Military chaplains serve wherever needed, even from back of Humvee

As a children’s minister many years ago, Julie Rowan felt stuck in a rut. Now Rowan, a chaplain in the military, rarely stays in one place. And that’s just how she likes it. “When you go into the Army, you expand yourself [as a minister] by not staying in one place,” said Rowan, a member of Bible Fellowship Baptist Church in Little River, S.C. “You’re going out — you’re bringing God to soldiers and soldiers to God.”
   
During her 10 years in the military, Rowan, 41, has served all over the world. In addition to stateside assignments, she has been deployed in Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq. She is currently deployed for a three-month stint in Iraq.
   
While in Afghanistan, Rowan spent most of her time working in a hospital on the base. She led services at the Bagram Air Base chapel on Sundays and worked with locals in humanitarian projects. She and her staff also distributed shoes, clothing and gifts sent from churches in the United States. 
   
In her current role as a brigade chaplain in Iraq, Rowan will travel from post to post ministering to between 500 and 1,000 soldiers at each stop. In addition to handing out Bibles, Rowan will provide counseling and lead worship services wherever there is space — even from the back of a Humvee. “You pull it up to an area that’s safe, pull the back down, and that can be the altar,” Rowan said. “You do what you’ve go to do under the circumstances.”
   
And in spite of the danger and fear of the unknown, chaplaincy is the life for Rowan. “I absolutely love it,” she said. “There’s excitement because you do something different every day. If I got out of this, I’d be bored.”
   
Ronald Howard is a chaplain both in an Alabama hospital and in the Navy Reserve. He applies many of the same techniques in patient care as he does in managing staff for the Navy. The biggest difference, he said, is that at the Navy headquarters in Washington, he ranks as a captain. “The saying goes that as a chaplain in the military, you wear two collars,” said Howard, a member of Woodland Forrest Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa. “Knowing when to be a chaplain and knowing when to use your rank as a senior officer is invaluable.”
   
A senior reserve chaplain, Howard spends one week every two months working at the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the headquarters command for Navy medicine. He is as an adviser to the surgeon general on religious and moral issues and manages the deployment and utilization of reserve chaplains.
   
Military reserve chaplains face several unique challenges. Many are not guaranteed a job when they return from military service. Another challenge is to lead services consistent with tradition but respectful of other beliefs.
   
Howard faces similar issues as the associate director of pastoral-care services for DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa. 
   
Recently a Muslim patient was in critical care when Howard offered to have him moved to another room so his bed would face Mecca.
  
“… I think we showed that by showing respect and concern to other people, we gain their ear.” (ABP)