{"id":1488,"date":"2008-02-08T20:30:23","date_gmt":"2008-02-08T20:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:36:45","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:36:45","slug":"6100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/02\/08\/6100\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Family Begins Ministry to Service Personnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAFAYETTE, IN (February 8, 2008) – Steve and Sally Rayl understand well the stresses, fears, and pride that comes from being in a family whose members serve in the military.
\n
\nLater this month, the Rayls\u2019 eldest son, Brian, is deploying to Iraq with his Army National Guard Military Police unit. Their younger son, Craig, serves in the U.S. Air Force Security Forces. Both of the Rayls\u2019 fathers as well as Sally\u2019s brothers also have served.<\/p>\n

Their experience led the couple last June to begin a ministry at the Lafayette Evangelical Covenant Church<\/a> to support military families as well as members of the armed forces. \u201cOur church already was providing great support in terms of having a bulletin board in the narthex, a sign-up sheet that was used to generate bookmarks for remembering our service men and women in prayer, and having a service person mentioned each week in the prayer given at both Sunday Services,\u201d Steve says.<\/p>\n

The meetings, which are held on the first Tuesday of each month, have included intercessory prayer as well as planning future outreach. \u201cWe mainly function as a small group for now,\u201d Steve says. But the ministry already has increased the church\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke before the congregation in late November and received lots of snacks and food items that we placed in boxes and sent to those serving away from home,\u201d Steve says. \u201cWe also included a devotional and card in each box. Some teachers in our congregation took it upon themselves to have their students prepare Christmas cards, and we had enough to send our service members several cards each.\u201d<\/p>\n

Families of several military members who received the cards have expressed their gratitude and said the service men and women enjoyed the cards prepared by the children.<\/p>\n

The couple hopes the ministry will be viewed as an evangelistic outreach. \u201cWe attended a church service during our younger son’s boot camp, and there were very few dry eyes around us,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt is a very emotional time for them, with some of them having never been away from home.\u00a0 I believe many hear the gospel for the first time, and are very open to accepting Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage other congregations to prayerfully consider starting a military support group,\u201d Steve adds. \u201cWe owe our best to those serving on our behalf under difficult circumstances. Our prayers and efforts to reach out will provide them with hope and opportunities to start or continue their walk with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, contact the church at 765-474-4842.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAFAYETTE, IN (February 8, 2008) – Steve and Sally Rayl understand well the stresses, fears, and pride that comes from being in a family whose members serve in the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMilitary Family Begins Ministry to Service Personnel - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/02\/08\/6100\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Military Family Begins Ministry to Service Personnel - 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