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A Bridge in Babylon: Stories of a Military Chaplain in Iraq Kindle Edition
Owen R. Chandler (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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As an Arizona Army National Reservist, Rev. Chandler was deployed to Iraq as chaplain of the 336th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, leaving behind his wife, three young children, and a congregation for more than a year.
In this honest and eloquent memoir, Chandler shares his story of serving as an “embedded presence of hope” in Iraq through personal letters, journal entries, scriptures and photos exchanged with family back home.
Expanding far beyond the military chaplain caricature of M*A*S*H’s Father Francis Mulcahy, Chandler reflects on the brutal realities of war, his fellow soldiers, and the families waiting for them all to come home. He shares the struggle to hold onto faith and hope in the midst of battlefields, opening readers’ hearts to the challenges of military chaplaincy and the plight of veterans shattered by their experiences.
A Bridge to Babylon inspires readers and provide tools to create bridges to our veterans, especially Reserve soldiers with shockingly high rates of suicide and substance abuse.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherChalice Press
- Publication dateJune 15, 2021
- File size2260 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Captivating, original, honest. Seeing war—and peace—through a chaplain's lens is a necessary and insightful read."—Kathryn Bertine, author, STAND: A memoir on activism. A manual for change.
“Owen is the voice we need right now as a nation engaged in endless war. With both humor and hope, he offers a blue print for congregations to better support soldiers and their families as we wake up to the terrible cost of war upon the soul of our nation.”—Alison Harrington, Pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona
“A Bridge in Babylon is a must read for every church leader whose congregations and classrooms include veterans, military reservists and military family members. This intimate and authentic record of one chaplain’s deployment and return home clearly demonstrates the joys, frustrations, sacrifices, doubts, fears and successes of ministry within highly diverse, pluralistic, and often, lethal environments.”—Kyle Fauntleroy, Captain, Chaplain Corps, USN (Ret.), and Director of Development, Brite Divinity School
“Owen Chandler’s A Bridge in Babylon is searing testimony about the effects of war abroad and at home, a tender love-letter to his family and the Tucson congregation he left for more than a year, and a compassionate tribute to those whom he served as “padre.” A master storyteller – with an ear like Raymond Carver’s, an eye like Tim O'Brien’s, and a heart like Carolyn Forché’s – Chandler proffers a gift we didn't know we needed so desperately: compelling inspiration to care with renewed commitment for soldiers whom we have sent into “perpetual war.”—Robert Lee Hill, Minister Emeritus, Community Christian Church, Kansas City, Missouri
“Chandler invites us into the realities of ministry in the context of war and the emotional and relational costs of deployment for families as well as troops.”—Nancy J. Ramsay, Director of the Soul Repair Center, Brite Divinity School
--This text refers to the paperback edition.About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B096MSQWQN
- Publisher : Chalice Press (June 15, 2021)
- Publication date : June 15, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 2260 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 202 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0827203179
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,919 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #356 in Biographies of the Iraq War
- #403 in Biographies of the Marines
- #487 in Biographies of the Military Navy
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

OWEN R. CHANDLER is an active duty army chaplain. Previously, he served as a congregational minister for fourteen years within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination. He pastored his beloved Saguaro Christian Church, an Open & Affirming faith community in Tucson, Arizona, for eight years. Concurrently, he served as an army reserve chaplain for nine years, deploying to Iraq in 2016 . While in Tucson, Owen was also the nonprofit founder of the Sol Food Initiatives, a community kitchen that alleviates hunger, fosters nonprofit collaborations and cultivates community. He earned an Army Bronze Star (2016) and 40 Under 40 from Arizona Daily Star (2019). Whether in the pulpit or in his duty uniform, Owen’s ministerial emphasis centers on discovering the healing, transformative power of the intersections between our story and God’s love. Most important to Owen’s story, he is a husband and father of three. When there is free time, he plays ukulele, obsesses over the NBA, and enjoys the outdoors…with lots and lots of sunscreen.
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Carl & Peggy
Chaplain Chandlers gift as a Master Storyteller, laced with humor, compassion, empathy, faith, doubt, honesty and more had me laughing, crying and more importantly, learning about a world I'll never know firsthand. I have a new appreciation for the toll it takes to be deployed, and the price our troops pay in doing so.
I appreciate and respect Chandler’s sensitivity and ability to tell stories while maintaining the privacy and details countless troops confided in him during their deployment - a rare gift indeed in the intimate role as their trusted "Padre".
Told through the eyes of a Chaplain, I was honored to glimpse what life is like for someone in that sensitive and important role - away from his family, church, friends - a stranger in a strange land - being called to minister to others amid his own loneliness, fear and struggles. I am grateful he kept journals and is willing to share his experience with others. What a gift he gives with his candid honesty of that journey as he gently shares his humanity with the reader.
I have the utmost respect for this author, for his story, and highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been directly or indirectly touched by war...which I believe is ALL of us!!
I pray the best for Chaplain Chandler in his upcoming deployment. And from the bottom of my heart, I say to him, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!”