Captain Nancy's Church Army USA, Baden, PA (2026)

03/27/2021

March – June 2021

Captain Nancy O’Leary
Church Army USA

Dear friends: It has certainly been an extraordinary year with the pandemic and I hope you all are well. At the end of November, I had a mild case of Covid but I continue to have muscle and other pain issues but I am much better each day. Praise God! I am cognizant, however, of all those who have lost love ones and those who are still suffering. May God have mercy. You all are in my prayers.

First, the good news! I am looking forward to the garden and it is time to begin cleanup and there is a lot of work to do. I need to clear brush from back of the garden and prepare the area to receive some small fruit trees from the Master Gardener’s CA trainees. The garden has partnered this year with master gardener applicants and they intend to plant small fruit trees at the garden for their project. I hope that the Master Gardeners can find additional ways to partner regularly. Also, I have some professionals to clear out the area and am in the process of determining costs for their work. There is a lot to do but it would be so lovely to have small fruit trees growing on the property. In fact, I already have some blueberry, raspberries bushes and grapes growing in the same general area. I also noticed that Ms. Groundhog (aka Buddie), who has her den in that area, shows some new clearing. I can’t wait to enjoy her presence and her wee pups.

The greenhouse is still a work in process and a lot to accomplish. I keep reminding myself to trust the process. Recently, I saw an item on the news about a large hydroponic soil-less tomato growing operation and it is exactly the vision for the greenhouse growing system and training efforts. It seems that we are headed in the right direction. It was very encouraging. God is amazing!

Now, the challenge. Back in the fall, amazing Church Army mission friends decided to partner with the garden to help further the construction and ministry of the greenhouse - which is wonderful.

I have asked some my construction friends, not only to help prepare the land for the fruit trees, but also to help restore the front gardens, level the ground, remove the large concrete blocks and restore the city sidewalk and fix the waterline. I will need to raise funds for this effort.

I believe that this is a teachable moment in that people are more important than the brokenness. Guess what!!!! It all can be fixed and restored!!! It’s Easter after all and its resurrection time. I expect that God has a plan and it’s about renewal and restoration. Rejoice! In any event, I need your help, not only for personal support but, if possible, help with funding the garden restoration. It would be great if you can help. In the meantime, I will be clearing out the tomato beds, the community garden, and do some work on the prayer labyrinth to get parts of the garden started regardless.

Also, besides the work to restore the garden areas, I will also need funds for a part time garden assistant for the three to four months of summer to help with the work. Normally, it’s 4 hours a day, five days a week, for the 3 the months of summer. This person will be asked to work with mission teams or work groups. So, essentially, I need to raise $5,000 for a paid summer intern as well as the clean-up work.

It’s lovely to realize that God loved us enough in our brokenness to restore us to Him. We are so valuable that God gave His only Son. Let’s love one another and rejoice in the resurrection. I always appreciate your prayers and support. Please pray that God will bring in the necessary resources for the garden this year and consider a generous gift to help with the work. Please pass this letter on to people who may be interested in helping. Mission happens because of you! I pray that you have a blessed Holy Week and Easter celebration. It will be here before we know it.

May God bless you richly.
Nancy O’Leary
Captain Nancy O’Leary

Please send your tax deductible gifts to Church Army, USA, P.O. Box 413, Aliquippa, PA, 15001, indicating a gift or pledge to Capt. Nancy O’Leary

08/18/2020

August-October 2020

Captain Nancy O’Leary
Church Army USA

Dear friends: It has been a while since I sent a newsletter. I sincerely apologize. It has been an unusually busy year with the advent of covid19 and I want you to know that I have been keeping you and your family in my prayers.

The pandemic and serious illness seems to us give a sense of our own fragility and need for God. A few months ago, I lost my older brother to cancer. He was the last of my immediate family. It was a sad time but I knew that I am not alone and so thankful for all of you as my church family. We know that life is precious but it is also a fragile and a temporary journey. For those of you who have lost love ones or friends during this time, please accept my condolences. You all are in my prayers.

So far, things are going really well at the garden but I am still very, very busy. Regardless of Covid, the garden needed to be planted, watered, weeded, mowed and managed. This year, I planted lots of tomato plants in the new giveaway-beds and the community garden is just about full up. The garden looks good and the flowers look beautiful and it is a cool, quiet and peaceful place in the morning and evenings. There are occasional deer and a couple of turkeys which are visiting with their tiny brood. I also enjoyed the presence of the groundhog and her pups in the spring. I named her Buddie. Their presence is such a joy and good for the soul.

There is an exciting new development. A local organization approached Church Army wanting to partner with the garden and to develop the greenhouse as a training center for at-risk men and women who need job training and life skills. This has always been a part of the vision for the garden. The organization is faith-based and understands the vision for evangelism as well. It is not enough to give job skills but we must point the way to a relationship with Christ as well as with each other. This partnership is a wonderful development.

However, the partnership comes with a responsibility to complete the inside of the greenhouse. The cost would be about $2,500. The cement floor needs to be poured, the electric system added and fans installed. Also, the funding would be used to develop a hydroponic growing system. So, at this time, I need to raise personal support as well as an additional amount for the greenhouse. If you are able, would you prayerfully consider an additional gift to the greenhouse project?

In any event, God is still at work in the midst of the pandemic and is walking alongside us in the garden. Although there is social distancing with a mask etc., the neighbors are still coming by to chat and to share their situation along with alleviating some of their loneliness. The loneliness, personal trials, and need for relationship don’t stop because of Covid. One neighbor from the trailer park told me that she often comes to the garden in the early morning to think about things and to pray. She said that she feels the presence of God there. It reminds me of the old hymn – “I Come to the Garden Alone.” In any event, the garden provides a remarkably peaceful and prayerful place where one can experience God’s presence among us. It is a gift.

I want to thank you all for all your prayers and personal support during this time. The ministry of Church Army continues at the garden and it has been possible because of you and your faithfulness. Please consider a gift of personal support. Your partnership is crucial. Please pass this letter along as you feel led.

I pray for you and your family. May God bless you and your family and keep you safe and well.

Love and prayers always,

Nancy O’Leary

Captain Nancy O’Leary

Please send your tax deductible gifts to Church Army, USA, P.O. Box 413, Aliquippa, PA, 15001, indicating a gift or pledge to Capt. Nancy O’Leary

12/28/2019

THIS ---From Dr. McCaulley's reflection on the significance of the Feast of The Holy Innocents (December 28).

"This feast suggests that things that God cares about most do not take place in the centers of power. The truly vital events are happening in refugee camps, detention centers, slums and prisons. The Christmas story is set not in a palace surrounded by dignitaries but among the poor and humble whose lives are always subject to forfeit. It’s a reminder that the church is not most truly herself when she courts power. The church finds her voice when she remembers that God “has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble,” as the Gospel of Luke puts it."

05/04/2019

Third Sunday of Easter
Called to be Witnesses

In the first lesson today, we hear the familiar story about Saul’s conversion, who later, as we know, became Paul the Apostle. Saul was well educated, a religious scholar, and he was a respected teacher of the law. He saw his role as one who kept the law and strictly interpreted the scriptures, and he had the authority to enforce it as well. He sought the purity of its historical interpretation before God and the people of Israel.

So, after Jesus’ crucifixion, when the disciples were espousing that Jesus was the Messiah, Saul sought to squelch the new teaching - which, in his estimation, defiled the historic teachings and law. So, Saul seeks and receives the authority of the religious leaders to stamp out this new teaching by any means necessary.

Thus, Saul’s mission essentially was one of “God and country” and religious purity. I think, we’ve seen a lot of this lately where people or leaders are outwardly religious and are zealous for the law but miss the heart and the grace of it.

In any event, as Saul reaches Damacus, he is stopped short by a spiritual experience. As he is riding, he is blinded by a great light, he is thrown off his horse, and he hears a voice asking “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? When asked by blinded Saul, the voice identifies as Jesus Himself. Jesus then tells Saul to go into the city wait for further direction. After the encounter, Saul remains blinded for three days so he gets to think about his encounter.

In my research for this message, I came across a story about Flannery O’Connor, who was a Southern writer. He said relative to Paul’s encounter, “I reckon the Lord knew that the only way to make a Christian out of that one was to knock him off his horse, and knock him off his horse is what God did, whether it was a real, literal horse, or his high horse.

Continuing the story, Ananias, an apostle, is directed by the Lord to go to Saul and to heal him. Ananias has some reservations and fear about going to Saul knowing his reputation and basically say’s to God “don’t you know who this guy is?” Going to heal Saul is the last thing Ananias wants to do. However, Ananias is obedient and goes nonetheless and he heals Saul and his eyes were opened and Saul was converted.

In the Gospel story for today, the disciples decide to go out to fish. They weren’t doing anything particularly out of the ordinary. As we know, they were fishermen. However, when they first went out, they caught nothing. However, when Jesus shows up on the beach, he sends them back out to fish on the other side of the boat and the disciples catch more fish in their nets than they could handle.

It seems that, when we least expect it, Jesus shows up in our most ordinary tasks of life and, when He speaks, and it changes everything.

I remember my call to mission. It was in my living room and I was watching MTV. God spoke. It was a bit of a shock. However, I received a call to lead the lost to Him. So, I thought, well, what else do I have to do with my life and said, “Sure.”

In any event, when Jesus enters the picture and speaks to us or calls us to a task or mission or witness, it changes everything – not just personally - but everything. As you know, I have been a Captain in Church Army for a few years now.

This is the third Sunday in Easter and the church gives us these two stories of encounters and witness of the risen Christ in the world.

We have people all around us who are in need of a witness of Christ, or who are searching for the truth or are in need of an encounter with the risen Lord, or encouragement to continue the work.

Sometimes we are like Ananias not wanting to talk to the powerful because of our own fear. It’s scary to speak truth to power. But, God calls us to go and spread our nets out wide and bring in all that we can and He promises to be with us and He provides the catch.

Where has your faith taken you in terms of conversation and witness?

We are all here today because we were once in need of a witness and we were knocked off our high horse - so to speak, where we had a witness or an encounter where someone pointed the way to Christ and told us their story.

Is there someone you know who needs to hear your story and the message? As people of faith, we are witnesses of the resurrected Christ in the world.

Finally, today, we also reflect on the call of Peter to lead the church in mission and purpose. I am here today because of the Church and her message and witness and so are you. Jesus calls each of us, as the Church on earth, to love, to feed, to tend to the broken, to follow the call, to be witnesses to the resurrection and the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and He has risen indeed.

All in the name of God.
Amen

03/10/2019

March 9, 2019
Cpt. Nancy O’Leary

THE WORD US NEAR YOU
We are now observing the first week of Lent. Lent, as we know, is a season where the church calls us into a time reflection, repentance, prayer, and fasting.

For me, I find that Lent has special richness where we seek to purge ourselves of worldly passions and, again, seek a closer relationship with God. However, in the end, ultimately, we find that can do nothing on our own but God has provided the way.

During this season, I learn again that I need a Savior and that I can to nothing on my own but, rather, that it is God who provides and does the emptying, the filling, the forgiving, and that it is by God’s invitation that we take this Lenten journey and it is He who saves us. Also, the Collect today asks God, who knows our temptations and weaknesses, to come quickly to help us.

Today’s gospel readings is the familiar story of Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness. The temptation comes directly after Jesus baptism in the Jordan where the heavens open and God, by the Spirit resting upon Jesus, proclaims and confirms that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The wilderness, as we know, is a place of mystery and a place where Spirits dwell and it sets a scene.

In Jesus’ baptism story, we encounter Jesus’ as divinity, however, in this gospel of Luke, we encounter Jesus’ humanity
So, Jesus goes into the wilderness and, after his long fast, Satan comes to Jesus to tempt Him to sin against God. The temptations were (1) for Jesus to turn a stone into bread because Jesus was famished and weak from fasting, (2) that Satan would give Jesus the kingdoms of the world, representing all power, if Jesus would worship him, and (3) to entice Jesus test God. These temptations represent our human problem which separates us from God such as seeking after the needs of the flesh, the world or personal power or when we question the authority of God in the world and in our lives.

These temptations seem to basically be the overall problem for all of us. I imagine that we all seem to fail in these areas more often than we want to admit, at least I would put myself in that category. I am reminded of Roman 7:19 where it states – for I don’t do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don’t want to do.

I actually find the Temptation passage a hopeful message that Jesus experienced our deepest needs, was tempted as we are in the areas which are common to all of us, yet He did not sin. Plus, He didn’t come to condemn us in our failures but rather, by grace, to save us, transform us, give us new life in the Spirit, and to restore our relationship with God and with each other.

There are a couple of things about this. First, the good news is that redemption is for everyone. Jesus didn’t come to be the Savior for a select few elite or the religious but He came to bring new life to everyone. He came to redeem the whole world and everyone and everything in it. Second, He came specifically for you and for me and for everyone. He was thinking specifically of you and your need for a Savior. He was thinking about me and my need for a Savior. God is not impersonal and He knows each of our names. We have been created to have a personal relationship with Him. He loves us and He understand our need and He understands that we are incapable of doing good or of having life without Him. God created us to have a relationship with Him, and Jesus has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, and He calls us into a relationship with God.

Also, when Jesus taught the apostles to pray, the words reflect the temptations that we face and are in contrast to them being – thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Jesus is the one who has the power to deliver us, protect us from temptation and gives us our daily bread. Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus is God’s answer to our predicament – not by the law but by grace.

I think about my own life and I am sure that it is true for most of us here. That, at some point, we realized that we needed help and that we needed something greater than ourselves to change our situation. We all have a story about the day when we came to our senses and looked to God for help. All of us are here today because we realized our need for a Savior and our lives were transformed and we were forever changed. We came to know the truth.

Last Wednesday, when I was at the café giving out ashes, I was talking to Mr. Irwin, who I call the prophet, when a young woman came in who seemed a bit distraught and flustered. She asked if we had a phone cord that she could use to charge her phone. I said to her that she seemed to be having a bad day and she said that she was. So, I asked her if she would like some coffee. She did and she sat down at the table.

So, Andrenna, Mr. Irwin, and I ended up sitting down with her and we learned that the young woman was an addict, she was kicked out of the car by her boyfriend, thus, the lack of a phone cord, and that she had just lost custody of her daughter.

Mr. Irwin asked her if she was a Christian and she said that she was an atheist and didn’t believe there God existed. Then, Andrenna and I told our own stories of how, both of us at one point in our lives, didn’t know if God existed as well, but we said – God, if you’re really there, that we had messed up our lives and asked him to take over and He did and it changed everything, Mr. Irwin said to her “there is one time when you can test God and that is when you tell God to reveal himself, because you want to know Him, and that you need His help.”
After she left, we all had a sense that, that day, it would be a new beginning for this young woman. We had a significant conversation.

There are so many people in this world, like that young woman, who need a Savior and need to hear our testimony. There are so many who need to know that Jesus came for them and that He came to give them a new way of living and new life.

I would propose that a good Lenten activity might be to share with someone who crosses your path and who needs a Savior what Jesus has done for you in your life and that they can also find new life in Christ too.

“For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

All in the name of God.

12/09/2018

Advent Message – Make the Paths Straight
By Cpt. Nancy

I have always loved Advent with its tension of anticipating the second coming of the Lord who is here but not yet as we live in Christ in the present but also wait and long for the promise of His return.

In today’s scripture, Luke focuses around the words and actions of the prophet John and the reading begins by giving us some specifics about time and place and putting it into context.

Luke states that, in the 15th year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was ruler of Galilee, the word of the Lord came to John. The description is a specific time which people would remember and it would take them back to where they would remember those days of terror.

In this introduction, Luke names the empire which stands in opposition to the kingdom of God, and then states that, during this terrible time in history, the Word of the Lord came to John, son of Zachariah, in the wilderness.

In contrast to the players of the empire, John was a nobody out in the middle of nowhere. It seems that God spoke a word, not to the powerful, but rather to an unlikely person, to a nobody, at the most unlikely time and, perhaps, in the most unlikely of places, far away from the seats of political and religious power.

We know, however, that the wilderness is also a special and specific place as well. It is a location far outside the boundries of the city gates. It is a place of vulnerability and the unknown – a place where spirits dwell and life is held in the balance. The wilderness is a place of mystery but it is also a place where God dwells and where He can be found and, in this place, God speaks to John.

In response to God’s message, John began calling people to repentance indicating a need to get ready because God is about to come and restore all things. Luke couples John’s ministry as the fulfillment of the Isaiah passage of a voice crying in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight - because God is about to do a great thing among his people and God is about to restore us in relationship with Him and with each other.

In response to God word, John calls the people to repentance or to turn around and, in the Jewish tradition, this is not simply a washing but it is a total and complete change of personhood, mind and heart - where you were once one thing and now you are another - transferring from the slavery of the empire to the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

Since the fall, God has not forgotten our need for redemption and restoration and God recognizes our brokenness. God’s desire and plan is to restore us fully. John’s message is not only just one of repentance for our sins but one of total transformation and anticipation of God’s redemption of all things.

I read in my devotions that God has offered repentance to every generation and to anyone who is willing. In addition, God is calling us to be a part of this restoration well. We are not just bystanders watching God’s handiwork but we are to be active participants in it.

So, how do we heed the call of John the Baptist this Advent to prepare the way of the Lord make His paths straight and make the rough road smooth?

We are living in a world characterized by hatred of all kinds, despair, violence and anger and, each year, it seems worse than the year before and seems to be spiraling out of control. I heard the other day a comment where a priest stated that - when we see someone, despairing and lacking hope, hanging themselves, we don’ t just stand there and let it happen, we cut the rope.

So, how do we do this and call this generation of our time to repentance? How do we make the paths straight for the coming of the Lord. How do we cut the rope in a world bent on destruction?

I believe that it not a passive waiting but it is an active waiting which is characterized, first, by our own repentance, recognizing that we have fallen short in many ways by our own selfishness and mistreatment of others, and also forgiving those who may have mistreated us.
We are admonished to love mercy and do justice righting the wrongs such as loving and caring for our neighbor and welcoming the stranger and migrant in our midst.

We make the roads straight by reaching out to the broken and speaking words of hope and acceptance and taking time to be with someone who needs a friend or by visiting the sick, comforting those who are mourning, and visiting the elderly, the prisoner and the forgotten.

We make the roads straight by loving our enemies, doing good to those who persecute us so that they may see our good works and give glory to God and also by working for justice and peace.

When we do these things, it not only changes who we are but even the smallest acts of love and kindness transforms the world around us.

So, this Advent, be on the lookout to make the paths straight for the Lord’s return and watch for opportunities to show kindness and love - thereby subverting the power of the empire and participating in God’s redemptive restoration plan.

May your Advent be filled with extraordinary opportunities to make the paths straight through acts grace, mercy, justice, forgiveness, goodness, joy, love, and reconciliation bringing restoration hope to everyone around us and bringing in the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

All in the name of God.

09/25/2018

I was asked to speak on Love for a Love versus Hate rally. I tried my best. So here it is.

Love versus Hate

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

God grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

This reading is called the prayer of St. Francis. A Franciscan historian stated that “Francis came to the foundational understanding that every man and women, without exception in creation, is a brother and a sister, one to another, constituting a commonality that we all share with each other.

My name is Cpt. Nancy O’Leary, I am with the Church Army and am also President of Beaver County Peace Links.

I was humbled to be asked by Mark and Tina to speak today about Love, and I am privileged to know many of you personally and to call you friends.

I know that, collectively, we all are involved so many different important issues such as Healthcare for All, protecting Social Security, advocating for strong unions, fair wages, and clean air and water action, climate change, education reform and free college tuition, prison reform and expungement of felonies and ending the death penalty.

Others are involved in opposing race and gender discrimination - seeking equality and protecting the right of all people to live their lives in peace and love without fear.

We also advocate for peace and justice and to stop funding the nuclear weapons industry and the war machine.

Others are working on common sense gun laws and stopping gun violence in our communities and schools. Still others are working to stem the tide of addiction and the associated deaths of so many young people and to shine a light on the complicity of the drug companies.

Others are working on the political campaigns to inform the public on issues that further the common good and to inform the voters about the candidate’s positions on matters important to them so that the voters are able to make informed choices and get people to the polls.

My point is that - you all are here today – not for yourselves -- but for your neighbors, friends, and strangers, and for all those in need and the least among us and you believe in our common humanity.

I believe that the motivation of your political action is based on your love for others, your love for justice and mercy, for this country and your communities, and love for common good. A friend of mine asked if writing such this message for this rally was hard, and I said, no, that it was easy, because it’s about you and you all do amazing things seeking to create a more inclusive and loving society.

Collectively, you are a tapestry of race, gender, faith traditions. The reason why you do what you do and why you all march, protest and advocate, is because it is rooted in love.

You all are a collective moral voice in our community and you believe that we are stronger together. You are making a difference and, because your motives are rooted in love, you will prevail.

I read recently that Colin Kaepernick stated that his “taking a knee” is about love. Likewise, our collective political action and advocacy is not about us and there is no greater purpose in life than to lay down your life and treasure in service and justice for others and not for selfish gain;

In the book of James, it states that the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, and Peacemakers who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness.

Unfortunately, some of our present elected leaders and their minions don’t understand this - but we here today understand it. We understand the need to advocate for principled leaders who are committed to giving their lives for the good of all and who will speak the truth, and who understand that the truth matters and that lies are not alternative facts no matter how many times the lies are told.

Make no mistake, we are in a battle for the principles of this nation and what we do will effect the lives of present and future generations. What you do today and tomorrow really really matters.

We need leaders and candidates who are brave and who will have the courage and integrity to represent and advocate for the needs of all the people and not just the one percent. I believe that we have some really good candidates in Beaver County, who are here today, who have the character to do the right thing for our community and who we can get behind and support.

We live is a dangerous moment in history with the rise again of a variety of hate groups and people in power advocating for war and who lack the capacity to tell the truth.

We are at a crossroads moment and we see the darkness looming before us but we have been in such places before and we know that love is stronger than hate, and love will always prevail and we are stronger together.

You are a resilient people. We can turn this ship around. So choose today whom you will serve. Like the song says – and you union guys will remember – which side are you on boys, which side are you on, which side are you on boys, which side are you on.

Like it’s said – Love trumps Hate – and a building’s foundation that is built on love is a building that will not fall down.

Thank you and bless you all for all you do. You are amazing. Love you all. Peace.

Captain Nancy's Church Army USA

03/27/2021

08/18/2020

12/28/2019

05/04/2019

03/10/2019

12/09/2018

09/25/2018

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