Before living in Kansas, military life was obscure to me, its only been in the last 4 years that I've even stopped to consider what military life would be like. I have a friend that I met a few years back when she was pregnant with her 2nd child and was living on base. About the time her husband was deployed, they bought a home and where moving off base to more of a civilian life. She faced the move and the pregnancy all on her own without the convenience of being on base and having the support of their 'green family' that is available there.
Since that time her husband returned home the baby was born and then he was deployed again. She kicked it in to high gear and now was living life (on all accounts) as a full time working mother of two with no husband to help.
When her husband returned home again, I remember her mentioning how difficult it was to let him 'lead' and she take the 2nd rank in their home. Of course that would be difficult! Over this past year, her husband has developed depression and been hospitalized on three separate occasions for PTSD. My heart aches for her and their children and I've been praying for his recovery.
So now today, after attending this seminar, I recognize the deep spiritual need this young man must have and the lack of resources available to help him with the spiritual aspect of all that he has encountered in military life.
Being a part of the Brethren in Christ, and knowing full well our 'peace' position I am left grappling with what is the best approach to reach military families with the love of Jesus? Don't we have a responsibility to ignore the 'elephant in the room' namely war and get down to ministry?
After hearing a lot of statistics on suicide (the military has a higher % than the national average) and the cycle of home life, training, deployment, returning to home life, training, etc... that families in the military face, I have a lot of questions on my heart.
So I will begin where I can... I plan to share the info that I learned today about resources that may help my friend and her husband. Then I will continue to pray about what the Lord would have me to do.
Our church is within proximity of a military base and more and more military families are choosing to live off base. I am not aware of any support within my county for those families. I plan to research this more as well as ask my friend some pointed questions as to what would best help her family.
The "Pollyanna" in me wants to host a military appreciation supper in my community as well. At least its a start...
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