Wow!

There are just times in ministry when all you can do is stand there with a dumb look on your face and say "Wow!" That was about a week ago for me and it's taken me this long to wipe the dumb look off my face and type. ;-)

I had a call from one of our members, Marta, who left me a voice mail about a donation to the Wounded Soldiers Project. If you've been reading this blog awhile, you know about this project. We've adopted the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad and are sending out sweatpants, t-shirts, socks, and other items to our wounded vets to make their hospital stays and rehab more comfortable. And a bit shout out goes to Scott Corbitt from the USAF in Baghdad who sent an e-mail to his wife, who is the daughter of one of our members ... and that's how it all started.

Anyway, back to Marta. She works at Fort Detrick and she put up some notices about the Wounded Soldiers Project. Well ... it worked ... and then some! Fort Detrick adopted this project for their "Make a Difference Day" and donated over 850 pieces of clothing.

Wow!

People ask me if I really believe the stories in the Bible. Of course I do - and then some. When you see something like this take off, how can you not believe this is a modern version of the feeding of the 5,000? God has taken the efforts of a small group and multiplied them beyond our own imaginations to send relief to the wounded veterans in Iraq. Amazing. We've now shipped over 150 lbs. of clothing - and Marta still has a whole garage full of clothing we need to pack and ship.

Wow! God is good.

Shameless church promotion for a good cause

OK ... I admit, this is a shameless church promotion, but I have to do it. EpiScope (with a little nudge from my e-mail) picked up the story which ran in our local paper about our congregation's outreach to the wounded soldiers at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. Check it out here.

Even if I am in a liturgical wilderness, the heart this congregation has to reach out is amazing and it humbles me to be with them. It snaps me out of my self-indulgent $%)**&# and gets me back on terra firma again ... and I'm grateful.

This started with one of our parishioners, Nolie, whose son-in-law is a Major in the Air Force serving at the 28th Combat Support Hospital. He asked for some t-shirts, socks and sweat pants to help give these recovering soldiers something more comfortable than just flimsy hospital gowns to wear. If you've ever worn a hospital gown, you know that doing physical therapy when your behind is mooning the whole room isn't fun. So a little dignity seemed like a good idea.

Nolie spearheaded it and we promoted it ... and people responded! No matter how you feel about this terribly war and the politics that got us there, you can support the injured vets who have had to pay the price of this conflict.

Check out the story through the link to EpiScope and for more information, see the congregation's web site at www.gatheredbychrist.org (use the menu and go to Seeking More? then Ministries, then Outreach and you'll see the link to the Wounded Soldiers Project).