Volunteers Impact San Diego’s Camp Pendleton Marine Base
By MaryJo McNeill and Meredith Day
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On July 13, the garden was dedicated as a place to remember God’s provision. Photo by Meredith Day
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Chaplain Marc DiConti is well aware of the need for ministry partnerships. At Blinder Memorial Chapel (also known as South Mesa) on Camp Pendleton, DiConti and a small staff are working to meet the needs of many of the base’s 60,000 residents. With such a large population, the transient nature of people on base (including chaplains), and an ever-decreasing budget, military chapels can easily get overloaded without support from partnering organizations, DiConti said.
“We chaplains come and go every two years. Outside organizations offer stability we can’t bring.”
Early this summer, South Mesa Chapel and its partners came together to create a memorial prayer garden in front of the chapel. Volunteers from Horizon Presbyterian Church in Phoenix worked with Generation Church in Oceanside in an expression of Faith in Action Xtreme, an effort to meet five of the greatest needs in San Diego County. Throughout 2009, local churches and volunteers will engage with San Diegans through these areas of impact, including mentoring, tutoring, elder care, foster care assistance, and military outreach.
The process of determining those five needs opened doors with local leaders and officials that have helped greatly in identifying specific projects, said Eric Lewis, Vision San Diego’s Military Ministry Leader.
“If you’ve ever tried to minister on a military base, you know that it is often very difficult to work directly with military members. Through Faith in Action Xtreme, we’re experiencing unprecedented openness in the community, as local churches partner with chapels on base to meet the needs of military families.”
On July 13, South Mesa Chapel’s staff dedicated the prayer garden as a place to remember the sacrifice of our military, and to seek God’s comfort and peace. It was the culmination of several weeks of work, and a testimony to Generation’s commitment to minister to military personnel and their families.
“One of the things we believe at Generation is that you have to earn the right to preach to people,” said Pastor Shawn Beaty. “People don’t really care what you have to say until they know you care about them.”
Extending that care and concern for military personnel is important to Generation, especially at a time when so many families are facing long deployments and uncertainty. The church partners with MOMs (Military Outreach Ministry), an organization that helps provide household items and groceries to military families. And to help meet spiritual needs as well as physical, the church hosted a VBS on Pendleton this summer, and continually invites military families to be part of small groups meeting during the week. It’s all about reaching out to people with a unique set of real needs, Beaty said.
“We believe that everyone needs Jesus, but we also know that when a group of people are hurting, the people of God are supposed to be the first on the scene.”
For more information about how you can minister to San Diego’s military population, go to www.visionsandiego.com/military.
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