Made In Walker

Faith Under Fire: How Walker's Chaplains Help First Responders Process Trauma

• City of Walker MI • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Walker's chaplains serve dual roles supporting both law enforcement officers and community members in times of crisis. The volunteer chaplains work 24/7 to provide emotional and spiritual support during and after traumatic incidents.

• Chaplains primarily listen and provide a calming presence during stressful situations
• First responders are "normal people" deeply affected by the trauma they regularly witness
• All chaplains receive specialized training in Critical Incident Stress Management
• Spiritual support helps officers process difficult questions like "why did God allow this?"
• Chaplains connect victims with their support networks and faith communities
• Community members can support first responders through prayer and simple expressions of gratitude
• Self-care through prayer, hobbies, and mutual support helps chaplains manage their own stress

If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future episodes, please drop us an email at podcast@walkercity.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you for joining us for the Maiden Walker podcast. Today we are going behind the badge of both police and fire at the City of Walker. We're actually joined by our chaplains here in the city. We have retired Pastor Tom Bradley, we have Pastor James Durr and Pastor Jim Richter. Thank you all so much for being here today.

Speaker 1:

We really appreciate it.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, yes.

Speaker 2:

And for folks. We have an idea really of what police chaplains do. But if you wanted to kind of give specifically for the city of Walker and our police and fire what that looks like for you all, Well, we have a dual role.

Speaker 4:

We do support for our law enforcement officers and, if we're called out, we're doing support for members of the community. We're just civilian members of the community that love our city and love our law enforcement and kind of got into this because we wanted to support our city and our community, the members of our church and our community and all that. Yes.

Speaker 2:

And this is something that's 24-7. You're always on call. What does that typically look like for you when you get that call?

Speaker 3:

Well, it can be in the middle of the night or any time during the day, and I do have a secular job also besides my pastoring, so mine is mainly in the night and it's a get up and wake up and get ready and and go.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and what? Oh, go ahead.

Speaker 3:

Try to prepare, you know, as you're on the way to prepare for what? You really don't know what you're going to be facing.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yes, that's what I was going to ask. Is you know? Do you know much about what you were going to, what you're responding to, or are you just…?

Speaker 3:

Usually just basic details. Okay, take it from there.

Speaker 4:

The on-duty sergeant is usually one of the officers on the scene. Is the one giving us the call, yes, and then he's giving us a briefing about what we're walking into.

Speaker 2:

Okay, all right. And what really inspired you to want to volunteer for this chaplain position?

Speaker 5:

For me it was an invitation by a police chief to consider being part of it. It was actually a community I served in before this, about 20 years ago, and I felt like it was a great way to serve the community. So when I arrived in Walker, just visited with again the chief of police and the fire chief and they invited me to be part of the team. They had just had a chaplain that had retired or was no longer serving, so All right, and what are some of the things that our officers struggle with?

Speaker 2:

You know, you see, they show up, they're on scene, they're doing their job, but afterwards what is it that we don't really see? That you guys are called for?

Speaker 4:

Well, I guess one of the things I mean they're highly trained professionals. Yes, you know they're absolutely spectacular people for what they, what they do, but they're also just normal people. Yeah, we don't think of them like that, but they have families, they have normal stresses in life and when we have a traumatic situation that we deal with, it just shakes up our whole life and they see them on a regular basis. And this can affect you the same way it will affect a normal person, because they're just normal people, just like you and I. And so if we can give support for that, for the officers and for the people on a difficult day, then that means a lot yeah.

Speaker 2:

And how will you typically offer that support, the type of trauma maybe that they see and some of the grief and the high stress situations that they're dealing with?

Speaker 5:

Often just listen, listen, ask questions. Each of us are trained in what's called CISM critical incident stress management so the chaplains go through different trainings. Sometimes an officer would like prayer. Sometimes we just let them know we're praying for them and it seems like that's comforting.

Speaker 4:

So we also have certifications in chaplaincy with an organization called the International Conference of Police Chaplains. So fortunately the city has just sent us away and given us great training. We've had great training, training from people like the chaplain of Homeland Security there's three in the country. We've had really high-level training that helps us deal with trauma, for the community members who are going with it through it and also for the law enforcement officers, so that helps us to deal with it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that is something to think about too is you're, you know, you're there being support for folks who are going through traumatic times? Our first responders how do you kind of take care of yourselves as well?

Speaker 3:

A lot of prayer and then, um, hobbies and I like, I like, uh, pounding nails, so that takes care of a lot of relationships.

Speaker 4:

I have very close relationships with my family and friends Um, sometimes friends who are in law enforcement as well, people I can just talk with about different situations. We also we support each other as chaplains. If we've been on a traumatic scene, we usually just hang out and chat with each other about what we saw, what we did and what our role was and how it's, you know, if it's having an ongoing difficult effect on us, because that's just the way it can happen, of course, of course.

Speaker 2:

And how do you think that role of spirituality helps with the healing and helps with certain situations that you're facing and that the first responders are facing as well?

Speaker 3:

This has kind of been one of my passions and because to deal with what they have to deal with without some basis of faith you can have all the training that you want, but you're not equipped to handle the trauma and the stress that comes from this without some basis of faith. And of course I'm a Christian, so I attribute that to my Lord and Savior, jesus.

Speaker 5:

But there has to be that basis that people can draw from that's bigger than themselves people can draw from that's bigger than themselves, of course, and I think when part of why we're there obviously is we're all pastors or retired pastors and we love sharing the good news about Jesus. But sometimes the situations we're in are so hard. There are spiritual questions about like why did God allow this? Like where is God in a situation like this, and Sometimes our job is just maybe not even to answer those questions, but to listen and for us then be present. God has broad shoulders. It's okay to get mad at God and just be patient. It's so beautiful to watch that faith then come through and flourish and somehow God shows himself to people and people are resilient. You know, our officers are amazingly resilient and but with James, I don't know how people do that without a sense of faith.

Speaker 4:

And we're volunteers for the city and we're not there to walk onto a scene and preach. You know we have a spiritual component to what we do as chaplains, but we're not walking into a scene trying to preach to people. Or you know we're just there to bring comfort and sometimes just a ministry of presence, help calm people down. You know we're just there to bring comfort and sometimes just a ministry of presence, help calm people down, give them a bottle of water and also help them with whatever faith community that is a part of their support team.

Speaker 4:

So sometimes we arrive on a scene and say who can we call? So we'll call family members. Well, if they have a pastor or a church community, we'll contact their community and really kind of get around them as a support team. But you know we carry our personal faith into it and that's the thing that helps us personally. And if people are inviting that, I mean, quite often people say you know, would you be willing to pray for us? And so we're happy to offer that support. But sometimes people aren't ready for that or don't want that. They're there for other forms of support. So we're just there to help people at whatever level they're needing it.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, yeah, mostly we listen yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it's probably an underappreciated kind of skill just being present and listening and you've mentioned that so much during this podcast just how important that is important role that you do. What do you think the community can do to better support our law enforcement officers and first responders as well?

Speaker 4:

I think just remembering. They're normal people like everybody else, walking into a really difficult situation, and so we just sometimes we vent at them as members of the community that they're walking into a situation like we are. They're trained, but the things that they deal with and the things they see all the time affect them. So just showing appreciation means a lot. They don't do it to receive the appreciation, but it helps them like it helps any normal person, and just supporting them and just recognizing that they have a really, really difficult job and we know that you're volunteering your time and it's tough work that you do If there's other folks out there who maybe have a calling like this as well and feel that they have something to give.

Speaker 5:

What kind of advice would you give to that person that would want to be there to support first responders? Well, like my wife and I live very close to the police station and fire station and every time we hear a siren, we pray, oh yeah. And so our officers, our firefighters. They're going to scenes that they've trained for, but they don't know exactly what they're meeting. Their life is almost on every call possibly in jeopardy. Life is almost on every call possibly in jeopardy, and just lifting them up in prayer means an awful lot to them, but it means a lot anyways. So just doing that in terms of actually being a chaplain there's trainings for that Um, uh, there's trainings for that, um, and uh, uh, I think, uh, there's all kinds of things online that you can pursue.

Speaker 4:

Any type of community support for area pastors or ministers that want to contact our mayor, gary, or, uh, our our chief, um, and just say what can we do to support Um, sometimes, like during a special week, coming up, a law enforcement week, uh, like special, you know, like pizza or you know, ordering things, just any type of way, seeing them on the street saying thank you? Um, there's a lot of little things that can be done. People, very few people, just ever call the chief or call the mayor and say what can we do? Sure, Sign me up and, uh, there's a lot of little things that can be done.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and there's a lot of little things that can be done. Yes, yeah, the work that you do. We may not be able to see you all as often when these things happen, but just knowing that you're behind our first responders offering that type of support means so much to our community, and we are so grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you so much for being part of this podcast Thanks for having us.

Speaker 4:

We appreciate that.

Speaker 2:

And we appreciate you tuning in as well.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Maiden Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Maiden Walker wherever you get your podcasts.

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Nicole DiDonato

Host