Alliance chaplains share the good news in challenging, diverse, and ever-changing environments to which traditional ministries often have little or no access. Prisons, military installations, hospitals, and nursing homes are some of the unique settings in which our chaplains engage people outside of the organized church.
Chaplain Phyllis Fitzwater had such an opportunity when at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, June 12, 2016, she received a phone call that Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) had a mass casualty incident. Victims of a shooting at the Pulse nightclub about a half mile away were arriving at the hospital where she works.
Phyllis writes about her team’s experience identifying the wounded patients that early morning and contacting their next of kin in the Alliance Life online exclusive “Life’s Darkest Hours.”
“At a prayer service I held one weekend, a mother of another shooting incident asked, ‘Why my son? He’s a good kid; he works every day,’” Phyllis recalls. “No one has the answer to ‘why,’ and as chaplains we provide a ministry of presence and listening. We are the ones who represent God in the moment, but we are not God with all the answers. . . . We pray for His anointing to be with us.”
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