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When
I received the call to serve as an active duty chaplain, I left
the parish with a great deal of sadness. I had come to dearly
love the people and the parish I had served for nearly eight
years, but I knew it was time. Nearly 25 years later, I hung
up my uniform with that same great sadness, but knowing it was
time. What happened in between is the story of a marvelous ministry
and adventure I could not have comprehended in my wildest dreams.
In that short span,
my family and I had the privilege of living in three foreign
countries during ten different assignments. Assignments from
all across the U.S., to Korea, to England and to Germany brought
richness to our family life and a sense of adventure to our
family. Even now, when asked what our favorite assignment was,
I am hard pressed to name any one because each tour brought
such rich gifts to our lives.
What made it so special?
Let me touch on a couple of highlights.
Shortly after being
called on to active duty, I found myself in Korea, alone, with
my family back in South Dakota. In one sense it was a painful
separation from family. Yet, at the end of that year we had
been gifted with a new four-year old son who has immeasurably
enriched our life and the lives of his three siblings. Given
responsibility to “solve the ‘Amerasian’ problem”,
it meant months of developing a strategy for challenging Soldiers
and Airmen to not father and abandon babies in Korea. The final
result was a staff study with recommendations that ultimately
resulted in significant changes in our immigration laws. Hundreds
of children, fathered by American servicemen, are not able to
claim their right to American citizenship. Our new son was but
a bonus to a year spent in living the hours and days and weeks
and months of learning what it meant to be the “Visible
presence of the Holy” to countless young Airmen and Soldiers.
As we mutually shared the pain of separation from loved ones,
our ministry of presence, as chaplains, became an avenue for
deep spiritual reflection and faith renewal.
An assignment in
Washington, D.C. brought the realization of how treasured and
influential Chaplains can be in shaping the direction and culture
of the Air Force. Deeply involved in providing ministry to Air
Force families, the Pentagon put me on special assignment to
help “create the family program for the Air Force.”
I was tasked to design
and implement Family Support Centers. Every base in the Air
Force now has what was previously called a “Family Support
Center”, now called “Airmen and Family Readiness
Centers” as the visible presence of a robust family support
system because they trusted the judgment of a young chaplain
nearly thirty years ago.
What is really special
is that in between I was given the privilege of sharing the
lives of countless men and women who came seeking comfort for
their struggling marriages, guidance for making sense out of
their lives, or instruction in preparation to be Baptized. It
meant long days in the office, or trips on short notice to remote
sites where they gathered around a stack of barrels to share
in communion or to confess and hear the words of absolution.
It meant going out in the middle of very cold winter nights
to bring a cup of hot chocolate and a word of encouragement
to young airmen working faithfully through the night to prepare
planes for the next day’s sorties. It meant knowing that
the chaplain was one of the first to be thought of when they
were in distress. It meant patiently working with distressed
airmen considering suicide. It meant dealing with young servicemen
accused of molesting their child. It meant sitting late into
the night with senior staff as they agonized over the inevitable
consequences of having to send their men and women into combat.
In reflection on
nearly twenty-five years of having the privilege of serving
as a Chaplain in the Air Force, I am still struck by how grateful
they were for how little I did an how hungry they were to hear
the Good News and how graciously they heard it.
I am eternally grateful
to our church for having called me to this specialized ministry
of “living in the trenches” with those who we were
called serve.
If I weren’t
so old, I would do it all over again.
Rev. John O. Lundin,
Chaplain, Colonel, USAF (retired)
Hope Lutheran Church
St. Charles, Mo.
March 22, 2008
“We
know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been
called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV)
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