Church to hold service to remember veterans

How do you know God is there if you can't see Him? You can see Him as soon as you look for Him. You can see Him when people come to help you. When they set aside their own needs, wants, comforts and even their own problems for your sake. You can see Him when someone is able to care more about other people than for themselves. You can see Him in this article.


Chaplain Robert Crossan II visited some wounded Marines and said,

“I wanted to pray for them,” Crossan said.

But, instead, they asked him if they could pray for someone else — another Marine, more badly injured, who was in intensive care.

“Can we pray for him? We don’t know if he’s going to live or die,” they told him.

No matter what they were facing they wanted to pray for someone else they felt needed the prayers more. In moments like that, God is there.

When people see the worst that people can do to others, it is very hard to believe God's love or even that He cares at all. We can walk away believing we're on our own or we can look at what else is right in front of our eyes. Compassion, tenderness, mercy and a stranger caring for someone else even while they are in need.

Church to hold service to remember veterans

PRINCE OF PEACE: Navy chaplain to deliver message after deployment to Afghanistan.
By KARI HELTON/The Valley Chronicle

Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011 7:07 AM PDT
In the midst of the carnage of war, Chaplain Robert Crossan II and the Marines he serves with find evidence of God’s presence.

Crossan will be the speaker at the Armed Forces Sunday service on May 29, a day before Memorial Day, at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.

The purpose of the service, said church Pastor Ron Ritter, is to remember what Memorial Day is about.

“It is to remember and give thanks for the veterans who, when the time came to defend the principles and freedom and liberty upon which this country were founded, were willing to do so and sometimes gave up their lives in so doing,” Ritter said.


Crossan, who recently returned from a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan, “brings a fresh perspective on what this global war on terrorism translates to,” Ritter said. “He certainly is going to emphasize that the young Americans who are serving the country are every bit as dedicated as the many millions of men and women who have preceded them in the military service.”

Crossan, a 27-year Navy chaplain who has served in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and tsunami-ravaged Indonesia, said he will speak of “God with us.”

“As a chaplain, I like to say that I am a reminder that God is in the midst of us,” Crossan said.

In Afghanistan, Crossan served as a group chaplain with the 1st Marine Logistics Group based at Camp Pendleton. He related stories from his and the Marines’ experience in Afghanistan in which faith was found.

There was, for example, his hospital visit to three of his guys who were injured.

“I wanted to pray for them,” Crossan said.

But, instead, they asked him if they could pray for someone else — another Marine, more badly injured, who was in intensive care.

“Can we pray for him? We don’t know if he’s going to live or die,” they told him.

“That’s powerful stuff,” Crossan said.
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Church to hold service to remember veterans

When they leave combat, it is easy for them to return without the faith they may have had all their lives. Their faith was tested by horrors. Some come home thinking they deserved God to abandon them or that they have become as evil as what they have seen but if they look back at all of what they lived through, they will find moments when all that was good was still there.