Pastor Morehouse opened the meeting with a devotion on “overwatch,” a military term used to describe a force protection tactic in which one individual or unit supports another by providing covering fire during a mission. He gave us an example from his own experience where this tactic failed and the reason that it failed. We as Christians are called to do “overwatch” tactics through prayer as we call upon God for His blessing and protection in a dangerous world. Likewise, through prayer, the people of Operation Barnabas play a significant role in providing overwatch protection for the men and women in our nation’s armed forces.
Earlier this month, OB helped a Veteran, Christopher, with a $40 application fee for an apartment. We would like to continue reaching out to him if he needs our assistance. We also collected all the furniture and household items from Art’s apartment and donated it to Old Pueblo Community Services for their use in setting up housing for homeless and needy Veterans. It involved two pickup’s and one trailer load of materials. Bruce H will order a plate for Art’s service to be placed on the memorial plaque in the Narthex.
The pickle & Jam sale at Church netted $627 for OB. We hope to do more fundraising at the Veteran’s Day sale at Claire’s Café and the Welcome Wagon Group from the Foothills in early November. We received word from Laura and the LWML that the grant that was written to assist former Vicar Wirtz will be funded for the $300 which we requested. It will help him carry out his chaplain duties when he returns to Arizona next summer.
Esperanza En Escalante, the low-cost housing group for Veterans located near DM Airbase, had a ground-breaking ceremony on October 10 for 50 new apartments which will be built in the coming year. It will involve housing for families, something not available before this time.
We shared a picture supplied by Dale & Jayne S, which showed the happy expression of a little boy who received a teddy bear from our care packages for children of Veterans at the Stand Down in August. 
There is a web site that provides information on understanding and treating psychological problems. It is a good resource for problems like suicide, PTSD, and brain injury. It can be accessed at psycharmor.org and is free to anyone who is interested.
Bruce H suggested that we support another LCMS Chaplain in the field like we did last year. A call will be made to the LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces Office to acquire this information.
The Veteran’s Day Celebration will be held Saturday, Nov. 9 at Claire’s Café in Catalina. Pastor Morehouse will hold a Memorial Service at 11:00 for fallen soldiers and all Veterans. OB will be offering $10 meal tickets to the first 40 Veterans to be used towards a breakfast or lunch at Claire’s. Also, we will be holding a Pickle, Jam & bake sale from 7:00-12:00.
Our next meeting will be held Thursday, Nov. 14 at 10:00 at the Church.
Prayers were said for our deployed soldiers from CLC and Jacob M, who has recently returned home from duty in Jordan. Other prayers were said for Chaplain Josh Schneider, who is the Pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Wailuku, HI. He has been deployed and leaves behind his wife and 3 children. The meeting closed with a roll call of fallen soldiers who were killed in July & August and a prayer was said for their families.
Operation Barnabas – a great reach out program of CLC. So many have been
helped and blessed through all the efforts of all throughout the years.
Thank you MILITARY for giving of yourself, time and energy so we may enjoy
freedoms unending. God continue to Bless America. Tom and Liz Butterbrodt