YPG losing two but gaining a bunch more

Hello Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) Family,

As alluded to in the last edition, there are some transitions underway at the YPG Chapel.

Staff Sgt. Ricardo Luna medically retires this month. Thanks for his service to the Army and our YPG community. He’s from

Yuma, so some of you may still see him around town.

I came down on orders to backfill a school, so my family is headed out by the end of June for a year at Ft. Leavenworth. I grew up about an hour west of there and have family in the area, so it’s the one chance in my career to be close to some of them. Someone told us before we arrived that, “You’re sad to come and then you are sad to leave.” They were right. We have met some amazing people who are passionate about the work they do and are thankful for our time on the YPG mission together.

You are losing two but gaining a bunch more.

Luna’s replacement arrives in August and more to follow on her arrival.

I want you to give a big YPG welcome to Chaplain Ryan Pearse and his family coming from the greater Washington D.C. area. He’s excited about the opportunity to serve at YPG and has some background that I think will make him a good fit with the community here. Talk to him and see if you can find out what I’m talking about.

In addition, with the help of the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command and Resource Management teams, there should be three more new faces at the chapel in the near future. There’s contracting work underway for a worship musician to help support the Catholic and Protestant worship services on Sunday mornings.

I’m also very excited that there’s a hybrid contract approaching completion for a Children’s Religious Education service of two part-time adults with the required qualifications to re-start in-person children’s religious education. That’s been a goal the entire time but let me summarize that it has been complicated. They are going to provide a Sunday morning and once a week after school program for school aged kids, a monthly teen youth group, and an annual Vacation Bible School for the community. They will welcome volunteers to assist them.

Finally, we received word this week that there’s going to be some long overdue work to repair the slab issues at the chapel, so if you see our trees disappearing, that’s the reason.

Please be patient with

Sgt. Neubert as he keeps everything moving forward the best he can the next few weeks. He has been doing lots of great work that you don’t get to see.

As I sign off, I’m going to share something a poet wrote that is my parting prayer for each of you. “Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”

Hope & Joy,

Chaplain Jeff Crispin

Chaplain’s Corner Chaplain Maj. Jeffrey Crispin