A young woman’s voice quivered at the other end of the phone. “I just want to tell you, I will be in Heaven because of what you said.”

Puzzled, the chaplain asked the woman to explain.

“You said I could be forgiven,” she responded without hesitation. “That’s what I needed to know.”

The chaplain asked no more questions and simply breathed a prayer of gratitude. Whatever this woman had done, Jesus could forgive her.

“We met in a mental health facility where I volunteered,” recalled Norma Hult, a chaplain at Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, Calif. “I never preached. I simply shared my personal journey and my love of God. That particular evening, I talked about how forgiveness works. Apparently, within an hour, she connected with Jesus.”

“A chaplain must be willing to crawl into darkness with people,” explained Hult, who ministers primarily to hospice patients. “We must be emotionally vulnerable. We listen and support.”

Rescue Boats in the Storm

Adventist Health upholds a clear mission in its 20 hospitals: to share God’s love by providing physical, mental and spiritual healing. Caring staff and clinicians view people through whole-person lenses. Chaplains are essential to the patient care team.

Wayne Judd, assistant vice president of Mission and Strategic Planning at Adventist Health, counts it a great privilege to work with chaplains. “They quietly do the work of Jesus,” he said. “They help hurting people. They are heroic figures—rescue boats in the storm.”

“As members of a health ministry team, we must never underestimate the importance of spirituality in the lives of those we serve—especially during crucial times,” said Chaplain Roy Gaton of Castle Medical Center in Oahu. “Simple things can mean so much.”

Ron Hyrchuk, chaplain at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, recalled one of those “simple” moments when he was summoned to the scene where a man had collapsed and died. “When the wife arrived and hurried toward us, police and paramedics backed away, but I went ahead to meet her. The hours that followed were horrible. When things settled down, she and I sat and talked quietly together.”

Three months later, she sent Hyrchuk a card: “When I encountered you and realized why you were there, I hated you. I felt fear and anger. I felt cheated. … but I could not have gone through it without you. You hugged me when I needed arms around me. You stood beside me. … I’ll pray that God strengthens you.”

Coping with Daily Heartache

“It takes energy out of me,” Hyrchuk admitted, when asked how chaplains cope. “Sometimes I have to go for long bike rides, or I go to the ocean by myself to feel and to cry. When someone loses a child, I call my own children to tell them I love them. And sometimes I need a fellow chaplain to be a chaplain to me.”