Government Shutdown!!! WHAT?!

Before the shutdown happened, I told the midshipmen that if the government shutdown then the missionaries would still be there.  “We don’t work for the government.  We work for the Lord!” I reminded them.  Now that the shutdown has taken effect we are still here on the yard trying to spread the gospel. 

With half of the staff at the Naval Academy being civilians, the first thing I noticed on October 1^st was more parking.  Other than that, from the outside, everything seemed to be the same.  There were still guards at the gates.  The midshipmen still walked to class (which always reminds me of ants marching around), and the midshipmen still did their noon formation.  However, if you asked a midshipmen about the changes they could tell you a lot.  For instance, since about half of their professors are civilians many of their classes are practically put on hold.  Midshipmen have to go to class and sit there even if they don’t have a professor.  They are expected to read their books or work on new homework that the professors may have left, but they cannot ask their professors questions.  By law, a professor cannot show up to work or even read emails.  If the midshipmen is lucky (Or unlucky however you look at) they may be assigned a temporary military professor and be placed with two or three other classes.   For a while, they did not even know if the big Navy Air Force game was going to happen, but that was worked out and Navy had a great victory!  Hopefully, everything will continue to slowly go back to normal, but until then let us continue to pray for our country and politicians. 



P.S.  As of October 7th, civilian professors are back to work!