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This is an archive of our newsletters. Please feel free to download and share these with your friends!
Click Here to view the “Giving Issue” from ION Magazine: See Table of Contents and article on p 37.
Here is the article that appeared in the Fayetteville Observer.
REJOICE with OPERATION BANDANAS on our 11th ANNIVERSARY!
On November 5, 2016, Operation Bandanas celebrated eleven years of providing Psalm 91 bandanas to some extraordinary Americans! And we are overwhelmed with praise and thanksgiving to God who brought along friends and families of our military and the body of Christ who have provided 280,255 Psalm 91 bandanas thus far to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard! A big shout out to God for His faithfulness! It has been an extraordinary journey! Too many milestones to share in one newsletter! And so many volunteers to thank who lovingly prepared, packaged, and prayed over the bandanas. I have chosen to share with you a few one line excerpts from numerous emails and cards from those impacted by our gifts over the years, our amazing servicemen and women on the front:
“Sometimes this is a thankless job, but your gift certainly lifted my spirits and the spirits of others who received their bandana.”
“Once word got out that we had Psalm 91 bandanas, we ran out immediately.”
“When the chaplain offers something that is spiritual and practical, it is really a double blessing.”
“I thank God that Operation Bandanas has been supporting us in this impactful way for years.”
“Many of these soldiers are young and on their first deployment, and these bandanas are an awesome reminder of God’s love for them.”
“Sometimes it gets lonely out here and we feel like our friends and family forget about us; but a nice gift like this helps remind us that we are not forgotten.”
“We are blessed to have people like you and your organization who are willing to take time out of their busy lives and provide the resources to put a smile on a young Marine’s face.”
“Putting God’s Word into a soldier’s hands is probably the best gift you could give them.”
“As a new Christian deploying to a hot zone, this promise from God is very comforting.”
“Thank you for this wonderful ministry! I use it to witness to soldiers that I know do not attend church.”
“I recently received one of your bandanas. I’m not a very religious person but your small gesture has motivated me to look more into it.”
“Sometime we get stuff from people hoping it hits the mark, but never knowing. In this case, on a small base on the edge of Afghanistan, you did.”
“These bandanas are a great way to share God’s love and strength.”
“I took two bandanas and put one in each boot so I could be standing on the promises of God.”
“The bandanas you donated to our battalion were a terrific morale boost and genuinely appreciated.”
“As I read Psalm 91, I am reminded of God’s love for all of us and how that love is spread to others by people like you and your organization. The bandana gives me great comfort as I carry it with me.”
Because of so many emails that I have received with requests, thank you’s and journal entries, I had to write a book, “Lovin’ Our Troops, A Story of Service on Two Fronts,” published in 2012. “Lovin’ Our Troops” also contains God’s clear call to begin this ministry and how He took it from there. Being a career soldier’s wife and the mother of two soldiers, there are personal entries as well. The Psalm 91 bandanas have spread out across our nation and the world to places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Honduras, Africa, Poland, Germany, and numerous other places we aren’t even aware of. They have also been distributed to hospitals where our wounded are recovering. Place we can’t go, but God’s Word can.
Rather than making my own personal appeal to you to adopt and support this mission, I thought hearing directly from the soldiers how much our gifts of Psalm 91 bandanas are appreciated and are making an impact will, hopefully, prompt you to help our servicemen and women continue receiving the bandanas. When we see God at work, we are to join Him in it! He has definitely been at work through His people to have sustained Operation Bandanas for this long! We give Him all the praise and all the glory for touching hearts to join tHIS mission!
My veteran son and Airborne Ranger who deployed to Afghanistan on two long tours from 2005-2008 articulately shared this with our family recently:
“There is a two-prong reason why there hasn’t been any recent large-scale CONUS attack attributable to radical Islamist terrorists. 1) Our warfighters in uniform serve as targets of proximity to these groups, i.e. our military’s forward-deployment shields U.S. citizens at home from being targeted, because there are a magnitude of U.S. installations and personnel abroad that, unfortunately, serve as our insulators; 2) our intel community has done a particularly good job In thwarting would-be terror plots before they happen.”
I’m sure you and I would agree that it is the courageous, well trained, dedicated sons and daughters of America who are have voluntarily become “targets” for us and serve as our “insulators” and “shields” here at home and abroad. Ponder those three words in bold quotations to describe these amazing men and women in uniform, and pause to thank God for them, praying protection over them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Please help by mobilizing your church, other churches, organizations, and friends in your community to join our mission and/or send a personal donation. It is grateful citizens of our nation who have enabled us to continue sending the much-requested Psalm 91 bandanas as gifts of love and appreciation to these men and women; as a reminder to them that they are not forgotten; and to draw them closer to our Savior and Lord as they read and receive God’s Word printed on a simple bandana. We want them to have a fighting chance at salvation!
Dwelling and Abiding,
Mary B. Gray
Founder and Executive Director, Operation Bandanas
mary@operationbandanas.org
www.operationbandanas.org
910-578-8840
PO Box 87356, Fayetteville, NC, 28304
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