BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – For months on end the Lifeliner religious support team has traveled all throughout the Combined Joint Operations Area-Afghanistan to ensure that Soldiers feed their spirit through spiritual counseling and prayer.
As the 101st Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade enters its last quarter of deployment, Army Chaplains Col. John Murphy and Maj. Jonathan Mcpherson, the chaplain for the 101st RSSB recently organized a prayer dinner for members of the brigade to celebrate fellowship with their unit counterparts.
“Prayer dinners and fellowship are essential, they address the spiritual components of Soldiers lives,” said Mcpherson who served as a key element when hosting the event. “Soldiers get to expand their spiritual perspective of God, pray with others and learn about fitting scriptures for personal things they may be currently navigating through in life.”
Military organizations have always gathered among one another to pray for God’s continued blessing over the nation, Soldiers and their Family members back home while serving on deployment. Prayer dinners have a longstanding lineage during which commanders rally their troops to pray for divine assistance in accomplishing their mission while hearing a message to invigorate their spiritual lives.
The key component of the event is prayer, complimented with special music played by members serving in the unit, along with a full course meal and dessert. While Soldiers eat, they actively listen to a spiritual message given by a guest chaplain whose ultimate goal is to instill spiritual resilience.
Chaplain (Capt.) Ryan Luchau, 495th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion, Montana National Guard, provided the invocation.
Captain Brian Robinette, a medical services officer, and 2nd Lt. Ellie Prikazski, a military intelligence officer, both serving with 101st RSSB performed gospel songs. Robinette played an acoustic guitar while Prikazski sang and played piano.
Spectators bowed their heads to pray while others lifted their hands and sang along.
“I love our choir and I’m so grateful for this opportunity to praise and worship with my Army Family,” Prikazski said. “As an intelligence officer my days can be long and draining, the Lord gives me the strength to keep pushing through.”
Prayer dinners normally occur several months into the deployment, which is when negative emotions can be at an all-time high. Many consider this event to be the preventive maintenance check that stabilizes Soldiers’ spiritual well-being.
“Deployed Soldiers experience trials daily under the shadow of life and death, this dinner places a Soldier face-to-face with God who grants them the confidence to call out to him for help in their time of need,” Mcpherson said.
Murphy, the senior chaplain for the 101st Airborne Division, served as the evening’s guest speaker and spoke about Genesis 32:22-32. The topic for the evening was “combatives with God.”
Murphy emphasized the importance of staying resilient during trying times throughout the deployment and when dealing with things that impact Soldiers’ lives.
“In this life God will put us through character-building experiences, through his grace and mercy we will always prevail and come out on top,” Murphy said.
“From this event I want our Soldiers to know that even though deployment brings with it difficultly, God can use this difficult season to change us into the people he has called us to be,” Mcpherson added. “Secondly, scripture reassures us that God can use each and every one of us to strive toward his purpose for us in this world.”
The prayer dinner concluded with a benediction given by Mcpherson.
“God is great and he is able to do above and beyond what we could ever ask or imagine,” Mcpherson said. “He will continue to cover the Lifeliner team in his spiritual grace and allow us to redeploy safely to our beloved Families.”