You may have had a loved one or a friend who has served in the military and has been deployed.  Many of you have been deployed yourselves, perhaps multiple times.  I recently read an article on military.com where I learned that, “Strictly speaking, ‘deployment’ refers to activities required to move military personnel and materials from a home installation to a specified destination.” (military.com: Deployment: An Overview).  Lord-willing, between August 7^th and 14^th, materials from the current PMU ‘home installation’ in Bonner’s Ferry, ID, will be moved by PMU personnel to its ‘specified destination’ in Cincinnati, OH.

If we were to borrow deployment terminology to describe the move of the PMU office to its new location with its new staff, our current situation would be described as the “Pre-deployment” phase.  In this phase personnel undergo training and evaluations to “maintain their personal and unit readiness level.”  For the PMU office, these activities have been ongoing for nearly two years.  In fact, it is not a stretch to say that training exercises have been conducted all over the United States.

In the last several months, experienced service men and women have been putting the “recruits” through their paces.  Manuals have been written, read, discussed, and their procedures implemented.  Preparations have been made at the “specified destination,” which is Room 114 at Grace Bible Presbyterian Church (see picture).  We have even received our “mobilization alert” which has triggered more training and evaluations “to ensure that service members are ready and able to be deployed.”

With all the preparations that have been made, we still remember the battle is the Lord’s.  We are weak, but He is strong!  Will you join us in praying that the Lord would guard and guide PMU, it’s council, staff, and the missionaries they support in this time of deployment?  “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (I Thessalonians 5:24)