Week Five - Deployment & Military Children

Week Five

May 23-29

Prayer for Military Families

Deployments and Military Children

A father waves goodbye to his family on the pier; a mother hugs her children before boarding a military transport flight overseas; a military couple struggle to arrange long term child care when

Navy Mom Deploys they both receive deployment orders. This is a fact of life for military families across the country as parents deploy with growing frequency for military operations around the globe.

A Coast Guard teen put it this way: "It is the way we live, so I don't know what to compare it to as I have always been a military child. It entails a lot of responsibilities civilian children may not ever know, but it also offers a lot of experiences that are rewarding and valuable as I enter new phases of my life."

She was only six weeks old when her father first deployed for counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. Over the next 17 years he would deploy more than 25 times as the family moved to a new duty station every 3 or 4 years. Since 9/11, DoD personnel have on average been deployed for more than one third of the time, missing 3 1/2 years of their children's formative years. A former Army Medic reported that he was deployed 3 times in 6 years of service, and decided to seek a civilian medical career to ease the burden of separation from his family.

Prayers for Week Five

www.accts.org

- Heavenly Father, bless military families this week, especially those military children with a deployed parent.

- Lord God, Send your Holy Spirit to comfort these dear ones while their parents are away, and help them to understand and appreciate that their sacrifice is not in vain, and that you have a "plan for their lives, to give them hope and a future."