November 2012 – The Carragher Chronicles

Dear Praying Friends,

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.~II Chronicles 7:14

Debbie and I cannot thank you enough for the hospitality and precious fellowship during our recent visit. We thank God to be your friends. Please join us in fervent prayer for much needed support. We’re having to slow down our outreach and are praying for the Lord to find partners.

Almost daily, someone will call and ask a question about our base access and ability to continue on with our ministries around the world.

First, access is unique to each base. Some chaplains and commanders are very helpful. Others will often placate us, stringing us along, or just grant no access whatsoever. More and more we’re seeing a greater need for exactly what we do–starting autonomous, local church ministries off base with the Lord on the throne alone.

Second, many ask about Walter Reed and other hospitals banning Scripture from our heroes. In fact, last year the commander of Walter Reed feeling pressure from higher headquarters, blocked any religious materials (Bibles) from being carried into the hospital by clergy, family or patients.

Tens of thousands of folks just like us wrote the president and congress demanding a change. Representative Steve King from Iowa took the battle to the floor of the House of Representatives demanding the president and commanders allow our heroes the freedoms for which they fought. We won a great victory with the hospital back-peddling from the hospital’s policy of blocking religious materials and again allowing Bibles.

How long this ban will be lifted is anyone’s guess. Many of us will never forget the Democratic National Committee forcing the delegates to add God to their platform. How long will they leave Him on their platform?

During the same briefing about the Bibles, Mr. King also quoted a Chief of Chaplains of Navy document allowing Navy chaplains to marry same sex couples everywhere except in nations where it is not prohibited. In other words, not in Kuwait or Afghanistan, where same sex marriage carries a death penalty. Of course, chaplains of like faith with us would never commit such a tragedy. Please pray for our good chaplains, our missionaries and our military heroes. We will with the Lord’s help keep the Lord on the throne. (http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihOXKHUYWgo)

In addition to the blocked access and Bible distribution, we have been notified we can no longer print Bibles with with each branch’s logo. The Bibles we distributed over the past five years with Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard logos/monikers are no longer legal to print. The DOD claims they will not associate the Word of God with each branch. Their stated reasoning is not to offend any Americans. One example is that Muslims and Wiccans are offended. A quick look at statistics from 2009 place these two people groups at less than one percent of our service folks.

Of course, with the Lord’s help, we will print the Bibles with a beautiful cover honoring our heroes.

Prayer Praises:

• For a new missionary family.
• Four souls saved since our last prayer letter.
• Doug II losing 25 pounds.
• Daniel losing 28 pounds.
• Seven college visits.
• Five new candidates.
• New military outreach.
• Helped find churches for military families moving.
• For Grace Baptist doing new Navy SEAL Bibles.
• Researched and identified three bases desperately needing churches.
• A missionary on duty with our military in Kuwait.
• Prayer Requests:
• For Christ to have the preeminence in our ministry.
• For our military heroes– their health, souls and their families
• For Debbie’s arthritic pain.
• For our health.
• For open doors on bases around the world.
• Plane tickets to visit our missionaries.
• For our missionaries’ health and families.
• For supporting churches and their families.
• For the Lord to allow continued Bible distribution and for a great new set of covers.

We stand in awe of how the Lord has placed you into our lives. You hold a special place in our hearts and in the Lord’s Army. When I pray for your partnership in our ministry, I cannot help but ask God to provide a vision of how He’s used your prayers and support to reach our heroes.

You too are heroes and we cannot thank you enough. We love you,
Doug, Debbie, Doug II and Daniel Carragher