The Marine Corps is the smallest of the DoD services, numbering just over 200,000. Perhaps
because of the arduous nature of Marine Corps training and service, only about 40% of Marines are married, and like the Navy, most of them live and worship in the community. Marine Corps divorces are up 12% in the past year because of the stresses of deployment, so strong faith and its resulting spiritual resiliency are key to reversing that trend.

 

A deployed Marine Corps officer put it this way in an e-mail to his parents: "Please pray for my wife ... she is doing such a great job back home, with nursing and running the house and balancing a ton of other things, but I also know that this has been a tough time for her; it is hard that I can't be there, but I know God is using this time apart for both of us to grow in trusting Him. Please pray the He would be her Comfort and her strength, just one day at a time.

 

Finally, please pray for our marriage. Specifically, even though it is still a ways off, I would appreciate a lot of prayers for our reunion, as I think we both have changed a lot and will continue to change. Coming back together will be wonderful, yet I think a tough time too ... please pray that our reunion would be one in which we can heal and grow as a couple/family, even as we adjust to the changes."

 

Community churches near Marine Corps bases can play a vital role in helping to build this kind of spiritual resiliency in Marine families within their congregations before they deploy, and in standing ready to assist as needed with the inevitable trials of reunification.  Church small groups can also be effective "First Responders" in recognizing the symptoms of Combat Trauma, and offering the ministry support needed for spiritual healing.