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For some, it's as simple as fixing a broken toilet or lawn mower. For others, it's holding a monthly dinner where military spouses can take a break and share their feelings, or calling them regularly to offer encouragement.

Churches in the shadow of Fort Campbell—home of the Army's famed 101st Airborne Division—know that regardless of how long the war with Iraq lasts, military families always have needs.

"There's plenty of hands-on ministry opportunities," says pastor Todd Gray, whose southwestern Kentucky church sits less than a mile from the massive installation's gates. "This is a great chance for the church to minister, whether it's mowing yards, changing oil in cars, or taking kids out for pizza or to a baseball game."

For Gray's congregation, that has meant such good works as starting a free, weekly childcare service to give parents time to run errands. Repairing a woman's dryer. Taking families out for dinner. Visiting a pregnant, bedridden spouse struggling to care for two boys on her own.

Their outreach also includes prayer. In addition to several community prayer services, during Sunday school in mid-March children wrote the names of 54 soldiers affiliated with the church on yellow ribbons then hung them in the church's prayer garden.

Too close to home
Sometimes these ministries to others can take a very personal turn. That's what happened to one church secretary whose congregation formed a military outreach last August.

As the wife of a career Army enlistee, Lillie Dearman wanted to help other families when needs arose. She volunteered to chair the "SOSaf" (Support Our Service members and families) committee at her church in nearby Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

But when her husband, Eddie, left for the Middle East on March 1, Dearman found herself struggling with a mix of conflicting emotions. She stepped aside to let a retired Naval seaman oversee the outreach.

Left with two teenage daughters to care for and plans of retirement this fall on hold, Mrs. Dearman suddenly encountered the toughest struggle of the couple's military career.

"We're just now getting out of the shock phase of deployment," she said last week soon after the start of the war. "This is the hardest time I've ever had. I don't know if it's because the girls are older, or because we were getting ready to retire, or because we remember Desert Storm and the fears are higher this time.

"I think it's a combination of things. I talked to two other wives and their feelings are the same. I empathize with younger wives because I know what they're going through."

Though taking a lower profile, Dearman still participates in SOSaf. Each week, she calls at least three spouses from among the 30 military families involved in the church.

Staying busy with ministry has helped Dearman channel her anxiety into something positive. Working with SOSaf also gives regular reminders of God's faithfulness. For instance, the ministry received a boost in mid-March when a Sunday school class raised $300 in a special offering. Among other things, that money helped pay the costs of repairing a military wife's toilet.

"I thought, God is awesome, because we needed money to fix that lady's toilet," Dearman said. "When my husband was [in a lower rank], everything would break when he was gone and I could never afford to get it fixed. So I know what it's like."

Besides plumbing repair and other mundane tasks, Dearman lists prayer as the leading priority for Christians wanting to support America's troops. She draws strength from two weekly prayer groups at her church-and people she has never met.

A congregation in Birmingham, Alabama, where her brother is minister of music, recently held a special service. The names of soldiers related to members in some way were placed on each of 50 stars on the American flag. Various members committed to pray daily for the names they selected.

When she arises each morning to pray for her husband, Dearman can sense that intercession. "I don't think there's words to say what it means to me," she says. "I can almost feel that others have his name and someone else is praying for him. It's a powerful thing."

A spiritual harvest
Across the state at Fort Knox, a former pastor turned Army chaplain also senses the effect prayer and the dangers of war are having on the fresh-faced recruits he preaches to each Sunday.

Over a ten-month period starting last May, Chaplain Brian Curry registered 300 professions of faith and 145 baptisms at the Protestant chapel where he preaches to men between the ages of 18 and 30.

Sunday services are packed at both Protestant and Catholic chapels on base. At Curry's, some soldiers have to sit on folding chairs or in the choir loft. A Sunday school he started in January with 33 men has ballooned to more than 150.

"Some of the soldiers who enlisted last year enlisted after 9/11 because of their love of country," says the 34-year-old chaplain, who left the pulpit in December 2001 to minister to the servicemen. "They want to know about quality of life."

He adds: "This is the second generation of non-churchgoers. They come in saying, 'I've never been to church. A lot of them come in here [spiritually] hungry. We've seen professions of faith increasing."

Nearby churches have helped support this spiritual harvest, sponsoring an ongoing series of fellowship dinners that are followed by services where the gospel is presented.

Chaplain Curry says this kind of outreach is significant, especially for those located near any kind of military installation. "Look at being a welcoming church," he says. "Embrace families while they're stationed by you, but then continue to have contact with them after they leave."

Congregations not close to a military base also have opportunities to show love and concern, according to Colonel Hugh Dukes, the installation chaplain at Fort Knox. Dukes says churches can meet the needs of family members of National Guard and Reserve units located across the nation.

"Some of these communities don't have a supportive atmosphere like Fort Knox," he observes. "Obviously, prayer for individuals and families is needed. There's always needs soldiers have in times of crisis, too. If there are family members in a community who have soldiers deployed, they may give (soldiers') addresses that people can write."

Another pastor who did a short-term Air National Guard stint in early March suggests that believers recognize the powerful opportunities created by war.

A 17-year veteran, Tom Curry (no relation to Brian), was called up by his Louisville, Kentucky, unit for 15 days to serve as a chaplain for more than 300 trainees bound for the Middle East. His duties included attending one funeral, marrying a couple before the man's departure, and constant prayer. The latter activity convinced him a new spiritual climate is dawning.

Not only were there no objections to public prayer, people were receptive to giving prayer requests. Every Guardsman or woman accepted the Gideon New Testament Curry offered, along with Scripture-based encouragement cards prepared by women from his church.

"The spiritual quest goes up early out here," Tom Curry says. "Ten airplane flights left over the last two weeks, and my commander asked me to pray every time one left. We had a battle staff meeting once or twice a day, and he asked me to pray before every one of them."

In times like these, people are more sensitive to spiritual things and the power of prayer, Brian Curry adds. "Worry is not going to do anything for the soldiers or the cause of war," the Army chaplain says. "But prayer will accomplish a lot. So praying for the soldiers and praying for peace is going to be much more beneficial than worry. It will bear much more fruit."

Ken Walker is a journalist based in Louisville, Kentucky.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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