This month, Grace Church's military ministry took a 3-day trip to our nation's capital to visit several chaplains. The goal of the trip was to see how we can best minister to chaplains and their families. The group had a wonderful time encouraging these men, listening and learning from them, and enjoying fellowship as a team.

The first blessing of the trip was the opportunity to connect with Captain Scott Anderson, a former member of Grace Church. He is currently undergoing a change of command in which he will take charge of a whole district in the Coast Guard.

The team was able to stay at Fort Belvoir with accommodations arranged by Dennis Brandt. There they met with LTC Scott Bullock and his family – his wife Kara and children Jonathan and Jinnea. They also had a good conversation with Pastor Brad Lapiska, a retired Marine who now pastors Engleside Baptist Church. These men shared that the chaplaincy has changed significantly since 9/11. Before 2001, ecumenism made it difficult for chaplains to exercise their office with conviction. Since then, there has been more openness, making the role of conservative chaplains more viable.

LT Clay Edinger is a Navy chaplain at Arlington. He has conducted 500 funerals in the past 18 months. He embraces every opportunity given by his position to tell others about Jesus – including high-ranking officers. He will soon be returning to his former unit of Marines as their chaplain. The team from Grace took time to pray with LT Edinger and his family before leaving.

While touring the USMC Museum, they met a Marine guard from Stow, Ohio, and shared the Gospel with him. We are praying this connection will continue when he is finished with his training.

In preparing for the trip, Pastor Kent Hobi discovered he had an uncle in the area whom he had never met! MSG Bill Kaemmer works to support chaplains with training and retreats. Their meeting provided a sea of ideas and contacts for future ministry.

On Sunday, the ministry team attended the Protestant service on base. LTC Scott Bullock preached a clear Gospel message from Ephesians 2.

These men certainly learned a lot in three busy days! They realized several main takeaways:

• There is very little networking of like-minded chaplains. Perhaps we can help make those connections.
• We can effectively minister to the families of chaplains in simple ways.
• Nothing can replace a face-to-face visit!

Thank you to Steve Tomaselli, Dennis Brandt, and Brian Hull for all their contributions to making this trip a spiritually successful one.

For more information on Grace's military ministry, visit our web page.