Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Homefront Heroes on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 227
Homefront Heroes is a faith-based ministry called to reach unconnected military wives by providing them with discipleship, resources, and a supportive community to help them thrive amid the unique trials they face.
• Founded in 2019 by three military wives who identified a gap in support services
• Offers multiple support channels including social media, the Hope on the Homefront podcast, and Bible study curriculum
• Provides practical support through monthly "hope boxes" containing items for military wives experiencing trials
• Partners with organizations like Full Range Foundation to offer free counseling services
• Aims to combat the 80% divorce rate among combat military marriages through faith-based support
• Recently launched "Thrive Bible Study" - a 9-month curriculum designed to guide military wives through deployments
• Working to create remote employment opportunities specifically for military wives
• Currently serving almost 20,000 military wives worldwide
• Focusing on the "unseen struggles" of military spouses including career sacrifices, isolation, and reintegration challenges
To support Homefront Heroes, you can pray for military wives, partner financially, or volunteer at events like their upcoming Fort Riley block party on August 2nd. Visit homefrontheroes.org for more information.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. Every Monday morning in the 10 o'clock hour, the GMCF Community Hour is heard on NewsRadio KMAN. I'm Dave Lewis. I have the honor and pleasure of being the host of the program on a regular basis, whether I be in Manhattan, kansas, at our studio that we have at the GMCF headquarters, the global headquarters, regional and maybe like remotely like this morning, I am in Nebraska but it's always great to touch base with folks back home, and we're going to touch base now with an organization Talk about home. It's called Homefront Heroes and one of the co-founders, kaylee Reynolds, is joining us here for the program. Good morning, kaylee.
Speaker 2:Good morning. Thanks so much for having me here today. I'm honored to be on the show this morning.
Speaker 1:Well, we're delighted to have you here and let's talk about Homefront Heroes. By the way, we would like to share the website so for anybody that's listening, whether they be at home or at work, they can go find out more and kind of follow along with our discussion here Homefrontheroesorg. Homefrontheroesorg is the website, so, kaylee, you have the honor of telling us about the mission that you have there at Homefront Heroes Ministries.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. So we were called by God in 2019 to reach the unconnected military wife, who doesn't have a life-giving community surrounding her as a military wife, and so we wanted to just link arms with her, disciple her with the good news of the gospel of Jesus that will establish her faith and help her to thrive in the midst of the unique trials she faces as a military wife. So that is our heart we love the military wife. We are three founders that are all military wives and we saw a need that was just a great need that was not being met, and so we wanted to provide for other wives just where we felt like there was a gap for military wives, just in her journey as she continues on just being supportive of her husband and sacrificing so much as they move around the world and deployments and rotations and so many other unique trials.
Speaker 1:So you had this faith-based initiative in helping military wives and spouses, and let's talk a little bit about some specifics, about what you are doing to help them in their time of need, or maybe it's just, you know, getting to know people having some social interaction.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. We are online in several different capacities. So we have social media, facebook and Instagram. We also have Hope on the Homefront podcast that gives her truth and love and just points her back to Jesus. And then, just practically, we want to and just launched last week our first official Bible study curriculum where we want to point her to churches and chapels, to get that resource in her hands and to lead her to a relationship with God. That will be the only thing that helps her thrive in military wife life.
Speaker 2:And then to get real practical, we do hope boxes. We call them and it's just monthly. We select military wives that we can honor and serve through providing a hope box with practical items for her as she's in the midst of trials. And then also we point our girl to other resources as well. So we partner with the Warrior's Journey, which is for active duty, military retired spouses and everywhere in between, to give her extra resources. There's also another resource that we point her to where it helps people you know get home when they are struggling with a trial in their marriage or needing to go see family. They provide the financial support. And then we also partner with Full Range Foundation, which is a free counseling resource to military personnel and their spouses, and it is an amazing resource that we give to also as an organization, because they're doing incredible things and it's all for free.
Speaker 1:When you were looking at developing this, did you have some sort of a model, another effort, similar to Homefront Heroes, that you thought, wow, I'd like to be able to do that here at Fort Riley?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a great question. So we were all involved in PWOC, which is an incredible global organization for military wives around the world different branches and everything that they can come to a church or chapel specifically chapels and they can be in small groups during the week. There's free child care provided and so our resource of small group curriculum will be offered to PwC. And we actually just got approval from chaplains at Fort Leonard Wood to launch our Thrive Bible study series there through their PWC program. But what we notice is a bit of a gap between the chapel or church and the military wife. So we're trying to bridge the gap of those that don't know about those resources or aren't comfortable going into a church building or a chapel and bringing her in and then showing her the love of Jesus and then pointing her to those resources. So we kind of see ourselves as just the bridge to the gap between our girl is who we call her, the military wife and the church or chapel that she desperately needs to be planted in.
Speaker 1:When you're working on these, you know, building these bridges for the spouse into and let's just be a little bit more specific churches that can be uncomfortable in those first few visits, you know, because people want to assimilate with people that they know, they want to be able to get involved and I think that that's one of the real outreaches, you know, for a church is to be able to have that connection and you build that church family. So what's that process like for a military wife that says, hey, I want to find a home church, you know, for me, for my kids, where I can feel comfortable, and what may be even more challenging is to find one that's accepting of my world and my lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That is a great question, and we see on the spouse pages so there is Facebook spouse pages for every duty station that you can imagine, where military wives ask where is a good place that I can go with my family, where's a good church that I can feel? You know a part, and that they're military friendly is what we call it, and you will see that there is a flood of comments, that kind of show who is military friendly in that region, and so we point her to those churches. We also partner with people on our team. So we have a team of 16 women, all volunteer except two of them that are, you know, serving our girl, and so we're we're looking to them to hey, would you partner with us and invite her to your church, sit with her, make her feel at home there.
Speaker 2:And we also a part of our heart is to equip church leaders in the military communities with relevant resources that can actually serve military families, because what we're finding too is there's a lot of churches that say we're military friendly, we love the military, but how do you, how do you love them, how do you serve them?
Speaker 2:And and honestly, locally, I'm also on staff at Rock Hills Church Connections Pastor there, and when I say that they are doing it as far as how they are bridging the gap of practically serving and loving on military, that is something that they're really doing well and I know I'm biased but, being military myself, it's been an honor and a joy to come on staff.
Speaker 2:I've been on staff almost four years and just gotten to help grow that part of our ministry of how we can love on our military families practically and make them feel at home. Because another part about being military which I can speak to this because I've been here is we're very vulnerable. We're away from our families, we do not have family and we are going through the hardest circumstances in our lives like deployments, like having babies during deployments and not even having anyone to call to meet us at the hospital, and so when I say we're a vulnerable community, I mean it and getting to bridge the gap of hey, we have some resources that can actually practically serve you and love you well as a military family when you don't feel at home.
Speaker 1:I know you've seen these videos. Maybe you've helped orchestrate some of these. When you have a wife who welcomes her husband home and introduces her husband to that new baby, I think that's one of the most heartwarming scenes that you can see on some of these reels that you find on social media, and I bet that that goes a long way. The work that you're doing with helping not just create those opportunities for that introduction but to help support them, because without some assistance they're kind of blind on a lot of things, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, and yes, that is one of the most beautiful moments is getting to reintegrate what we call as a family and just transition after a long time apart. But what is the unseen behind that real is now they have transitioned to, you know, a family of two, to a family of three or more, and there is so many unseen struggles within that of they just had a baby apart and they're trying to learn how to connect relationally with one another. And then you know the dad or mom is trying to connect relationally with the child that is oftentimes scared of them because they don't know them. So there's so many layers to reintegration as well. And then you know you throw in things like PTSD and trauma that the soldier member has experienced during deployment or rotation and simply even just being apart from each other. That long throws in so many unique struggles that we want to talk about those things because oftentimes it doesn't get talked about and we want to talk about it and we want to bring light and hope to those circumstances.
Speaker 1:When you think about Homefront Heroes and the work that you do, what is it that is maybe the most unique or the thing that you're most proud of, that you and the efforts of those that are involved can perform?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think one thing that just makes our hearts just beat is that we are for the military wife specifically because a lot of times, as the supporter of the active duty member or the reservist or National Guard member, it's unseen. There's a lot of unseen struggles and sacrifices that the military wife will experience that go unnoticed. In fact there's a statistic that 80% of combat military marriages end in divorce 80%.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and so that is staggering and that's something that we want to step into and combat that like firsthand. And so that's unique, just in the fact that we're serving military wives specifically, also that we're giving her the hope of the gospel. You know, there's so many practical things and self-help and things like that, which are great in and of themselves, but we know, because of our relationships with Jesus, that this is going to be the only thing that will help her thrive and will help us combat that 80% of military marriages ending in divorce.
Speaker 1:Her name is Kaylee Reynolds. She is a co-founder of Homefront Heroes, and every organization has projects. Every organization has projects, every organization has goals. Every organization wishes to serve one way or another. So let's talk specifically about some of the projects that you and Hometown Heroes, you and your friends, are working on these days.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we just launched our Thrive Bible study video series. It is nine months of Bible-centered curriculum that will take a military wife through an entire deployment or rotation. There is nothing out there at all that is like this, and it's also from 32 different military wives speaking directly to her and from their own stories and struggles and giving her hope. And so we just launched that and we're partnering with churches and chapels to bring that to our girl. We also are on the YouVersion Bible app and so we have Bible plans there for her specifically, and we're continuing to recreate and rewrite new content. And then our Hope on the Homefront podcast is where you can get constant encouragement, discipleship and biblical encouragement specifically there. So lots of things going on, lots of plates spinning and then, with this Bible study curriculum, this is the first of what we believe to be many of actual written resources for the military wife to guide her through all the different unique struggles she faces.
Speaker 1:What are some of the things that you would like to be able to do, that because maybe of a shortage of funds or people that you would hope to be able to do?
Speaker 2:Yes, one thing that we have found that is a great need and something that we didn't think of initially, is an opportunity to employ the military wife. So we have incredibly gifted women that are all over the world that need careers where they can be remote, and so what we would love is to bring more people, more military wives, specifically on our team. Give her a purpose and a calling in the midst of military wife life, because oftentimes the military wife sacrifices her career, her education. I've had friends that were in the midst of medical school, nursing school, veterinary school, that had to quit because they got orders to PCS somewhere else, and so that we just want to be able to give her purpose outside of her role as military wife.
Speaker 1:Do you require a lot of funding for your efforts?
Speaker 2:Well, it's increasing every day, and so we kind of started small, but we're growing so rapidly. I believe we're serving almost 20,000 military wives now, so we're trying to meet those practical needs as well as spiritual needs and just with content, and so our budget is growing every month, and also with the efforts to employ a military wife and to actually pay her fair wages, to value her and the strengths she has, and so that's something we're looking towards now is how can we increase pay? Because we just feel like we're not paying her what she's worth. And so just working towards that goal of you know, more funds means more opportunities to bless the military wife in so many different ways, and everything that we bring in, you know, goes right back to military wives and their families.
Speaker 1:I would only imagine that in a community where we have such a tremendous military, people that have had background in the military, they're very big supporters, that they would love to see something like this, that it's something they can understand the value of it. Let's talk a bit about how people can help support your organization, whether it be through time or maybe, you know, as you had made mentioned some funds.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I would say, first and foremost, is to pray. Pray for the military wife who is struggling and, like I said, there's so much unseen you know, suicide rates are also high within the military wife community, specifically, not just the soldier member that we hear about and so praying for her and praying for her to know that Jesus loves her and that she's going to be okay, and then also just partnering with us financially if that's something that you feel led to do. You know, I have found through my years as a military wife there's often not people that haven't been affected by the military in some kind of way. Either they have a friend, a family member, a spouse, and so if you've been impacted by someone that served, just having that opportunity to give back to those that have served our country and those unseen individuals like the military wife. And then also just there's opportunities within our local church. So, specifically with Rock Hills Church I can speak for that church we partner with Homefront Heroes.
Speaker 2:Just next month, august, we are doing a serve day where we are going and throwing a block party on Fort Riley for military families. We're going to have fun, water play, snacks and popsicles, and then we're also going to hand out hope bags for military wives specifically at that event. So if you feel led to give of your time and serve anybody can serve that day. It's on August 2nd.
Speaker 1:You have me at popsicles.
Speaker 2:Amen, me too.
Speaker 1:I prefer the orange ones. Kaylee, this has been wonderful. Thanks for the work that you do and for those of your friends that work with Homefront Heroes. That website again is homefrontheroesorg and that's where you can always find out more and possibly provide some assistance. Kaylee, have a great day. Thank you for joining us here on the GMCF community hour today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir. Have a great day yourself.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm planning on it, we'll be back. After this break here on the GMCF community hour Burns in the studio and we'll get an update on some calendar items. Next on news radio KMAN.