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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
February 2004 |
United Methodists help soldiers phone home with cards
By Kathy L. Gilbert
A UMNS Feature
Mikita and James Green are newlyweds who have spent most of their married life thousands of miles apart. It has become a familiar story. A young couple planning a big wedding is suddenly forced to go to a courthouse for a quick civil ceremony before one of them is deployed to Iraq.
James Green, a National Guard reservist, was called into active duty, so instead of a May wedding he went to war. For them, and countless others, phone calls home have become a lifeline.
Generous United Methodists have opened their hearts and pocketbooks and given many U.S. soldiers one of most precious gifts of all - time to talk to their loved ones.
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, the United Methodist Endorsing Agency, Board of Higher Education and Ministry - the agency that oversees military chaplains endorsed by the church - sent out a message asking church members to consider sending long-distance phone cards to soldiers.
To date, the agency has received letters containing 1,326 cards with 133,375 minutes from 24 states. Those have been distributed through 42 United Methodist chaplains to soldiers around the world.
"We've got cookies and Gatorade. We've got e-mail and Armed Forces Network television. What we don't have, and can't get back, is time lost with our loved ones," said Maj. Matt Woodbery, an Army chaplain serving in Iraq.
"Phone cards are a wonderful gift of time with our loved ones, even if it is brief and on the phone. We are very thankful for the love of our fellow citizens and brothers and sisters in Christ."
The Rev. Greg Hill, a director with the agency and a retired Army colonel, said this project is reaching countless young men and women and sending them a message of love from the church. The idea for collecting phone cards for soldiers came from a phone conversation with Woodbery, Hill said. While the cards are given to United Methodist chaplains, they also are distributed to any soldier who expresses a need to call home, he said.
"One thing we have discovered too is it is not just people who are overseas who have needs for phone cards," Hill said. "Reservists (within the United States) can incur pretty steep phone bills as well."
The Rev. Love Loftis, pastor of Brightwater Memorial and Bland Chapel (Rogers, Ark.) United Methodist churches, sent 23 cards with more than 4,500 minutes. Her congregation's contribution to date is the largest of any church. The membership at Brightwater is around 100, and at Bland Chapel it is around 50.
The chaplain endorsing agency has received many e-mail messages expressing how much the cards mean to the soldiers.
Cmdr. Jack Lea, a chaplain with the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, Djibouti, Africa, says he uses the cards "as morale boosters for the junior people and to provide connectivity in the event of a pastoral emergency - a death or need to call home immediately."
"The church is meeting a need here, just a very practical need. People don't need to think just because Christmas season is over this isn't important anymore. This needs to be an ongoing process," Hill said.
Mikita Green said she spent two weeks in agony when James was first shipped to Iraq because phone lines had not been set up yet.
"I was wishing I could hear his voice and make sure he was all right," she said.
James said being able to talk to his wife "lifts his spirits and is a blessing."
Kathy Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
Last updated on February 09, 2004