[…]you’ll have this background, you’ll be able to focus more time on getting to know the chaplain personally. A chapel ministry offers a springboard for expansion for Christ’s kingdom within the military. In the two to three years you spend at a duty station, you can mature in your own Christian life and witness among military people so that you’ll be more effective as a professional officer and as a spiritual leader. What is your vision for the expansion of Christ’s church? Does it include people from all corners of America, from all cultures of mankind, and from all countries […]
[…]it helpful to begin the day looking to God for guidance and strength for the day. The military lifestyle gives you unique opportunities to experience the peace and grace of God during hard times. Chaplain Stan Beach said, “When my situation can’t be changed, I can work at learning and implementing productive responses that will honor the Lord.”5 Denise McColl said, “A good friend once told me, ‘Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you!’ Applying this concept works wonders during deployment!”6 Sue Roberts advises separated families to “not pray for an easy life; […]
[…]he planned to enter the ministry. Then he told me how much it had meant to him in everyday life to become a Christian. In discussing his immediate future, Russell said that the platoon of which he was a member needed a scout, and that he had volunteered. Men must usually be assigned to this task. Russell assured me that his confidence was in Jesus to whom also he looked for the strength and courage necessary to undergo the many dangerous assignments which were to be his. I heard later that Russell was the means of leading at least three […]
[…]grin. Through laughs and tears we all just stood there hugging each other. It was the reunion of a lifetime, a miracle for the four of us! That reunion was over thirty-three years ago, and I still get goose bumps when I think of it. Yet, today I see a very similar picture. As mothers of young children, we are so often told that our children are too young to understand about their heavenly Father. They’ll forget whatever they learn at this age, but later when they get older they’ll get to know him. As a result of this thinking, […]
[…]transformed it over the years from a knife into a trowel. My father intuitively recognized that in life there are different seasons for different pursuits. When his weapon had completed its military service, it was properly suited for a nonviolent use. Man forms instruments for war. God changes them into tools of peace. That is at the heart of this promise in the Book of Isaiah. “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD– He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths…’ They will beat […]
by Stu Weber No Kidding. “Rotcy” changed my life. It opened the door for me to the single most potent educational experience of my life–a brief stint on active duty in the U.S. Army. In retrospect, military service proved to be more mindshaping for me than four years of college. And more soul-strengthening than seminary. As I write these words, I glance up at the wall above my computer–and smile. There are no sheepskins there. But there is a faded Ranger school diploma and an old set of Vietnamese jump wings. And pictures of young men. Hal Moore said it […]
[…]of what you said to us on your first day in the battalion and how you backed it up with your life.” He and I had never had a discussion about spiritual matters. We had a young chaplain in the battalion who did a wonderful job of ministry to soldiers. As a member of the staff, he attended our weekly meetings, and he asked if he could open them with prayer. I first asked the others who attended if any would be offended. After all, this was an official mandatory meeting. No one objected, so I told the chaplain that […]
