It is critical to protect the American military families that are facing tremendous challenges due to military service. Many of these families are scarred from multiple, extended deployments and long periods of separation from their loved ones.  Some may return home with physical, mental and emotional wounds, but the reality is that war impacts the entire family. Whether it is the service member, the spouse or the children – when it comes to war – everyone gets wounded.   This is evident in these alarming statistics:

• 1 out of 5 returning troops has PTSD, and 2 out of 3 of those suffering with PTSD say their marriage is failing.
• Suicide rates in all the services have gone up since 2002, but are particularly high in the Army and Marines. Marine suicides went up 29% this year, and in January 2009, more Soldiers committed suicide than were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
• Experts tell us that 70% of suicides are attributed to “relationship issues” and challenges on the home front rather than what is happening on the battlefield.
• This year alone, divorce rates for Army officers went up 78 percent.

All the services are working hard on this challenge, but many of the solutions to family unity are spiritual in nature. We need to establish hope on the home front. We need to give them the faith and hope that will knit their families together, and that will help them stay together during tough times and provide a healthy environment for America’s children.

At Military Ministry, we help forge healthy families by distributing spiritual resources, leading fellowship groups, presenting military marriage seminars, and offering support for victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

We also work closely with Dennis Rainey, Campus Crusade’s Family Life leader, to tailor marriage and family materials and seminars for the special situations faced by military couples. Dennis and his team host more than 120 Weekend to Remember (WTR) seminars at cities around the world each year and they offer military couples a reduced price.  Military couples can attend a WTR seminar for a special military rate of $69 per person (a $120 savings per couple).

We send our staff to several of these seminars to host special events for the military couples who attend. One is a breakout session called “Smoothing the Return Home,” so couples can brainstorm and network with other military couples to discuss best practices for having a resilient military marriage despite deployments. One morning we host a Military breakfast to honor those who serve and also allow them to network and form support groups with other military couples who live nearby.

“Making a marriage work is never easy, and it is difficult for any husband or wife to not ‘bring the office home,’” said Major General (Retired) Bob Dees, executive director of Military Ministry. “When ‘the office’ is a battlefield, and a couple isn’t equipped with the necessary tools to deal with those experiences, such as separation and the fear of losing one’s life or one’s spouse, the results can be disastrous. In that spirit, FamilyLife and Military Ministry are committed to strengthening the bonds between the heroes who serve and the spouses they love.”

For a military couple, a WTR seminar is a wonderful way to prepare for the challenges of an upcoming deployment, to re-strengthen a marriage after a deployment, or to simply be a routine “tune-up” for a healthy marriage.

To register, military couples may call 1-800-FL-TODAY or click here.