November 2018 Newsletter
CHAPLAIN BETSY
Friends of Sierra Chaplaincy, thank you for your faithful prayers & financial support. We could not do this ministry without you!
October was a busy month for our chaplaincy. I met with EDSO peer support, was privileged to perform a wedding for an EDSO deputy as well as officiate a memorial service for an EDSO reserve officer. I also was blessed to give the invocation at an EDSO welcome ceremony & honor new hires as well as celebrate a promotion. Our squad leaders & chaplains responded to calls, did ride-alongs, & spent time talking with deputies, officers & support staff to encourage & support them as they serve all of us.
A big thank you to board member Sherri Rinkle who spoke at our October training about how chaplains can best support dispatch & support services. We all walked away with an invitation to do a sit-a-long & a greater appreciation for the stress, pressure & over-and-above attitudes our dispatchers bring to their shifts each day as well as ways we can come alongside & be a force-multiplier for them.
I’m also excited to let you now we are in the beginning stages of exploring expanding into Amador County with a team of local Amador chaplains. God is opening doors for us that have been prayed about for many years. Please be in prayer that God will bring the right people together & that we will follow his lead & his timing as we continue our dialog. It’s an honor to serve, Betsy
CHAPLAIN EMERITUS: TIM
One of the aspects of serving as a chaplain at Marshall Medical Center is ministering to the staff. I’ve asked you to pray for one of our medical surgical nurses who was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She has fought bravely & sadly learned the chemotherapy was not working. This is a woman of unbelievable faith who has told me many times, “Tim I win either way. If I live great & if I die I get to go to Heaven & be with the Lord.” I made a home visit where she is staying with her daughter & we had a healing service for her. We gathered the children, in-law, & grandchildren around her. I had them give verbal affirmations of her life & what she has meant to them. I then led them in a communion service, many Scripture readings, & a healing service where I anointed her with oil. It was very impactful. I saw her again last week in the hospital & again had an emotional, moving & spiritually rich time as I gathered all of her family around her bed for prayer. After she was discharged I made a home visit 4 days later & she had slipped into a coma. This time all the family was there & again this family reflected & did a life review of this mother/grandmother. Repeatedly they talked of her steadfast faith. I led them in prayer & I was moved to tears (something I try not to do with families). The daughter called me the next day to tell me her mother graduated to glory & is with the Lord in Heaven. Please keep this family in your prayers as they grieve the loss of this young nurse who has been such a blessing to so many of her patients over the years.
PLEASE PRAY WITH US FOR
The family grieving the nurse (their mother & grandmother) that died.
The transition as Chaplain Betsy provides new leadership to the chaplain ministry
A sergeant whose 37 year-old brother died suddenly
An officer who has voluntarily admitted himself into a rehabilitation facility
A hospital chaplain diagnosed with cancer & has been given a few years to live
A chaplain’s son who is in Afghanistan. A nurse whose son is in Marine Corp flight school
Continued prayer for a family going through crisis because of a family member’s alcoholism & they seem to be spiraling out of control
Praise, Amador Sheriffs have approach Sierra Chaplaincy about providing chaplain coverage for their county agencies
