Lutherans Honor Soldiers Through A Variety Of Ministries

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Corporal Nicolas "Nick" Lee Ziolkowski, a
sniper for Bravo Company of the First Battalion, U.S. Marines,
was "intensely patriotic, leaving for active duty as soon as he
graduated from Boys' Latin School of Maryland," said the Rev.
Paul Collinson-Streng, Baltimore, a campus pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), at Ziolkowski's
funeral on Nov. 24 at Arlington National Cemetery.
An enemy sniper shot and killed Ziolkowski on Nov. 16 in
Fallujah, Iraq, said Collinson-Streng.
"He hadn't had his driver's license too long when he
decided, in the pouring rain, to offer rides to strangers
stranded at a bus stop. He would stop to help a stranded
motorist change a tire and would get in trouble in order to keep
a friend out of trouble," Collinson-Streng told more than 450
families, friends, U.S. Marines and others who attended
Ziolkowski's funeral.
"We give thanks for Nick's desire to make peace, to make the
world a better place, even as we mourn our loss. Even if divided
in our thoughts about the war in Iraq, we are united in our
support for our soldiers and in honoring Nick for his selfless
and heroic acts, in life and in death. We remember the soldier,
also [a] son, brother and man," said Collinson-Streng.
While the war in Iraq has led to emotional distress for many
people, especially military families and families with members in
areas of conflict, congregations of the ELCA are providing places
for them to pray, to support one another across the United
States, and to reach out to soldiers deployed overseas this
holiday season.
"We have been remembering people in the military in prayer
on a regular basis," said the Rev. Robert L. Dahl, First Lutheran
Church, Marshall, Minn. "We have tried to lift up all of those
currently in the military, whether they are in a hostile
environment or not," he said.
"In terms of the 'hot spots', we have two of our member
families wherein the next stop for their loved ones will be Iraq.
These men were deployed back in September and have been taking
some stateside training before shipping out," Dahl said.
Members of First Lutheran Church have created a display to
remember and honor people serving in the military. The display,
located in the narthex of the church, is decorated in red, white
and blue and highlights some community activities surrounding
support for soldiers in active duty. A letter from the
governor's wife, who is coordinating community activities for
military families and soldiers in Minnesota, is posted on the
display. Underneath the display is a box full of items the
congregation is collecting to send soldiers as "care packages."
"Soldiers need ChapStick, batteries, phone cards and other
personal items that cannot readily be bought out in the field,"
said the Rev. Kelly J. Wasberg, First Lutheran Church. "In
Afghanistan, for example, there isn't a Walgreen's around the
corner for soldiers to purchase the things they need while in
active duty," he said.
To help guide congregations across the ELCA in supporting
soldiers deployed overseas, resources for "times of peace and
war" are available at http://www.elca.org/peaceandwar/index.html
on the ELCA Web site. Congregations can download prayers and
worship resources and learn ways to offer care and support for
military families, such as scheduling prayer vigils and using
assets to provide interest-free loans or gifts to those whose
incomes have been drastically reduced by war. Lutherans are also
providing free "Christmas e-cards" to send soldiers at
http://www.elca.org/ecards/troops/ on the ELCA Web site. ELCA
Federal Chaplaincy Ministries also offers services and family
assistance.
In addition to serving as associate pastor at First
Lutheran, Wasberg is a chaplain for the National Guard. He said
being a chaplain is similar to being "a parish pastor, only we
serve in the military setting."
Chaplains provide "the human face" in the military, said
Wasberg. We provide "a ministry of presence and serve as
counselors to our soldiers." Chaplains are concerned with "how a
solider is doing" versus providing orders to carry out an
operation.
"We're in tune with what's going on with soldiers both
spiritually and ethically," Wasberg said. "We're there to help
soldiers reconcile with how they can remain faithful to the Fifth
Commandment but still be a solider."
Working alongside them, chaplains help troops carry supplies
and materials, "conduct worship and Holy Communion in the field.
Chaplains do not have weapons, but must meet all the physical,
height and weight requirements as soldiers," Wasberg said.
Serving as a military chaplain is a specialized ministry,
according to the Rev. Ivan G. Ives, assistant to the ELCA
presiding bishop for Federal Chaplaincy Ministries. "It demands
physical fitness as well as mental and spiritual fitness from
those who wish to serve their Lord in this unique environment,"
he said. ELCA chaplains are endorsed through ELCA Federal
Chaplaincy Ministries and are called from the churchwide
organization. "Chaplains are in some ways missionaries to our
soldiers," he said.
"As we try to provide care for our congregations and our to
soldiers, as their vocation takes them to a variety of locations,
some dangerous, our chaplains in the military go with them to
bring Word and Sacrament in the same ways that we provide Word
and Sacrament to all of our congregations as they live and work
in their own places," Ives said.
The Rev. Michael T. Lembke, an ELCA division chaplain for
the Army, is deployed in Tikrit, Iraq. In a Dec. 2 journal entry
he called "Tikrit on the Tigris," Lembke wrote, "In the midst of
this war we find great community in the worshiping fellowship and
the working relationships. And of course, the relationships
forged from long hours covering the dangerous ground." Lembke's
journal is posted at
http://www.elca.org/federalchaplains/updates49.html on the ELCA
Web site.
Troops "observed a vespers service at the site of an old
church ruin" in Tikrit, said Lembke. "This site dates from the
sixth century. There was a monastery and church here on the
banks of the Tigris," he said.
"Christianity is quite old in this country. Among the
customs of Advent are the Advent wreath of four candles in a
circle of evergreens. Each day the candles are lit, accompanied
by a short prayer. Lighting of the candle is symbolic of hope
and everlasting light," said Lembke, who presided in the service.
"And to do so here, in a spot where years and years ago people
gathered to worship Jesus, gives us a sense of continuity. Our
faith is portable, it doesn't rely on a building; it lives in our
hearts."
"In the end grief and loss are individual matters, but they
are helped along the way by getting together and acknowledging
the corporate nature of service," he said.
"Even though the circumstances and the surroundings of our
holiday season are not what most would want, the presence and the
purpose of our work and mission make the days seem more
meaningful," said Lembke.
About 10,000 soldiers wounded in Iraq are now returning home
to the United States, according to the Rev. David R. Kupka, King
of Kings Lutheran Church, Oceanside, Calif. Many Marines "are
returning in just T-shirts, shorts and their sea boots" to Naval
Hospital Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Kupka said. King of Kings is
located near Camp Pendleton.
At Camp Pendleton's request, King of Kings is sending these
soldiers "new warm-up suits and sweat suits as an ongoing project
of the congregation," he said.
About 35,000 active-duty Marines are stationed at Camp
Pendleton, Kupka said. "Somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 of
them are now deployed in Iraq," he said.
"For members of King of King