Prayers for peace, protection, accompany 'We Care' packages on way to military personnel

Friday, November 15, 2019
From the left, Marilyn Anderson, Shari Lyster and Shariel Thieszen are among volunteers Thursday morning packing "Adopt-A-Chaplain" boxes for U.S. service men and women overseas. Annie Trail has coordinated the local Adopt-A-Chaplain for 14 years. "This is my last year. It really is … I promise," Annie said Thursday. She is praying for someone to continue the local effort.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — "Adopt-A-Chaplain" coordinator Annie Trail of McCook prayed for God's peace throughout the world and for his protection of American service members, before her corps of volunteers on Thursday morning packed "We Care" boxes bound for the chaplain and Americans serving in a NATO Peacekeeping Force in Egypt.

Boxes were packed tight with foods and snacks ("Rowdy's" beef jerky from McCook and Eustis is the favorite, Annie said), health care products, socks, magazines, movies and music.

Unfortunately there's no chocolate, Annie said, because it melts in Egypt's desert heat. Powders of all sorts are banned, because they can "poof" inside the boxes and postal officials frown on packages that "poof," she said.

Into the boxes, packers tucked hand-made wooden crosses from Harold Beebe of McCook, Christmas cards signed by local churches and school children, hand-crocheted cross bookmarks and volunteers' hand-written notes of love and appreciation.

Annie suggested to volunteers that they tell the service members their fellow Americans are praying for them. "They need our love," she said.

Volunteer Debra Kelley said she heard from a soldier last year who told her that her note "was just what he needed to hear that day."

Annie's husband, Dick, an Air Force veteran, runs the sealing and mailing "brigade" at each "packing party" before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

———

"Adopt-A-Chaplain" is a Christ-centered ministry, the only national charity that serves deployed chaplains exclusively. The goal of AAC is to provide prayer and spiritual support for the chaplains themselves and to provide tangible support that will enable chaplains to more effectively minister to the soldiers they serve.

Individuals and organizations can adopt chaplains, pray for them and provide them with packages of needed items throughout the year and/or at Christmas time.

———

Annie had coordinated McCook's and Southwest Nebraska's "Adopt-a-Chaplain" program for 14 years, sending 2,572 boxes to 62 chaplains serving with American troops oversees over the years.

She is always impressed by the heartfelt generosity of those donating items for the boxes, and for monetary donations to pay for postage, which increases a just a smidge each year.

Annie told her volunteers that this year will be her and Dick's last to coordinate a McCook-area program that has grown from one chaplain the first year to six this year. For the past couple years, Annie has questioned whether each should be her last year.

"This is my last year. It really is … I promise," Annie said Thursday. She is praying for someone to continue the local effort.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: