Stars and Stripes: "Pacific schools offering additional counseling for kids with deployed parents"

I came across another article in the Stars and Strips this week. It discusses a new form of support the military is providing for families. As I've shared in the past, studies are revealing that long, multiple wartime deployments are taking their toll on children of service members. Counselors and mental health experts are being contracted by the military to provide support for students in schools. Although many teachers have great hearts for their students, it seems that many just aren't equipped to handle the emotional stress their students are experiencing. It appears that one of the most helpful things they are doing is opening up the door for communication between teachers and students. Counselors are letting teachers know which of their students have a parent serving elsewhere and may be dealing with some added stress as a result.

I think it's great to see the military stepping in to offer support for military families. I consider it a privilege to be able to support these families as well through serving with Malachi. What draws me to serving with Malachi, as opposed to working as a counselor in a school, is I have the freedom to really get to know students on a personal level and point them to Jesus.

While living in Okinawa, I subbed at Kadena Middle School fairly regularly for 3 years. During that same time I also worked with the middle school youth group. As I've reflected on my time in the school and in the youth group, I really loved how relational youth group was. Because school is more formal when it comes to adult-student relationships, I felt more limited in how I could engage with students.

So while I'm happy that schools have identified the need to help students cope with stress generated by their parents military service, I do feel it's equally important for students to plug into youth group and build relationships with adults who know Jesus. Ultimately, it's Jesus who can heal these kids and relieve their stress. I pray these students will come to know Christ and experience Peace like only Jesus can give.

Click here to read the article.

Ramstein Air Base

I've been assigned to work with teens at Ramstein Air Base in Germany (see the red dot - that's Ramstein). If you'd like to learn more about the base, its mission and see some pictures, click here to link to the official Ramstein Air Base home page. The page also includes many of the day-to-day happenings on the base, to give you an idea on what life is like there.

Military Update: Study: Deployments take toll on military children

With President Obama’s recent decision to send more troops into Afghanistan, many military families are preparing for more deployments. Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper, featured an article this weekend about a recent study regarding the toll deployments are taking on military dependents.

According to the study, “Multiple, lengthy wartime deployments by service members are taking an emotional toll on their children, who report being anxious or stressed at rates much higher than children nationwide.”

The fact that wartime deployments are resulting in added stress for children didn’t surprise researchers. However, they were “surprised to learn their problems deepened with longer or more frequent deployments. This challenged an assumption that children might, with repetition, get used to a parent being gone and later reintegrating with the family.”

The author reported that, “the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are creating an unparalleled time for military families given the strain of operations over many years on both active and reserve volunteers. The nature of these conflicts is different — in terms of the extended deployments, the multiple back-to-back deployments. So it’s hard to really [compare to] prior wars to what we’re experiencing now."

(Click here to read the article)

(To browse through the whole study, click here and search for “Children on the Homefront")

Stars and Stripes: "For teens overseas, change is constant...and quite an education"

I came across an interesting article this week from Stars and Stripes. In the article, military teens living overseas are interviewed about their experiences. Military family counselors are also interviewed about how military life impacts teens.

It gives great insight into how teens feel about the different aspects of growing up in a military culture - moving, diversity, and the structure and discipline that comes with the military are addressed. I'd encourage you to read it when you have a few minutes.

As you scroll down, on the right hand side, you'll see a section called "Students at overseas schools tell their stories." I'd encourage you to read through a few of these short stories, as they will give you an "insiders view" to what it's like to be a teenager growing up on a military base overseas.

To read the article, click here.