Three Wise Chaplains by Chaplain Dave Fair

Expansion of the Survivor Network

I recently renewed contact with an old friend. We had know each others years ago. He was a well 

 

known Austin area television news anchor turned public  information officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. I was a news director for a central Texas radio station and President of the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Association.

Larry Todd and I had not seen each other in some 40 years when we found ourselves in the same chaplains organization and both serving in crisis chaplaincy. Chaplain Fellowship International headquartered in Temple, Texas was formed by a mutual friend Dr. Donald Gibson and his wife Tina. And now after all these years Larry and I met face to face at a CFMI conference.

It is interesting how God works in our lives. Who would have thought we would have both become crisis chaplains sharing the same trauma we used to cover in the news but now in a new more personal way.

I was excited to share with Larry what the Police Protective Fund was doing by way of the Survivor Network. Larry it turns out is part of a group of chaplains who not only work crisis situations but also perform weddings and funerals as chaplains on a preferred list of many venues in the Austin area.

Larry agreed to do an interview with Phil LeConte and I at the State Cemetery in Austin near the heart of the downtown area. It is the final resting place of many distinguished Texans and visitors to the state who died here. Many of them Confederate soldiers.

The setting was a serine place to talk about death and dying and what survivors can do to cope. Larry did a tremendous interview sharing his insight from years of experience as a chaplain dealing with the subject through hundreds if not thousands of funerals.

We wanted to not only post Larry’s wisdom on our Survivor Network website but we wanted to talk to other experienced chaplains who would contribute their insight to survivors of law enforcement line of duty deaths.

Larry was quick to introduce Phil and I to a pair of other chaplains both unique in their own right. The first was Father Scott Johnson a Franciscan Friar and Vietnam Veteran. Scott was no stranger to death and dying and offered us his great insight into ritual and grief.

Another outstanding chaplain is Steve Rekedal. One of the unique features of Steve’s ministry as a chaplain is he is bilingual and is fluent in Spanish. Fluent in not only the language but in the rich culture as well. He brings a fresh insight into the subject of grief through not only the eyes of an Anglo but through the eyes of the Mexican American culture as well.

I invite you to meet my three friends and hear what they have to share about death and grief. I know it will be helpful to you.

These are three remarkable men who give of their time and effort to meet the needs of hurting people.

I have learned from them and I hope you will too. Meet them on the Survivor Network at www.policeusa.com