(Editor’s Note: The book reviewed in this story has stories from two Presbyterian and Reformed Joint Commission chaplains, John Routzhan, PCA Army chaplain and ARP Chris Reeder, ARP USAF Chaplain)

John Groth makes a clear distinction between the remains of members of our Armed Forces and their bodies.

You could have heard a pin drop while he explained why.

“The temptation is to say bodies, but you’re not always sure if you’re going to see bodies,” Chaplain Lt. Col. Groth, USAF, Ret., said Sunday at Deerfield Presbyterian Church.

That brutal truth along with many lighters ones were noted by Groth and “Miracles & Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains’’ author Nancy B. Kennedy.

The Mercer County resident’s book is a collection of 50 stories from U.S. military chaplains that cover conflicts from Vietnam to our present-day wars.

She is a life-long friend of Deerfield Presbyterian Church Pastor Dr. Kenneth C. Larter and was invited to speak at his church, something she said they’ve been trying to arrange for some time now.

The book was published last year and recently released another in the “Miracles & Moments of Grace’’ series detailing tales from doctors. The insight Kennedy gleaned in interviewing more than 50 chaplains for her book and Groth’s experiences at Dover Air Force Base were faith-affirming for some and simply insightful to others.

“I’m just about the last person you’d expect to write a book of military stories,” Kennedy said Sunday.

Her parents didn’t serve and when she found out years ago that she would be having a son, she was weighing the yet-to-be-born boy’s escape to Canada.

“I realize my son is his own person,” she added Monday. Evan has since grown up to study military history and is surrounded by Revolutionary War battlefields at their Hopewell home.

Kennedy’s stance has also changed. “They are heroes and people willing to risk their lives for what they believe in,” she said.

Kennedy said some chaplains were eager to tell their stories and “thrilled someone would listen.” Groth was not exactly among those ranks.

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