Airmen visit Grand Canyon during chapel trip

  • Published
  • By Argen Duncan
  • Nucleus editor
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Seventeen Kirtland Airmen hiked the Grand Canyon and studied the Bible together during a weekend trip in September.

Base chaplains arranged the trip for Single Airmen Ministry participants.

Staff Sgt. Jean LaBarre, an Air National Guard member and volunteer working with the chaplains, said a total of 93 people from eight Air Force bases and one Marine base gathered for the weekend conference and camping trip Sept. 18-20. Luke Air Force Base chaplains in Glendale, Arizona, put on the event annually.

LaBarre said it was a great experience "from being able to experience God in the vastness of his creation to being able to witness what it's like to be a servant in God's kingdom."

The trip was also a good opportunity for the service members from the different bases to interact and get to know each other, he said.

Kirtland Airmen drove to Mather Campground near the canyon and helped set up camp Friday night. A group of civilians working with Luke Air Force Base cooks the meals.

"No one starves on these things," LaBarre said.

Saturday morning, they hiked 3 miles into the Grand Canyon, where they had lunch at Skeleton Point before hiking back out.

"The hike is brutal," LaBarre said. "The hike is not for the faint of heart."

He said it's best to hike once or twice locally before trying the Grand Canyon trek.

"But it definitely gives a perspective of what it's like to walk alongside someone in a spiritual journey," he said.

In spiritual life, as on the hike, LaBarre explained, if someone gets tired, you don't leave him or her behind. Instead, you rest with that person and then continue together.

A talk took place Saturday night and Sunday morning about the metaphorical "armor of God" the book of Ephesians 6 discusses and the "importance of being armored up," LaBarre said.

"It was awesome being able to see God connect with people from the conference," he said.

The Kirtland group returned on that Sunday after the second talk. Monterrey Baptist Church loaned them a 15-passenger van for the trip.

This year marked LaBarre's second trip to the conference. He appreciates the chaplains' work that allowed the Kirtland Airmen to go.

"It's such a blessing to serve alongside a chapel corps that's so interested in the spiritual health and resiliency of those stationed at Kirtland," he said.