Reaching Our U.S. Military Families at Home & Abroad
Ronn and Barbara Johnson
Military Ministry
In over ninety countries of the world, America’s military personnel hold down strategic positions to deter war and ensure our nation’s security. There are more than 1.3 million men and women that serve our country as full-time active duty U.S. military members.
About one-half of the full-time active-duty U.S. military members are married and over one-third of them have at least one child in their family. Of the married military members, over 160,000 of them are stationed overseas with their spouses and families, with the majority being in the European and East Asia regions.
The challenges and rigors of military family life are exasperated by the impacts of being located overseas, separated from family and support networks. Communication issues and family budget difficulties become troublesome hotspots that are especially challenging for military members and their spouses.
We have pastors serving the Lord world-wide ministering to the spiritual and physical needs of our service members and their families. The Gospel is being preached, and the Word of God is being used to provide a beacon of light for the lost and the saved. Many of these pastors also face a continual rotation of their military congregation as transfer orders move the majority of them every two to three years.
We are stepping out in faith to be used by God to be a help to these pastors that are ministering to the needs of our U.S. military and their families.
About BIMI Military Ministries
The Military ministries with BIMI began in 1968. This was at the height of the Viet Nam War and there were tens of thousands of Americans stationed on the island of Okinawa. There were obviously no English speaking Bible-believing churches on the island. When a number of these military families begin to inquire about worship services in English, James Kennard, a missionary ministering to the Okinawan nationals, realized that a church was needed just to minister to the American military. So in September of 1968 the Maranatha Baptist Church was begun under the leadership of Missionary Bob Elzey.
Almost immediately God began to call men from the congregation into full-time Christian service with a burden to minister to the military in other places. Some went to mainland Japan, some to Germany, others to The Philippines, some to Puerto Rico and Panama. Others were called to go to Italy, England, The Azores and Spain as well as to other places. Many churches have now been started to minister to our troops in various parts of the world where our military personnel and their families are stationed.