“He had a great burden for the soldiers,” said Jason Parker, pastor of High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs. “His specific prayer request was to see 300 soldiers come to Christ. He was also praying for God to call 10 of those soldiers into the ministry. That was one of his specific prayer requests.

“God was using him. He was very actively witnessing. He didn’t want to be just a social worker. He wanted to see soldiers hear the Gospel and trust Christ.”

Goetz, a 1995 Maranatha graduate, died Monday morning, Aug. 30, in Afghanistan while serving as an Army chaplain. Parker said Goetz was one of four men killed by a roadside bomb while traveling in a convoy near Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. His death was also confirmed in an Internet posting by Ralph Colas, Executive Secretary of the American Council of Christian Churches. Goetz was one of the group’s approved chaplains.

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“I believe he could have made it professionally,” said his uncle, James Stout. “But he thought of others rather than thinking of himself.”

That’s why he joined the Army. He was a chaplain’s assistant and hoped to one day become a minister in the Pentecostal church, which he was raised in, James Stout said.

Stout, 34, of Worthville, Ky., was killed July 13 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit. He was assigned to Fort Bragg.

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The construction of the small recreation center, named Joe’s, began in December of 2009 and was built within the living area of the ‘Proud Americans.’ It’s equipped with two projectors, games, movies, chairs, books and a plethora of supplies for the Soldiers.

“Basically, in this LSA [life support area] there’s no place for Soldiers to meet when it’s raining, dusty and nasty outside,” said the New Orleans native. “So, Sergeant Kuehne and I put our heads together, and we thought of an idea of [creating] a building that would facilitate that.”

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And so it was last Thursday. We had been embedded with U.S. and Canadian forces inside Kandahar City for a week, and we were awaiting a military flight back to Kabul.

Our transport – a C-130 Hercules – was still two hours away from arriving, so we settled in at the rather basic “departure lounge” at the huge Kandahar Air Force base – known to the military as simply “KAF.”

After 45 minutes or so, we noticed soldiers drifting from the waiting area to the outside gate, standing there, looking out.

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But not the kind you might think.

While soldiers are outfitted with guns and ammunition, the Wahoo priest carries a different set of weapons. Outfitted with an Army-issued Mass kit, Kane’s weaponry includes a prayer book, rosary and holy oil.

And with these weapons, Kane helps soldiers fight against worry, discouragement or despair.

In 2005, Kane was deployed to Iraq for a year as chaplain in the U. S. Army National Guard. Since then, he has served as pastor of St. George Catholic Church in Morse Bluff and a mission parish, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Cedar Hill. He taught religion at Bishop Neumann High School in Wahoo, and after a year, became school principal.

Now, the buoyant, 36-year-old priest is headed back to Iraq. As a chaplain with the 67th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, he’ll go there this summer. He’ll be with a larger group this time and anticipates more responsibilities, but his mission will be similar.

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The 3rd HBCT mental health assessment, given three months into the brigade’s current deployment, determined that marital stress was a main concern of the brigade’s Soldiers.

“Strong Bonds marriage retreats, Family Life [program], and counselors are all examples of the support systems available to our married Soldiers to help them and their spouses during and after our deployment,” said Col. Pete Jones, the commander of the 3rd HBCT. “We are near the mid-point of this deployment and our marriage retreats were designed to introduce techniques that maintain and build relationships.”

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“Soldiers come from a variety of faith traditions, and we have some that come from traditions such as Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopalian or Reformed who are used to several different types of things in worship that are distinct and we are trying to incorporate those things into this worship service,” said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Tim Mallard, 1st Infantry Division Chaplain.

Liturgical services have roots in Catholicism and follow many of the same styles of worship and traditions such as communal prayer, reading and hearing the word, a response of confession, weekly celebration of the Eucharist and the following of the church calendar.

“Our worship is based off the church calendar. So we will be following the lectionary and base our preaching off of that,” Mallard said. “The church calendar follows certain colors and themes throughout the year in accordance with numerous other traditions around the world.”

The Church Year is a series of holy days and seasons that mark the passage of time throughout a year-long cycle. The Christian calendar is organized around two major centers of “Sacred Time”: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany; and Lent, Holy Week and Easter, concluding at Pentecost. The rest of the year following Pentecost is known as “Ordinary Time,” from the word ordinal, which simply means counted.

“It really is tied to Lutheranism, that arose out of Germany or Anglicanism, which arose out of England. Then, with the founding of our country, those denominations or traditions came to America,” said Mallard.

The event was open to all service members at JBB, but the luncheon’s theme of endurance was aimed toward the 13th ESC moving into the last quarter of its 12-month deployment in Iraq.

The message of the luncheon was finding the endurance to complete the mission and drive on during deployments overseas, said Lt. Col. Roy Walker, the command chaplain with the 13th ESC.

“As you get closer to the last quarter that’s when people can see the finish line, but they get a little worried about it,” he said.

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View photos at The Sacramento Bee

“Not all Soldiers have the privilege to be located on the main FOBs where they can receive daily spiritual care from a chaplain,” said Chaplain Assistant U.S. Army Sgt. Leander E. Outlaw, of Raleigh, N.C., assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Lethal. “Especially here in Afghanistan.”

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