Houston-area veteran Jim Shields contacted KTRH asking us to make sure you know about an important Veterans Day series of events that begin today. This is what he sent us:
"Every morning at 8:30 am from November 1-11 veterans and clergy from Christ the King Lutheran, and First Christian will lead a very brief public prayer service that focuses on the twenty two veterans who commit suicide every day. Christ the King church is located at the intersection of Rice and Greenbriar, 2353 Rice Blvd, 77005.
We will honor and give thanks for our vets and lament our society’s complicity in not welcoming vets home appropriately and in turning our faces from the immoralities into which we send them.
As a key part of each morning devotional, participants will place 22 dog tags on the “Veterans’ Tree.” They have imprinted on them the words “With thanks and lament for service and loss; at peace in God.” By the end of the morning service on November 11, 242 tags will be hanging from our Memorial Tree.
The evening of November 11 we will host a Veterans Day Prayer Service open to the public. This service will be Veteran planned and led. The service will honor vets, but without excessive hero worship with which almost all vets are uncomfortable. There will be time for veterans to speak and be prophets to America. And it will give civilians an opportunity to understand the moral injury our veterans have experienced. It will also help them commit to accompanying vets in the trial of coming home (which is more than just “coming home”). This will be an ecumenical-interfaith event."
We are hoping you might be able to support the veterans.
photo: Getty Images