We traveled the country summer of 2021, boosting morale for various Law Enforcement Agencies on the way. Among those was the Columbus OH PD. A longtime friend from the Marine Corps had joined that force upon retiring. We met our friend when we served on Camp Pendleton as the Patriots Ministry (2007-2015). We reached out to him and discovered he was now a LT with the Columbus PD and a training officer. He reported that morale is extremely low among his officers and our timing could not be better. The Columbus city government has been at odds with their own Police force. Defunding and not defending them, and not creating a supportive environment has created an all too familiar negative atmosphere for these Officers. So, we scheduled an in-person visit. Our goal was to encourage 72 officers in one day across 3 shifts in one especially discouraging part of Columbus. The boost consisted of:

1. Doughnuts/Muffins & Coffee for the 7am shift
2. BBQ lunch for the 1pm shift
3. Thank You cards (written by several of our faithful card writers from three states)
4. A "Thank You" Banner to be posted in a station.
5. Most importantly, many Peacemaker Bibles.

We had time to chat with several officers, encourage them, and hear the ugly details about the riots in their city, the lawlessness, coinciding with the lack of support they feel. An older Officer said it took a while to get used to how Police had become an automatically suspected villain instead of a helping hero. How sad!

Police Officers need to know people care about the danger they put themselves in. They deserve our support!