Chaplaincy Ministry

Most of you know that my husband is in full time ministry as a chaplain for the State of Texas.

It is not a ministry for everyone, it is as much of a calling as any, though a large part of the church today has no real idea what exactly a chaplain is and unfortunately it has been viewed by some as not a ministry at all, my husband has been asked on more then one occasion "why he has left the ministry" in truth he is up to his eyeballs in ministry, he is a licensed, ordained and commissioned minister of the Gospel. Recently one of the Chaplains from another area in Texas retired after many years at his post, he sent a letter that I would like to share below it is entitled a:

 "Chaplains Prayer"

"Oh Father in heaven Holy is your name.

I remember when I perceived your call to be one of your shepherds

I was confused and excited. It seemed a call that was mysterious to me and

unrelated to any life path I would have chosen for myself.

In the beginning my vision and dream was to shepherd one of those grand flocks with many healthy sheep on broad green pastures and clean clear waters.

I was surprised and dismayed to find myself shepherd to this little flock. It is poor, small, and unattractive. It is not a flock one would boast about. It is of the smallest, poorest, lame, sick, halt wounded and blemished sheep that no one would desire.

I was confused Lord. Why had you put in this place over this flock?

Had I done something to disappoint you? Had I committed some terrible sin,

 or failed to measure up? 

I discovered over time that this little flock needed the most love, attention and care. The ground is harder. The hills are higher and more rugged. The paths are narrower, and the grazing much harder to find. It is a difficult path for the shepherd and the sheep.

All of these sheep are your sheep and in your care. And maybe they are the most precious sheep of all, unloved and disregarded by all, except by you alone.

It was a higher calling to shepherd this flock, than any of the flocks, Lord, that you could have placed in my care.

I am humbled that you have chosen me to shepherd this little   flock....

Amen

I have decided to have this prayer printed and framed to hang on Stephen's office wall,

a reminder of what kind of ministry we have been called to and just how much the Lord loves us and the little flock he has entrusted to our care....

"More then Conquers"

Driving to work the other morning I start thinking about the recent death of my youngest brother Charlie and then the death of an old friend only days ago and I can hear the words below as the song "who am I" plays on the radio. In that moment I happen to glance upwards and catch a huge bird of prey soaring above,  before I could blink  a sparrow, a tiny little bird, even smaller in contrast to the huge soaring bird of prey, lands on the back of this seemingly ominous predator. not only saved from peril but allowed to soar through the sky in away only a bird 10 times its size ever could....... The scripture and the title to this post floated through my mind "More then Conquers"   

"I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean.
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling.
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling.
And You've told me who I am.
I am Yours, I am Yours."

God’s Everlasting Love

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”^[c]

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord