Today was a great Sunday. We had 11 soldiers, including 3 non-members. To open the Priesthood/Relief Society meeting a soldier, who hasn't been active in the church since he was about 13, said the opening prayer. It was a prayer from the heart - not the memorized routine things that we are used to hearing in our meetings. He asked for us to have a good meeting and all that, then said, "...and help the soldiers who are on phase 5 to not blow it by making stupid choices - like getting drunk and stuff like that".
The soldiers have phases that they attain to have certain privileges. At one phase they are allowed to wear civilian clothing (jeans/tee shirt) while off duty. Phase 5 is the one which allows them to leave the army post for week-ends or other times. They have to pass their PT tests (physical training) and other tests associated with their classes in order to advance to these phases. They can be demoted at any time - by actions of their own, or someone in their class who makes a stupid choice. They are awakened in the middle of the night for drug tests, locker checks, and other things. If there is a candy bar in someone's locker, or backpack, they could lose their phase status - or cause the whole group to be punished. They are not allowed to have alcohol at all while they are in AIT training. But many soldiers who get off post do that anyway. If they are caught - they get punished - sometimes the whole barracks gets demoted. You get the picture.
I wrote notes to several of the soldiers this week inviting them to sign up for the DC/temple trip and basically re-inviting them to church. I think that at least 4 in attendance today were there because of the notes. It even appeared that one semi-active member was brought by a non-member! Good job!!!
The lesson today was on missionary work. That's tricky to teach knowing that I would be teaching semi-active and non-member soldiers. It went well though, with help from the Spirit.
I didn't think we would have many soldiers today because some of our regulars are in FTX (field training exercises) for a couple weeks and it is pretty impossible for them to attend church during that time. But we had 11 anyway. A good showing. It's a good thing I made enough "oven stew" (foil dinner in a pan) for a crowd even though I thought we'd be eating left-overs for a week. Turned out that there were no left-overs. Just right.
Hey mom, can you email me your version of "oven stew?" I would like to know if your way tastes better than mine.
ReplyDeleteGood job teaching your lesson mom.
What a happy thing to know that you made just the right amount of dinner. I love reports like that. And, I LOVED hearing the words from the soldier's heart-felt prayer. I love hearing other people's prayers. A friend of mine said a really nice one yesterday, at a music rehearsal in his home (my friend is not a member of our church, but since we were about to sing sacred music in his home, he asked if we could start our rehearsal with a prayer--awesome). He said something like "please help us to sing these songs well, many of which, people wrote for You. ...Amen." I thought it was really sweet.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the uplifting post!
I have one of my young men going into the military in a few weeks and I wonder/worry about whether he'll ever go to a church meeting. It's nice to see that it works the other way around too, that people who haven't gone in a long time will find their way to a meeting. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI know from the soldiers side that it is very refreshing to be able to get away from the military stuff and go to something like church that has nothing to do with the military. I really understand how they would love to get some of mom's cooking instead of going to the galley. I got so sick of the food at those places.
ReplyDeleteI can't figure out this dang site. It makes me sign in 10 times and still won't let me post a comment under my name.
ReplyDeleteClark