The God Understands series is a resource from American Bible Society’s Armed Services Ministry (ASM), which exists to help meet the critical spiritual needs of our nation’s Military and Veterans. Today ASM offers timely and ready access to God’s Word by providing customized Scripture resources and programs for the whole life of our actively deployed men and women in uniform, Veterans, and their families. Since 1817, we have delivered nearly 60 million free Bible resources to America’s Armed Forces, over two million New Testaments since 9/11, and today the pace increases.

The GU series has included a User’s Guide to provide chaplains and clergy a variety of options in using the series to address the spiritual wounds of Veterans.

American Bible Society thanks Chaplain Keith Ethridge, Chaplain Jeni Cook, Chaplain Juliana Lesher, and Chaplain Dick Millspaugh for their involvement with the conception and completion of the God Understands series.

Authors

Chaplain Juliana Lesher, M.Div., BCC

Chaplain Juliana Lesher is one of the authors of the God Understands series. In 2008, she wrote four of the “God Understands” booklets. In 2010, she revised these booklets and also wrote a “God Understands User’s Guide” with Chaplain Dick Millspaugh. In 2011, she participated in the development of the audio and online versions of the God Understands series. Since the first publication of the God Understands series in 2009, she has used these resources in ministering to countless people. She has also given numerous presentations about the God Understands series and the impact which it has in ministering to those with spiritual injuries. She has written other publications and spoken at various conferences about ministering to Veterans and their families.

Chaplain Lesher has a bachelors degree in public relations and journalism, and a master of divinity from Evangelical Theological Seminary. She is ordained in the Evangelical Congregational Church. She completed her clinical pastoral education at Philhaven Psychiatric Hospital and Penn State Hershey Medical Center. She has served as a professional chaplain in settings in Pennsylvania, California, Wisconsin, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Texas. Juliana affirms that her inspiration in caring for others is found in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” As a minister, Juliana notes that while we crave understanding for the senseless confusions of life, the real comfort comes when we peacefully rest in the arms of God and know that God understands.

Chaplain Dick Millspaugh

In 2008, Chaplain Dick Millspaugh was asked to write two booklets for the God Understands series. Then a chaplain at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, he wrote these two booklets on his own personal time, and another two were finished in early 2009. In April 2009, the published God Understands series was first presented at the 2009 VA Chaplain Leadership Convocation.

Chaplain Millspaugh notes that he found the writing of the booklets a spiritual practice in and of itself. Searching the Scriptures for relevant passages, bearing in mind the spiritual cares he had heard so often expressed by Veterans, was a discipline which blessed him as well.

Chaplain Dick D. Millspaugh is an ordained clergyperson serving in the California Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and a Board Certified Chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains. He served four churches, two in Iowa and two in Hawaii, before studying hospital ministry for two years at Methodist Hospital in Rochester MN.

Chaplain Millspaugh was asked to develop the chaplaincy program at Boone Hospital Center, Columbia, MO, where he worked for 20 years, establishing a Bioethics Forum, a Clinical Pastoral Education Program, an outreach program for local churches entitled Partners for Health, and gained additional staff to expand the chaplain service. During this time Chaplain Millspaugh was asked to serve in the College of Chaplains as the Missouri Education Chair, and then the Chair of the College of Chaplains Standards, Education, and Research Council and developed the Cabinet of Liaisons to reach out to other professional medical associations. With the formation of the Association of Professional Chaplains, Millspaugh was elected to be President Elect in 1998 and served as President of that Association from 2000-2002, establishing the Council on Collaboration among other chaplain cognate organizations.

In 2003, Chaplain Millspaugh was asked to come to the VA San Diego Healthcare System to serve as a staff chaplain. He developed a Best Practice in Advance Care planning on the Intensive Care Unit. A few years later he was asked to serve as Acting Chief and then Chief of the Chaplain Service. He has been instrumental in developing specialized staff ministries to serve the Veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, a chaplain to serve the behavioral health needs of Veterans and a chaplain to serve homeless Veterans facing addiction. He developed an outreach program to local churches and received national recognition by the VA National Chaplain Center for educating local faith communities in the spiritual distress often experienced during the deployment cycle by military personnel and their families, and how local faith can intervene to bring spiritual healing. In addition in 2010, he established the From Warrior to Soul Mate program for marriage enrichment education for Veterans whose marriages are often negatively impacted by separation and financial challenges, as well as emotional, spiritual and physical injuries during military service. In 2011, he was asked to be the point person to expand this program nationally for the VA.

Chaplain Millspaugh enjoys writing and has been published in professional chaplaincy and medical journals. He enjoys photography and has won photo contests with his entries. Being near the beach in San Diego he enjoys shell collecting, beach walks, boogey boarding, body surfing, and swimming with his wife Carol.

Reverend Carol Millspaugh is an ordained clergy person in the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. Dick and Carol have two children, John, an ordained Unitarian Universalist pastor and Heather, a scheduler for a phone company.