Two Additional Covenant Chaplains Headed to Iraq

U.S. Navy Chaplain Jeff Saville was deployed to Iraq for five months beginning Monday this week (October 18), according to Southeast Conference Supt. Kurt Miericke in a recent email update. Saville was a church planter in the Southeast Conference before beginning his service with the U.S. Navy.

Saville has been serving with the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, located about 60 miles north of San Diego. The Marines are part of the Department of the Navy and are served by Navy chaplains, said Jim Erickson, Deputy Endorser for Military and Federal Chaplaincy for the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).

In the near future, Charlie (Sun Chul) Lee is scheduled to be deployed from Ft. Stewart, Georgia, for his second tour of Iraq. Erickson said that by the end of the fall there will likely be five chaplains deployed in Iraq. Two others, Mark (Masaki) Nakazono and Noel Cisneros, returned from Iraq last spring.

During the past two months, two National Guard chaplains, Ryan Sarenpa of the Scranton Covenant Church in Kansas, and Mike Gillette of Salem Covenant Church in Duluth, Minnesota, were called to active duty and are headed to Iraq. Darrick Gutting has been in Mosul, Iraq, and is scheduled to head home later this year.

Gutting, a chaplain in the U.S. Army, has been deployed for nearly a year after serving the 23rd Infantry Battallion in Ft. Lewis, Washington. He said in a recent newsletter for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska, "It has been an incredible experience that has changed my perspective on life in vivid and subtle ways."

The 23rd Infantry Battalion has helped establish schools, delivered water and blanket to the needy and given shoes and supplies to displaced families, among other things. Gutting thanked those persons donating blankets, shoes, hygiene products and school supplies. Of course, the soldiers have had more dangerous duties, such as finding caches of weapons and ammunition and capturing terrorists. It makes for an emotional roller coaster ride, he admitted, though it has deepened his faith and given him many concrete images of what it meant for Jesus to die for those he loved.

"It is never an easy thing to visit your men who have been injured in a firefight or have just been hit by an IED," Gutting observes. "Nor is it easy to conduct funeral ceremonies for those who have laid the most costly sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. It is the selfless love that we have for our brothers in arms that keeps us together in those very difficult times of pain and loss . . . I'm not going to miss the mortar rounds, the rocket attacks, 120-degree days and the dust storms.

"But what I will miss is the time spent with these young Americans, your sons and daughters," he continued. "I will miss the interesting conversations, the wonderful fellowship and the intense camaraderie of these selfless ones who are willing each and every day to lay down their lives for their friends."

In Afghanistan, Judy Hamrick, a member of Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago, recently reported about her work, noting that her efforts in dangerous territory has had added significance for her and the troops during the past few months.

"We lost a young soldier to illness the beginning of July and I found myself at one of our forward areas for the second time in a month for a memorial service," she reported in an email to the church. "We held the memorial ceremony (and) it was standing room only. At the close of the service, about 8-10 translators came forward to see the photo display and pay their condolences to her fellow soldiers. I hadn't realized they were there when I prayed a pastoral prayer, asking for God's comfort, presence, hope, and peace for her family and friends. When I saw the Local National (LN) translators, I kept thinking about Acts 1:8. I just had an opportunity to witness for Jesus by demonstrating the 'approachableness' of God, his compassion and care and the boldness we have as Christians when we come before the throne of grace.

"In August, Jeff Struecker spoke in our chapels and at a special evening event," Hamrick continued. "He was a Ranger NCO in the 'Black Hawk Down' incident. He got out of the Army . . . came back in as a chaplain. In the movie, he is the NCO whose squad went in first to rescue the guy who fell from the rope. During the rescue, one of his crew died. He then went back in two more times to rescue other people. He was already a Christian, but this really pulled on his faith. He said it wasn't the firefights, but the questions and struggles of his ranger buddies the following day, which drew him to be an Army Chaplain."

Among Hamrick's duties last month were meetings with local religious leaders – including discussions comparing and contrasting religious practices and beliefs – and a September 11 remembrance service.

"I gathered items from around base for a display - a fireman hat and boots, some children's toys, a lady's shoe and a poster of a collage of the world's reactions three years earlier," she said. "After the ceremony, I put the poster and the fireman helmet in the DFAC for the day. The Local Nationals who were working in there at the time flocked to see it."

Hamrick asked for prayer in the relationships between Religious Support Teams and the spiritual warfare she has felt lately. Although the stress level is high, she closed her email update by stating, "We have thriving chapels here and I believe God really wants to do a work in this place."

To learn more about the work of the chaplains – either in the United States or abroad – call Erickson at 773-583-5513 or contact the Department of the Ordered Ministry at 773-583-3211.

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