The ministry of presence to student vets

by Amy Blumenshine, DM, Coming Home Collaborative

The January 2007 Ministerium on Healing the Wounds of War propelled a ministry of presence to the veterans who are students at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. The Rev. Craig Shirley, University Lutheran Church of Hope, and the Rev. Mary Halvorson, Grace University Lutheran Church, who both had student vets in their congregations, put their heads together to determine how to do outreach to these vets in the aftermath of learning of their special needs at the ministerium.

Since then, Shirley, who had experience as a police chaplain, has been offering his ministry of presence via the Veterans Transition Center (VTC) which is a student group on campus. The regular VTC gathering is a Friday pizza lunch. While the setting is often casual, the mission is serious: no additional casualties from the war in Iraq or other military experiences. 

Shirley “hangs out” with the student vets. “I knew from my work with police officers that until you develop trust, they won’t enter into anything. I’m constantly impressed by their level of intelligence and abilities, as well as their maturity.” He notes that “there’s way to much alcohol,” but that that is often true for non-veteran students as well.  Similarly, the student vets suffer from many of the relationship and financial woes of their age cohort.

A difference is that many have been officers or higher ranking, and feel a great deal of responsibility when they learn that service members, once under their command, have committed suicide. That is the number one issue when student vets choose to talk.

Another difference may be the casual way they accept their problems with sleeping. “Many of them are still dealing with the demons of war. When you get them talking, many have that same black humor that police officers do. They’re still not sleeping, and when they do they have nightmares. The trauma is certainly there; I see them dealing with it. I don’t see them flocking to counselors, but they do support each other. A lot of them have found writing to be an outlet. 

“As I look back over the semester, I’ve heard their life stories. These are folks who have given some years of their life to the military. Some did it for the GI bill (800 at the University are currently receiving those benefits), patriotism, or adventure. Generally they say, ‘We did the best job we could when we were there; now we’re doing this; we don’t really look back.’

I say, ‘There’s a church here in the neighborhood who does care about you.’ The majority are already churched people; lots are clergy kids. They don’t want to be prayed over but they are willing to talk about being people of faith.”

Another vet who joined the military to earn money for college recently graduated 10 years after enlisting. She is also the famous American prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch, and she noted:  “By looking at me through a picture, you’d never know anything is wrong. “I fake it. But my family, my friends—they know when I’m really in pain.”

Veterans' Ministry Roundtable

Addressing moral injury will be the subject of the next Vets Ministry Roundtable on March 13, noon to 1:30 pm, at Our Saviour’s Lutheran, 2315 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis. Contact ListenToVets@comcast.net for more information.