed with how supportive the members of the Joplin congregation have been of their pastor and his family.
Thursday's service, he said, was important for a number of reasons.
"It's a way for (Bass) to stay close to his congregation, and a way to keep the soldiers in the hearts and minds of the people," Nichols said. "Plus, it brings a bit of home to our soldiers in Iraq."
As the service from Iraq began, a number of soldiers could be seen via computer gathered there in a chapel.
The title of Bass' sermon was -- appropriately enough -- "From the East, They Came to Worship," and he said he would be focusing on the first few verses of the second chapter of Matthew.
"The sermon today is about the three wise men and how they responded to a sign in the sky," Bass said, "and what that teaches us about what we should do today.
"They took directions from God to lead them to Jesus."
As his sermon came to a close, and Bass prepared to serve communion to the soldiers in the chapel, the video feed froze on an image of the Joplin man standing at the pulpit.
"Technology is wonderful," Nichols said, before the Joplin congregation continued the service by singing "O Come All Ye Faithful."
"But it's complicated sometimes."
Feed coordination
Jerald Bass' 18-year-old son, Andrew, helped coordinate the feed from the Joplin church.
"We were going to use (the video conferencing program) Skype, but that only lets you do a feed from one place to another," Andrew Bass said. "We used another program called TokBox instead so we can link to other churches. It's a great opportunity for soldiers to see their families again."
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