Support this ministry with your gifs:

Guardians - Giving Club
Guardians choose their commitment level beginning at $300 per year. Levels have these Military-sounding titles: "Commendation, Meritorious Service, Superior Service and Distinguished Service. Learn more

Ministry by Mail for the Armed Forces
Your gift of $200 will combine with 100 others to provide one year of devotional and encouragement mailings to those who serve in the Armed Forces. Learn more

 Operation Barnabas
Operation Barnabas equips congregations for the critical role they can play in helping military chaplains and other veterans returning from battlefields. LCMS World Mission and LCMS World Relief and Human Care are partnering to make this new ministry possible. Chaplain Mark Schreiber, director of LCMS World Mission's Ministry to the Armed Forces, says, "Everyone who goes into a war zone and returns home needs a period of readjustment. Too many Vietnam veterans returned and were not taken care of. Today, we're more sensitive to needs and how we as a church can help."  Learn more 

Where Ministry to the Armed Forces Needs it Most
In addition to Ministry-by-Mail, LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces provides "God's Word of Encouragement" to chaplains for distribution to those they serve. Congregations receive materials to use in a May remembrance of Armed Forces Day or Memorial Day. Another appropriate time for recognition and remembrance is Veterans' Day, Nov. 11. Your gift here provides materials for chaplains, service personnel and veterans and for everything Ministry to the Armed Forces does! Learn more

Other Ideas

Pray for our chaplains and service members. Especially remember those who are deployed or whose service is dangerous. Remember, too, all service families who are without spouse or parent while they serve "away from home."

Reach out to military members
Congregations should reach out to their military members and others identified to them through prayer support, spiritual encouragement and mail and/or e-mail from home, including care packages.

Help our Lutheran servicemen and women stay spiritually strong while they serve by enrolling them in the Ministry-by-Mail program. The LCMS is the only denomination to support its members serving in the Armed Forces in such a direct way. Servicemen and women receive materials in an initial packet when their name is put into the program, then they regularly receive copies of Portals of Prayer. To add a member or update an address, call 1-800-433-3954 ext. 1337 or e-mail information to lcmschaps@lcms.org

Stay in touch with your congregation's military members. Send "care" packages, an e-mail or a card as special ways of remembering them (and reaching out to their friends). This can be a great project for a Sunday school class or a group. If you don't personally know any servicemen or women, you can send greetings by calling our office for the name/address of one of our chaplains.