Hospitality House to open in Grafenwoehr or Vilseck, Germany

We at Cadence love military people.  We love military chaplains and the ministry they provide.  Our experience is that military chaplains who know who we are and what we do love our ministry, too.  There are exceptions, of course, and not every chaplain welcomes and/or appreciates our style of ministry or even the need for it.  My experience has been, however, one of great cooperation and mutual respect between House directors and chaplains. 

Brian and Aimee Kleager are preparing to open a new Hospitality House in Grafenwoehr or Vilseck, Germany this fall.  A couple months ago they scouted the area and met with chaplains and other interested military people.  Here is an excerpt from their blog about how they were received on that trip:

One major theme that stood out to us during our six days in Germany was something that was shared the very first night. Some good friends of ours who live there hosted a dinner in which three chaplains and their wives attended. It became readily apparent how excited they are for us to come partner with them in their ministry and how much they need us there. The need for a Hospitality House in the Graf/Vilseck area was something that various people stated over and over during short time there. In fact, we believe that it would be great for there to be two Hospitality Houses—one at Graf and one at Vilseck! (These two bases are located about 20 minutes from each other and many people commute between the two and our Hospitality Housw will be located in this vicinity.)

We later had office calls with three chaplains and met several others chaplains at different times. We did not meet one single chaplain who showed any hesitancy about a Hospitality House coming and in fact the opposite was quite true. We also were permitted to share our video and give a brief presentation in the Graf Chapel service and Aimee did the same at the Vilseck Protestant Women of the Chapel group (a weekly Bible study). Both of these had very positive responses as well. In fact, without us specifically seeking out financial support, our monthly commitments went from about 25% to 50% of our needed monthly support! . . .

(Click here to read the entire post.)

On a personal note, Paula and I are particularly excited for the Kleagers to get there.  We lived in Schweinfurt, Germany for almost five years and operated the Hospitality House there.   When we left in 2005 we closed the House.  Just in January, the Army announced that they will be moving out of Schweinfurt over the next two years — and moving the brigade to Grafenwoehr!  Incoming soldiers are already moving to Graf instead of Schweinfurt.  This feels like a bit of a resurrection to us for the sake of the Dagger Brigade soldiers and families.

~ by Richard Scott on February 20, 2008.