GET INVOLVED
If you are a veteran you can participate in organizing, leading, or providing a message relevant to veterans at our special Veterans Day service. The service is designed to specifically minister to veterans while fostering gratitude and remembrance within our congregation. Contact: ANG/USAF Colonel, Woody Hippel, Retired: [email protected]
Each year we honor the service and sacrifices of military personnel, offering gratitude for their role in securing freedoms in a special worship service on the 2nd Sunday in November. This service allows us to support veterans within our community, bridge the gap between civic service and faith, and draw parallels between selfless sacrifice and Christian values.
All Vets wear a poppy provided by the church.
All Participating Vets wear blue blazer, poppy, red tie, black shoes, white shirt, gray pants
Although we could never repay you for your display of biblical principles of selfless love, we share . many gestures of kindness towards you on this day
Pastor’s motivation for starting this annual service:
Growing up, all my older brother Isaiah wanted to do was become a soldier. We watched all the 60’s military shows like Combat, McCalls Navy, Rat Patrol and Hogan’s Heroes. His favorite toy was the bag of green soldiers we could buy from Woolworths. Being a soldier was all he talked about. No surprise to me that he enlisted into the USMC. He was not quite old enough, so my mom had to sign papers for him to go. Off to Paris Island, then Camp Lejeune he went. His specialty was a 0331 Machine Gunner, and so he put his name on a signup sheet he saw on a bulletin board asking for soldiers willing to go to Vietnam. My brother sought to be a hero. But he did not expect that on his flight home he would be to remove his uniform for his own protection. Vietnam soldiers came back to face rejection and anger by some who disapproved of the war. But my brother came home to a little sister who simply adored him and looked up to him. He was my mentor and hero from beginning to end. He was my brother. I praise God that he survived! Although war did change him. Although not obvious to everyone, a new Isaiah had emerged. One change was that he never went to church again. He never accepted that God still loved and would always embrace him as His child. So, I started Veterans Day service to encourage my brother to come to church and seek the Lord. He never came. He’s gone now. He died from medical conditions resulting from exposure to agent orange. But he will always be a hero to me. And just like me, God never stops loving him. So I am motivated to keep these services going, recognizing the physical and emotional scars veterans may carry and thanking them for their service. I want all veterans to feel supported and valued. I want them to understand the connection between their sacrifice and Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, and the selfless nature of both. I want them to come to the church and find space to address the “moral injury” and trauma of war. I want us all to find solace, unconditional acceptance, prayers, connection, and community support.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”— John 15:13