Law Encouragement

Law enforcement officers from across the area enjoyed some delicious food and fellowship Sunday night at WaterSprings Church. Jeff Roper tells us about a new organization supporting the faith of first responders and the community.

The law enforcement chaplaincy is a new organization designed to provide support for first responders at work, and on the scene, and to assist with victims at a critical time.

Executive Director, Tim Rupp , who has 20 plus years as a police officer in Texas and Bonneville County, started the program that's designed to give cops another kind of backup.

He says now was a good time to remind the law enforcement community they have a unit of support ready to respond to their needs.

"The reason why we're having this dinner, provided for them and their spouses, is because of all the shootings we've had recently in southeast Idaho, last month we had like 5 or 6 officer involved shootings for any area much less our sparsely populated southeast idaho area. So we want to reach out to the officers and spouses, and tell them , we appreciate them, we love them, we support them, as a community, as a law enforcement chaplaincy agency, and their law enforcement agency, and we also wanted to give them some encouragement: how to win, body, soul and spirit. "

Officers were offered a cop bible, and more guides to protect them on another level. With local sheriffs and police chiefs in attendance, and special guest, too, like Trixie, the chaplain dog, the atmosphere was a time to relax with those who have your 6 and encourage our communities to give our men and women who protect us, the tools they need off and on the job.

The Chaplains of Idaho program is an offshoot of cop church, which was developed by Rupp in 2017 to help provide officers a place to worship with their families in an atmosphere where they feel most comfortable.

The meal was sponsored by North Hiway Cafe and if you'd like to contribute, join, or worship at cop church, check facebook https://www.facebook.com/CopChurchIF/ and go to http://chaplainsofidaho.org