Fort Leonard Wood’s chaplains are charged with ensuring the spiritual health of the installation’s population is strong, and one way they are doing that is by building a solid community with worship centers outside the gates.
During a visit to the post Wednesday, 13 clergy members from the local area got the chance to tour facilities, get hands on with training equipment and meet with the installation’s religious support leaders to talk about ways each group can be most beneficial to the spiritual needs of the entire Fort Leonard Wood community, said Chaplain (Col.) Brad Godding, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence command chaplain.
“A rising tide lifts all ships,” Godding said. “So, if you’ve got a great worship community happening outside the installation, they’re impacting the Soldiers and family members that serve the installation. Likewise, if we’ve got something that’s going on on the installation, it’s impacting the local community through the health of our families. And so, the idea is to help build community between those inside and outside the fence, but then also to help facilitate community with them as well. Many pastoral jobs can create isolation in themselves because you become part of the worship community you’re a part of, but then, you don’t necessarily connect with those that are other. And so, this is an opportunity as well for them to build community across certain boundaries of denomination or worship style.”
At the core of Wednesday’s visit — which included stops at an engagement skills trainer location and the 58th Transportation Battalion’s truck-driving simulators — was the idea of exposing the area clergy to some of what their congregation does each day on the installation, Godding said.
“The civilians and Soldiers, who are the trainers here are part of those local communities, along with their families,” Godding said. “So, when they come through the door and that local pastor hears you’re working at the truck training center, that pastor can say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’ve been there. That’s really cool!’ Now, they’ve created that connection, that opportunity to understand a little bit about what that service member and their family are going through.”
During a lunch discussion with the local pastors, Godding said he introduced Chaplain (Maj.) Darrell Burriss, Fort Leonard Wood’s new family life chaplain, who Godding called a “critical asset” here.
“He is trained specifically in counseling and family well-being,” Godding said. “It’s an 18-month school, so he comes to us with a lot of training, and he was able to share with them some of the training that he has, the licensure he has as a licensed counselor, and how he might be a resource to them and their congregants, who have the ID cards and the privileges to come on post.”
Mickey Law is a retired Soldier and has been a pastor at a Waynesville worship center since 2016. He said his congregation includes a mix of active-duty service members, civilian employees and retired service members — bringing together spiritual leaders and their resources from both sides of the gate is a great idea.
“I think it’s a great idea that they got us together,” Law said. “It’s good to know we have other outlets, because sometimes, there are things that we can’t handle.”
Law, who actually used to perform vehicle maintenance with the 58th Transportation Battalion here, said many of the local pastors have no affiliation with the military, which makes this opportunity especially valuable.
“You can’t connect easily with people you don’t know, who you haven’t spent time with and you don’t know what they’re dealing with on a daily basis,” Law said. “And if you don’t have an affiliation with the military at all, you really don’t know. But you come out to a place like this and you see the Soldiers, see them training, it gives you an idea.”
Even for pastors with 20-plus years of military experience, like Law, this visit was valuable.
“Some of the newer equipment — the simulators, ESTs — we didn’t have a lot of this stuff,” Law said. “So, it’s great to see how much the Army is investing in keeping Soldiers safe while still giving them the training they need.”
| Date Taken: | 10.05.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.05.2023 14:49 |
| Story ID: | 455299 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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