Peace on Earth to All

[JAL3]

I want to extend a Christmas greeting to everyone here on TRF. My greeting will be a little different but no less heartfelt.

For most of the last 15 years, I have volunteered as a Chaplain at various hospitals on holidays like Christmas. I did so because many of the others had family and it gave them a chance to share the special times with their families. After I got married, my wife thought that was a splendid thing and encouraged me to keep doing it.

Now, I am employed as a chaplain. I volunteered for the big days again. This time was different (and still is, as I am writing this from the Main Methodist Hospital in San Antonio).

Christmas especially, is usually pretty calm. Last night, I did the overnight shift and it was anything but calm. We had a higher than usual number of people pass away, some in the general population and some in the ER. Most were surprises. I saw cases resulting for terrible and unspeakable violence come into the ER.

After more than a decade of doing this, I can be jaded sometimes. One of the cases last night broke through my barriers. I will not describe it except to say that it involved domestic violence. As the night wore on, I got more and more depressed.

I got off at 7 this morning and got 4 hours of sleep. I have been back at the hospital since 3PM and will be here until 11. It has calmed somewhat. For that I give thanks.

I have a bigger reason to give thanks, however. I spent some time with my wife and daughter earlier, just rejoicing in their presence. I spent some time online here at TRF rejoicing as well.

I am no longer depressed. I am saddened by the evil I see in the world but I am also heartened by the good.

I know some of you are believers and others are not. Most of you are older like me but a few a bright eyed youngsters. Some of you are surly and others of you are generous to a fault. Some lean to the right, others tilt to the left and a few jump overboard in either direction.

I don't care.

What I do care is that I have this community which helped me so much when I was recovering from my brain tumor. I care that generally, all of your want to help and support each other. I care that you help others outside or our hobby. I care that you care about your families and friends. I care about you.

This Christmas, and on all the days that follow, I hope that you will all be richly blessed. I hope that you will in turn be a blessing to those around you. I hope you have a few great successes, learn from your failures and that you don't need too much in the way of excavating equipment to recover your projects. Have a good time, share some of your joy with others.

I believe in the Prince of Peace, commemorated on this day. I know that we all fail to live up to his promise, that we were doomed to that failure all along but that it does not matter. Each of us is precious anyway. I pray that you will live up to that promise and help others to do so as well.

I may have nightmares about the young mother beaten to within an inch of her life with a baseball bat but I will also remember the hope in her eyes, the love for her children and the effort she made to pray for the medical team working on her. In a curious way, she made me think of my own family, the people I know and also the people I know only online. She made me think of all of you.

I pray that you all have a merry Christmas, that you find those important to you and let them know how important they are. You might even consider the "random act of kindness" or "senseless deed of generosity" to somebody who has given up.

All is not lost.

Peace on Earth. Good will to all.

Merry Christmas,

 

[tbrogan]

Amen and may God bless you and your family, and God (anyone of your choosing) bless us all.......

 

[Fred22]

John the work you do is important. I have no doubt you are good at it. For some of those people you counsel the last face they see is a kindly one and that is a good thing. I hope 2013 is good to you and your family sir.

 

[Eric1]

Blessings from God the Father may you see more Good than Evil next year!
Amen

 

[cwbullet]

Peace is such a good thought. I pray for a Utopian dream in which we are all at peace. It would be so nice to be able to bring all our troops home and never have leave our borders again. I am sorry for your difficult night and hope you get some rest. A chaplain, like a doctor or nurse, has work that never finishes.

 

[WillMarchant]

Thanks, John, for being brave enough to comfort people in their time of need! Let's hope that 2013 is a better year around the entire world.

 

[scottrc]

Thanks John. My Christmas was spent much like yours. Not with family and a bunch of gifts, but among those who needed a shoulder to lean on, a hand to hold, and eyes to look into and give them confidence that there is hope. Amongst all the anquish, it was by far my most cherished Christmas and has given me more strength on my faith and as a person.

 

[fyrwrxz]

John- a heartfelt thank you and with a lump in my throat and tears threatening to ruin my typing, a very deep and appreciative virtual hug across the miles for what you do. It's a rare human who can go into the lion's den time after time for benefit of strangers. Peace be with you and yours.. Know the good fight serves to stem the tide of evil in other's hearts. You are golden. Many happy returns of the Holidays.

 

[JAL3]

Shortly after making the original post yesterday, I got paged to go to a different hospital for a SART case. SART stands for sexual assault response team. About 25 counties use our system. ALL survivors are taken to this particular hospital for the medical exam. The team consists of a SANE nurse (a nurse trained in forensic evidence collection), an advocate from the Rape Crisis Center and a chaplain.

I responded to the call at 2130. The survivor was a young lady of 19 from Rwanda. In appearance, size and demeanor she was more like a 10 year old. She is the first person I have ever met who could give my daughter a run for her money in shear volume of idle chit-chat.

Unknown to me, the SANE nurse grew up in Kenya and spoke fluent Swahili. She and the patient hit it off great. I had the odd experience while waiting outside the exam room of hearing them both laugh, both singing songs in Swahili and both giggling like 10 year olds. These were not "funeral dirges"; they were Christmas carols and happy songs. Usually what I hear is a lot of crying.

These cases take on average about 2 hours. This one went from 9pm to 230 am. Usually, the survivor and everybody else is exhausted. This time there was a surreal festive mood and when the advocate was taking the survivor out to the cab, she ran back in and hugged the SANE nurse saying she never wanted to leave.

I bring this up for a reason. The case I mentioned originally was a sad one. Even though the patient blessed everyone present, it was still sad. This was different. It was sad seeing such a small and frail creature who had been assaulted but her energy and joy could not be overcome by the tragedy she had endured. She too blessed everyone with whom she had contact. It was to type of experience that gives you the drive to go on when you're sick of seeing the evil in the world.

That, fundamentally, is what I wish for all of you of TRF. May something brighten your day, bring you some joy and inspire you to pass some of that joy along to those you meet.

The only down side was when I got home a little after 3 in the morning (I was supposed to get off at 11). I checked my schedule to find that my supervisor "threw me a bone" and scheduled me for some extra hours, starting at 7 this morning. I am feeling the lack of sleep since Sunday and would normally be a terrible grouch in such condition (even more than usual). Instead I find myself buoyed by the memory of the extraorinary young lady I met last night. If she can smile and spread joy after what she endured, I'd be a heel not to try to emulate her myself based on a mere lack of sleep.

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas, everyone. You have 10 days left. Make them count!

 

[cwbullet]

John,

Truely great work you are doing. Thanks for what you do. I know you often don't get thanks. I have found that often the thanks has to come from within.

These types of cases rarely give any satisfaction but it make me feel good that I was there for a person in their time of need. I am a member of our SARB - Sexual Assault Review Board and deal with these cases often. It is awesome that your area has such a robust system to help victims in their time of need.

 

[Zeus-cat]

I am not an overly religious person, but I truly mean it when I say thank you and may God bless you John. The world is a much better place because of people like you.