April 4 – “Round two”

Round two of the fire department chaplain introductory visits is completed.  Yesterday was Nathan’s shift, so I knew several more of the guys.  Two more of them live in our neighborhood.  One of them asked about my Uncle Jerry.  On his days off he has lawn mowing business and Jerry is one of his customers.  He told me to assure Jerry that he would see that his yard is taken care of.  One of the captains took me to a locker and gave me two different off-duty t-shirts.  He also said he would make me a cap with the word Chaplain on it as well as a cross.  He seemed pretty excited about it.  Nathan told him I already had one of his old ones, but I think he is still going to make the chaplain one.  That would be very cool.  Another guy asked if he could ask me some personal questions.  We went to a different room and he wanted to know if I believed in all of the gifts of the Spirit and if I had ever spoken in tongues.  I assured him that if it was in Scripture I believed it.  I did a quick mini-Bible study lesson on Paul’s idea of the preaching and teaching gifts being more important since they help people understand the gospel and aren’t prone to cause confusion.  I think he was a bit taken aback that I kept going back to scripture, but he seemed to accept it.  Good to know he was a believer, though.   

I had several questions asked about what I would be doing.  Guess they were worried that I might be doing some revival preaching or something at the stations.  One guy asked specifically if I would be visiting people in the hospital.  I assured him that was one of the things, and that I had seen the fire fighter who was currently there as well as the fire fighter’s baby who was there.  He was surprised, but grateful.  My favorite comment of the day came after the assistant chief explained that I would be getting shirts as well as a full dress uniform to represent the department at different functions.  One of the guys piped up that they should provide me with red shoes and one of those big hats so I could be their pope.  “It’s all about the size of the hat, you know.”  Funny stuff.

I stopped by the hospital in the afternoon and found out that the fire fighter was possibly going home this weekend.  He is doing much better.  The little baby seems to be doing better as well.  She slept through my visit with her, but I did pray for her.  The nurses all thought I was her grandfather.  I tried to explain that, though I was a grandfather, I was Haisley’s pastor.  They didn’t get it, I guess.  They all called me Grandpa the whole time I was there.  At one point an occupational therapist stopped me and said I looked familiar.  She seemed familiar to me as well, so I explained that I was a pastor at Seaside in Jamaica Beach.  That was it.  She lives there, so our paths must have crossed at some point. 

I also stopped for a haircut.  I didn’t think anyone was home when I first got there.  The music was up really loud and no one was in sight.  I finally shook the wind chimes that were serving as a doorbell, and someone came out to greet me.  I was assigned to the new guy.  Nice enough guy.  He started out chatty as most do.  I finally worked the conversation around to the fact that I was a pastor, and his demeanor changed.  Not nearly as talkative.  He did make a stab at a preacher joke, though.  As he was finishing up he said, “It looks like you’re losing your big preacher hair.”  I wasn’t wearing my hearing aids, of course, so I wanted to make sure I had heard him right.  He repeated it a bit differently this time, with an added explanation.  “You’re losing your preacher big hair.  You know, like those guys on TV.”  I thought that was pretty funny, but I think he still felt awkward.  Didn’t say much after that.  Maybe next time.

Psalms 83:1 says, “O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.”

Father, thank you for always working around us.  You are never still.  Just seems that way to us sometimes, probably because of our blindness.  Amen.