Continuity of Spiritual Care: Military Chapels "PCS Permanent Change of Station"

SUP friends?! Here is what has been a labor of love...still working it but experiencing ministry in a military setting can be so rewarding, full of amazing memories and excitement and it can also have some challenges. It is my hope that this six-part series....(or like 8, if you are a person who can count and want to identify the INTRO and CONCLUSION as parts which is totes fine with me)....will inspire those of us who can to make a difference in the experiences of those who serve and to do it with consistency, and for those of us seeking the care that we need that we would be emboldened to claim what we long for in our Military Chapels, to have a home away from home.

CONTINUITY OF SPIRITUAL CARE: MILITARY CHAPELS

The Six Part Series

Part 1: PCS Permanent Change of Station

A message for widespread awareness of service member and military family needs from Military Chapels called:

“Continuity of Spiritual Care”

Now that you know "What the What" is, let's get started....

Part 1: PCS Permanent Change of Station

The Lord said, “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your Father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1. It never fails, there is a pregnant pause as our date of expected return from overseas (DEROS) or PCS date approaches. We get to dream a little about the different options and sometimes we get to rank order which of the opportunities are most desirable. Then the request for orders comes down with the projected time frames and expected unit you will be going to as well as the likely responsibilities that come with position the service member will fill.  This is when we pull out our google skills and start looking at the area, housing, schools, recreation stuff, unique cultural opportunities and sort of get a digital taste of what to expect.

The orders come and then you start do real research, making phone calls and arrangements and connecting with people you have been blessed to share a previous duty station or people who have been there and can give you the "real" scoop on what is worthy of anticipation and what is better left unacknowledged for now.

For my family, the primary concerns are in this order: Unit (in what ways will my Soldier be serving and how can we support him and the families and soldiers in that unit, House & School (these hinge on each other; good school...with a house in the district) and faith. My search is typically in light of WHO we are and what services are available to that end and then our INTERESTS and what opportunities we have to explore them. For me, this usually involves a call to Marlo Dowdy (Director of Parish Support, Life Teen Military guru, friend) with the good news of our new locale and who can she link me up with. Life Teen also has a list of church communities with active Life Teen groups by location here (http://lifeteen.com/about/our-ministries/.)

Then when all the bags are packed....we PCS (Permanent Change of Station) this is an idiom...for active duty families there is rarely anything permanent about the moving except that there will be moving. Also note that we use the term as a verb not a noun. 

You may noticed I have skipped over the epic drama that is the appointments scheduled with movers, packers, shippers, doctors, school records and withdrawals, cancelling utilities, and the labyrinth of DTS (Defense Travel System, decoding the promises to uncover reality and all the double, triple, quadruple checking and stickers....so many sticker....as I write this my dining room underbelly dons 4 different number tags...I have skipped it in favor of focusing on some of the simpler ways to ensure a basic standard of care for those who are coming or going. IF we get this part right, we can then focus on the familial tenderness of providing meals, and connecting people with resources.

For those of us at the Military Chapel, one way to provide Continuity of Care for outgoing or incoming peeps prior to the physical change is to ensure user friendly searching. It is wonderful to identify a patron or patroness for the Community. If you are a Parish Coordinator, Ministry Lead, or Webmaster please remember that someone who has never been there will not know that you are Prince of Peace or St. Damien Catholic Community to use my current location as an example. We search for these general terms: base name and Catholic. So be sure to incorporate tags with your community that would be clear. Continuity of Care means a focus on individual as well as family needs. A top down approach to recognizing and reflecting the importance of each Chapel's ability to serve the Service member, the spouses, the single person, the man, the woman, the teen, the child, etc. Not everyone is tech savvy and not everyone will be searching but for those that are, let’s make it at simple as possible to find and navigate important information. The obvious here is that each Chapel must have in place the services needed. EVERY Chapel, EVERYwhere should have the ministry people will be searching for. And for everyone techie or not, how we handle the next step is crucial... 

Check back in next Monday to explore Part 2.