United Methodists to give special Bibles to military families

As Veterans Day approaches, Southwest Texas congregations are preparing to offer spiritual resources to families of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
United Methodists plan to give away 1,500 copies of a Bible designed for military families, spiritual resource lists developed by Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ and personal letters of support from Bishop Joel N. Martinez.
Letters about the project went to all Southwest Texas Conference congregations Oct. 30. The distribution is expected to begin in mid November and continue into December.
“Oftentimes, people in the church address the issue of war and not the people who are affected by it,” said the Rev. Austin Frederick Jr., director of connectional ministries for the San Antonio-based Southwest Texas Conference. “What we’re trying to do is address and be present for those who are affected by war.”
The Southwest Texas Conference is partnering with Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ in the Bible-distribution effort.
The special Bible, titled Finding Hope Beyond the Battle, includes first-person accounts by military spouses of how they have coped with the deployments of their husbands or wives to Iraq or Afghanistan. Those stories are intended to offer encouragement and hope to other military spouses.
Divorce statistics are high among military families, especially among those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, said Stephen Dorner, Mid-Southwest region director for Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Two out of three of those marriages are failing.
“My hope is that as these Bibles go out and churches get involved, they will see the need of military families,” said Dorner, a member of University United Methodist Church, San Antonio.
Finding Hope Beyond the Battle shows military spouses that they are not alone, he said.
“Included are the testimonies of people who have gone through the trials of deployment and have found strength and help in the Scriptures themselves,” Dorner said.
“But the greater help is that families will see that the conference itself and our churches are actually doing something to help them, and that we have them in our thoughts and prayers. They will know that as a church, as a conference, we care about them. I know there will be some lives that will be changed just from the love they feel from the conference.”