Seminary joins national prayer support for troops & leaders
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| Call to prayer Endel Lee, assistant professor of preaching and pastoral ministries and a chaplain in the Navy reserves, leads students and faculty at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College in a prayer for U.S. leaders, troops and their families and the Iraqi people. |
Contributing to the momentum: the seminary community's participation in the "Adopt our Troops in Prayer" initiative of the Presidential Prayer Team, an independent, nonprofit organization seeking to encourage specific nationwide prayer for the president.
"We are trying to launch an organized prayer momentum on our campus that will parallel the current threat level to our troops and their loved ones," said Endel Lee, assistant professor of preaching and pastoral ministries at the seminary's undergraduate Leavell College.
Workers ready to offer ‘living water’ in Iraq
PLANO, Texas (BP)--Messengers of God's love are ready to minister in Iraq as the Lord creates opportunities in difficult times, a Southern Baptist worker said from Jordan during a live videophone uplink with the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church March 30.
Chaplain duo prepare for duty, sacrifices alongside troops
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| 'Send us more' Fellow chaplains Lt. Col. Gil Richardson, right, a Presbyterian, and Maj. Jim Caraway, a Southern Baptist, discuss the deployment of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. Richardson, division senior chaplain, encouraged Southern Baptists to "send us more chaplains." Photo by Richard D. McCormack |
Caraway, a Southern Baptist minister in uniform, is assistant division chaplain and responsible for the spiritual health of the more than 29,000 soldiers being deployed with the combined elements of the Fort Hood-based division's combat task force. When the soldiers see combat, Caraway said he also will be "in the middle of the dirt, eating MREs [Meals Ready to Eat], not bathing and suffering from a lack of sleep."
Soldiers and their spouses embraced and wept after the 4th Infantry Division's deployment ceremony March 27. Caraway said his feelings about leaving the Texas army base for the Persian Gulf aren't any different from those of the soldiers he watches over. He admits getting choked up when he speaks of leaving his family behind.
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| Chaplain's gift U.S. Army Chaplain 1st Lt. Virgil Thomas, left, hands a soldier of the 4th Infantry Division a camouflaged Bible just after the March 27 deployment ceremony. Lead elements of the division began arriving in Kuwait on March 29. Photo by Richard D. McCormack |
"We cry a lot. My wife talks about the time I spend at work as opposed to the time I spend at home with her. Families sacrifice and ours is no different. You have to make quality time out of the time you've been given," Caraway said. "It's as important to be a husband as a minister."
It's also important to be a grandfather, he said. "If we're gone for more than a year and my grandson asks, I want my family to tell him, 'Grandpa is over taking care of soldiers who are away from their families just like Grandpa is away from his family. ... He is trying to help people.'"
Lynch’s hometown drawn closer to one another, God, pastor says
ELIZABETH, W.Va. (BP)--The capture and rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch has served to bring her hometown closer together and closer to God, a Southern Baptist pastor from the area says.
Lynch, whose family lives on the outskirts of Palestine, W.Va., had been listed as a prisoner of war following a firefight around Nasiriyah, Iraq, March 23. But on April 2 military forces launched a nighttime raid to rescue the 19-year-old private.
Chaplain at the ready for the aviators of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75)
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| Blessed assurance Chaplain Alan Wilmot says a prayer from the flight deck each time a naval aviator departs for a mission from the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Photo by Jim Veneman |
At 2 in the morning or 6 at night, he is a familiar sight among the aircrew. Wilmot is present on the flight deck for every schedule of air operations, saying a prayer, hands folded, as each aviator launches to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
‘Operation Prayer Cover’ website offers resources on war in Iraq
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--The North American Mission Board has introduced "Operation Prayer Cover" website to assist Christians praying for those involved in the war in Iraq.
From tent city near Iraqi border, worker reports on refugee aid
AMMAN, Jordan (BP)--In the rugged desert on Jordan's border with Iraq, a tent city has been set up for refugees fleeing hostilities in Iraq. Baptists and other evangelical Christians are there, ministering to the needs of Sudanese, Somalians, Egyptians and others who left the country with only the clothes on their backs
Chaplain pens dispatches from Kuwait for Dallas newspaper
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| Chaplain's chronicles Steve Munson, center, a U.S. Army Reserve chaplain from Fort Worth Texas, stands with fellow members of the 607th Military Police Battalion at their camp in Kuwait. |
His reports from Kuwait in the March 22 and March 29 editions of the paper detail some of his experiences accompanying the 607th Military Police Battalion from Grand Prairie, Texas. Munson has been pastor of Grace Fellowship Baptist Church in Fort Worth since 1989.
Reccord: military chaplains meeting soldiers’ spiritual, emotional needs
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (BP)--While evangelists of all types prepared to move onto the sands of Fort Lauderdale Beach in a massive evangelism effort, the president of the North American Mission Board said 980 military chaplains are walking similar paths around the world.
JOURNAL ENTRIES: Glimpses of missile launches mean both tragedy, victory
ABOARD USS HARRY S. TRUMAN, EAST MEDITERANNEAN (BP)--A first-person account.
--Friday, 3/28, eighth day on board.
Last night, or actually, very early this morning, a group of media stood on the fantail of the ship and looked up at the stars. The lights at the stern of the ship were extinguished and the deck was black. As I gazed up, the stars seemed to wink back at me. It was like the group with me had our very own private planetarium, but it was the real thing.
