It was like an episode of M*A*S*H when the evacuation helicopters landed. There were five casualties: four serious and one dead. I called for chaplain backup, and three more chaplains arrived shortly.
Chaplains are vital parts of the emergency medical team, but they have to know how to stay out of the way of the medical folks. Usually that means that they are positioned at the head of the patient where they can easily speak comfort to him or pray with him. The chaplain can also assist some of the medical procedures by getting things from the tray or holding something for the medics but mainly they keep focused on the patient.
My soldier had a seriously broken arm, a collapsed lung, and was covered in blood from the many pieces of shrapnel he’d taken. He was conscious, so I continued to engage him in conversation, including prayer, while the medics worked on him. He said he’d been hit twice. He was in his room when he was hit first. Bleeding, he went outside to get help when another round and hit him again.
We as chaplains have to maintain the peace of God in our own lives so that peace flows over to the ones we minster to so they’re not as anxious. I felt that very strongly and that’s what I was doing. There were about five or six times during that year where I was actively engaged in ministering to dramatically injured soldiers and in each case, I was the calming effect, not only to soldiers injured, but also the young soldiers who were the medics that were traumatized by all the ordeal. Some of these medics running the clinics were only eighteen to twenty years old. They’d been in college and were in a Reserve unit when their unit was called up. The aftercare was taking care of those folks. It was deeply rewarding ministering to them and helping keep them focused on the value that they give the good they do in ministering to the broken bodies of soldiers.
Lord, cultivate in me a spirit which seeks to encourage others as they strive to serve you with their gifts.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)