Hundreds of volunteers worked with Rebuild Together-St. Louis to transform a north St. Louis building into a training center for military veterans. The former dormitory was donated by North City Church of Christ and will be run by the Renewable Energy Training Institute, which provides veterans with skills to prepare for civilian life.

Heartwarming and heartwrenching. That’s how I’d describe my experience Sunday with Marine and Navy families who make up a big part of the Roosevelt Drive Church of Christ in Jacksonville, N.C., not far from the main gates of Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast. I spent the weekend interviewing church members about the toll a decade of war has taken on the congregation, which averages Sunday attendance between 180 and 200.

The Westboro Baptist Church sent three of its members to Nashville, Tenn., to protest at the funeral of Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf. Arriving at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ, bearing signs that read “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God is your enemy,” the three protesters were met by a sea of U.S. flags, waved by crowd of nearly 2,000 counter-protestors opposed to the controversial Topeka, Kan., church’s message, the Tennessean reports.

The New York Times ran a feature on Lt. Col. David Richardson, a 1988 graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Ark.. The Times reports that he sees himself not as a Marine who paints, but as a painter who fights.

Gen. Roger A. Brady, the Air Force’s top commander in Europe and a member of the Kaiserslautern Church of Christ while stationed in Germany, is retiring.

Military and health-care chaplains associated with Churches of Christ gathered recently at Harding University Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, Tenn. The Hope and Healing Conference “brought together these highly trained ministers who work together in ministries that differ from local church work,” said Mark Parker, Harding Grad’s assistant vice president and director of admissions. Attendees included chaplains from the Army, Navy and Air Force as well as hospitals and hospice programs.