The Worst Is Over. . . .

I am presently reading a book by the same title as this article. It is a book about ministering to people in crisis as the crisis has just occured or in the midst of crisis. The book is exciting for me because it helps with the language to use and not use. Words are important in the face of crisis, words can cure and words can crush. Still, presence is the most important part of ministering in times of crisis.

I just finished my week as Chaplain on-call with MPD. Two call outs and one service project. . . Both calls were extreme trauma calls, on the death of a young mother and the other the death of a teenage boy. The same question always arises "why". I do not have the answers, I can only tell people that I will help them throught the moment. Sometimes I wish I had more answers, but I am not sure if I could handle the answers, so lack of knowledge is blissful.

The service project was to provide a respite center for officers working X-fest. X-fest is a night that Satan declares war on Modesto and for 8 hours makes an attempt to own downtown. At the end of the night Satan is driven out to the shadows once again. X-fest is pure debauchery, nothing more, nothing less. It does provide a good way for me to have more time seeing and meeting officers that I will sometime work a call with.

The Movie night is coming up on August 11, 2007 at 6:00 p.m.

Buddy

Back in the saddle again . . .

Much has happened since I last blog, all of which is mostly water under the bridge. Some of the events are still unfolding and only the future holds knowledge of what they will mean.

Outreach is fast and furious with many events on the horizon. VBS is coming up this week and then on Aug 11 we will have a movie night at the church. The last Sunday in August is our annual Back to School Bash. These events are designed to invite our neighbors and friends.

I would like to set up an Outreach Committe for planning future events and deployments. If you are interested please contact me.

Buddy