In MIRACLES AND MOMENTS OF GRACE, seasoned author Nancy B. Kennedy brings together stories that touch the heart with inspiring messages drawn from the day-to-day lives of our nation’s soldiers. This collection of compelling first-person stories comes from military chaplains who are eyewitnesses to amazing displays of divine intervention, whether in small moments of grace or through miracles of breathtaking wonder. Telling stories that range from the simple joy of a Christmas party for deployed service members to the terror of facing a suicidal soldier, this book makes it clear: Military chaplains are tough, on a mission to face some of the darkest moments of the human experience, and they bring the light of faith with them. Whether you are in the military yourself, a family member, or simply a reader seeking inspiration from the work of God even in gritty circumstances, this book will introduce you to chaplains who put their lives on the line to minister to souls all over the world. Their stories will open your eyes and lift your spirits.
Be prepared for some emotional wallops This fine book by Nancy Kennedy gathers 50 short and readable accounts by armed forces chaplains from the Vietnam war to the present. The book’s pages take the reader to bases, ships, hospitals, and refugee camps around the globe. You’ll visit the U.S., Germany, Japan, the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As you read, you’ll learn how chaplains minister congregations, provide counseling, and work with the injured, the wounded (in body or spirit), those fighting alcohol or depression, the grieving, and the dying. The accounts by the three chaplains who were in Beirut in 1983 when 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers lost their lives are gripping. The book provides everything I expected.What I didn’t expect was the emotional WALLOP of some of the accounts — “Baptism at Sea,” “The Presence of Christ in a War Zone,” “Easter in Fallujah,” “Sailor on the Run,” “A Mother’s Photo,” and “Whispered Service” among them. To my mind, the most moving is “The Last…
Bravo-Zulu Miracles and Moments of Grace, skillfully penned by author Nancy Kennedy, recounts defining moments in the lives of fifty plus chaplains from twenty divergent faith backgrounds spanning four decades. Quakers, Rabbis, Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists and Catholic priests alike disarm the reader with military candor and reveal authentic ecumenism at work in warzone FOBs, aboard deployed Navy ships, at Ground Zero, throughout CONUS and overseas. Discerning readers will recognize its rightful place on every military book club list, and in every library, PX, seminary, school and American home. Bravo-Zulu!
INSPIRING READ This book is a gem. A friend only recently told me about it as he is one of the “stories.” I’m sorry as I would have been promoting. Since I’m a retired Chaplain, I may appear somewhat biased but I am also a critic. My claim to fame in the military is that I was fired four times and so will tell it as “I see it.” As the testimony of these wonderful stories attest, chaplains are out there doing their jobs in the most harsh of circumstances. I have often wondered why more clergy don’t opt for the military chaplaincy. I fear it is because it is too hard. Military ministry is anything but dull, often life changing and always tough: hardest on the familiss. It is the nature of the military. War is no day at the beach. And, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, that chaplains never get their due and are with, almost unanimity, undervalued. I really don’t know why: maybe the religious aspect; questions of how do men and women of peace go to war. Damn if I know but I do know this,…