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Programs & Projects |
This was one important question discussed at On Earth Peace’s workshops on “Healing the Troops”, a part of the broader Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership activities in Washington, DC. Doris Abdullah, a mother of a Marine who has served two tours in Iraq, explained that, although war and the troops are connected issues, the problems of the soldiers, sailors, and Marines must be separated from the issues of the broader peace witness. Mel Menker, the father of an National Guard soldier who has served a tour in the Afghanistan theatre and is in training to return to Afghanistan or to Iraq, described how the soldier and his/her family are changed forever by deployment and combat. Abdullah and Menker, both members of the Church of the Brethren, were the presenters at the workshops. They shared their stories and experience. They sought to help the participants to better understand the problems faced by returning military veterans and their families and to consider what kinds of ministries of service and witness individuals and congregations could undertake with these families. They said that it is typical for most of us not to really think much about military service, deployment, and combat experience until it suddenly happens to one’s own family. Thus Doris and Mel said they were surprised when their respective sons announced that they wanted to join the military. They noted that it wouldn’t be long before they learned that their lives and relationships would be changed forever. Menker, who is the senior pastor at Oak Park Church of the Brethren in Oakland, Maryland, said that their son’s ultimate deployment prompted him and his wife to investigate further issues related to military service. They learned that in rural counties like theirs, military service is often an economic necessity due to lack of enough good job opportunities. He learned that National Guard and Reserve soldiers and their families have fewer support resources readily available because they live home, scattered, whereas regular Army soldiers and their families are assigned to Army bases where the support services are easy to access. One result is that the divorce rate among Guard and Reserve is three times higher than among regular Army soldiers. This mixture of their civilian and military lives also has serious affects on the veterans returning from combat. Forty to fifty percent of Guard and Reserve combat veterans are diagnosed with some degree of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as compared with 30% of regular Army combat veterans. Because of the lack of support services in their Appalachian county, Mel and his wife started their own support program made up of the several families in his congregation with sons or daughters having served or serving in the military. As they learned the impact on the entire three-county area, they opened up the family support group to any family with loved ones in any branch of the service. The group works closely with the National Guard and receives training and other assistance for the services they offer to families. Mel’s congregation also participates in the National Guard’s Partners-In-Care program, providing a variety of services to service personnel and their families in the area, including monthly support meetings, sending care packages, participation in local prayer services, preparing and conducting homecomings, working with the county commission annually to designate May as Military Support Month. Mel stressed that this observation of support is of the troops and their families, not an expression of support for the war.
Abdullah, a member of the First Church of the Brethren in Brooklyn, New York, said that their son was educated in private schools. The Catholic high school he attended sent 98% of its graduates to college. She said she never expected her son would be one of the 2%. His interest arose before 9/11, then increased in the wake of the tragedies of that day. Doris said she never even thought that her son would not come home from the war. "The Lord allowed me to look on the passage in Luke 7 with a better understanding of what he could do. I was also a widow and my only son was in grave danger, but because of this passage in scripture, I knew he would return. Jesus had compassion for the woman and raised her son, returning him to his mother." When her son returned after his first deployment to Iraq, Doris was surprised at the change in him. "He was no longer my baby, but a grown man." He reacted to things to which she paid no attention, like police helicopters and streets narrowed by repairs with no ways of “escape”. Abdullah's son went back for a second tour in Iraq, even though he did not have to go. Soon after he returned to the States a second time, Doris began thinking more about what could be done to help her son adjust. She said that in the middle of a snowy night in New York, the idea came to her about service and witness to veterans, and her interest in the Welcome Home Project was born. Seeing her son faced with so many adjustments, Abdullah shared, "I did not want him to come back to a cold community, like the cold weather that he would have to re-adjust to - it reached over 140 degrees in Iraq." Doris said we can start by praying for the individual soldiers whom we know, and let them know we are praying for them. She said that there are a lot of resources to learn what kind of services these people and their families could use. And, Doris emphasized that we can do even the little things, because they all add up quickly in the minds of these young men and women. As she looks at her own efforts to help her son and to encourage others to help heal the pains these soldiers, sailors, and Marines bring home, she said she often thinks of the words of a Billie Holiday song:
Mel and Doris discussed the losses that these young men and women suffer upon return to civilian life after combat:
These losses can each contribute to the greater or lesser degree of PTSD. Dealing with them is no different than dealing with any loss, working through the five stages of grieving. Mel noted that this is why, when asked, as many as 99% want to return because much about their lives was clearer in the military. My own congregation, University Park Church of the Brethren, has been active in protesting the war in Iraq, holding a number of vigils and demonstrations with other community members on our church lot, among other activities. Yet, we have also gained some understanding of the value in separating the war from the need for healing by returning veterans. One idea that we have begun to explore is the possibility of developing a wellness center for returning veterans in our church-owned house, located next to our church building and across the street from an Army Reserve Center. Whatever project we may choose to do, we will start simple, then grow as we are able. We may explore working with a nearby Mennonite church, with whom we have a close relationship in a number of areas, including the peace witness. And we will explore including other neighborhood groups. The Welcome Home Project is new to our congregation, just arising in the past couple of months. It has sparked an interest and excitement among several people in our congregation and we will lead additional discussion within the church to decide what direction we might take.
As Jesus responded to the plea of the centurion to heal his servant, Doris and Mel encourage all of us to consider a ministry of service and witness to returning veterans and their families and look for ways that are appropriate to you and your congregation to respond to their needs. Such service demonstrates our love of Christ by serving all people, even those with whom we may have strong disagreements on war. Such service builds trust and can lead to these families to seek more as we also witness in a loving way to the peace of Christ, as well. ~ Dale M. Posthumus, University Park Church of the Brethren, Hyattsville, MD |
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