Special to United Methodist Insight
I walked into Houston Methodist Hospital on Jan. 9 excited yet with a heavy heart. Having grown up with a mother who was a nurse and having both of my younger siblings join her in the nursing field, I was excited to see and experience the hospital setting from the perspective of a hospital chaplain as it closely aligns with my own calling to ministry. As someone interesting in researching the connections between modern medicine and Christian theology, I was excited to be in a place where both things combined in such a variety of ways and experiences.
I was also anxious. Almost a year prior, my father had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and our family had just learned that the cancer had likely metastasized. What had begun as an exciting opportunity to explore faith and medicine while learning more about the important work done in my family now took on an even more personal light as I began to understand how heavy and complicated grief and loss can be within the hospital setting.
What I would find over the course of the week left me in awe of God and the work of those who share God’s love and mercy during what is often a stressful and difficult experience.
A key point that we reflected on during our lectures that week was that pastoral care is “an outreach of compassion often accompanied by an action of care.” Our professor, Dr. Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, shared a devotional from "Streams in the Desert:" “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.”
A key point that we reflected on during our lectures that week was that pastoral care is “an outreach of compassion often accompanied by an action of care.”
Each day of shadowing a hospital chaplain provided a new and unique experience in seeing God at work in the hospital setting. I valued that the hospital believed that spiritual care was vitally important towards the overall health of a patient. Houston Methodist exemplified the idea that “a true and complete understanding of health includes mental and spiritual health as important ingredients in their own right, not just as promotes physical health.”
During my first shadowing experience, on Monday, I followed Rose to her Med/Surg floors, where our first patient was a man in great pain. He was anxious, uncomfortable because of his condition and his pain, and not sure about talking to us. While no specific words about God or faith were shared, I could sense that the man felt slightly more at ease knowing there were people available to help or listen should the need arise.
God was at work on these floors through Rose. She knew the names and life experiences of the healthcare workers and other staff on her floors. She was a bright spot in their days, and it was obvious that in her they could see that they were cared about even as they cared for others.
On Tuesday I shadowed Joe into the Intensive Care Unit. The ICU often has the sickest patients, and these nurses, staff, and their families are working hard to improve the medical situation of the patients, while knowing that often the prognosis is not great. Joe showed me God at work in difficult situations by bringing joy through presence. It was obvious that he worked to keep up the nurses' spirits. He made them laugh and brought a brief respite from the patients' demands when he interacted with the workers. Joe was bringing peace, joy, and mental rest to the nurses.
To the patients' families, Joe brought patience and care. In our rounds, we met a Jewish family, where the wife was receiving care and unable to communicate. The husband was overjoyed to have a chaplain check in on them, and he was very welcoming of us as Christians into their lives for a moment. It was a lovely experience of seeing how others view illness and difficulty, and how we might work together as members of a community, regardless of our faith traditions, to see God’s peace, presence, and healing brought about.
Wednesday was possibly my favorite shadowing day, particularly in the opportunity to meet and observe John, an Indian Orthodox minister who is the most observant person I have perhaps ever met. Seeing how he matched the energy of those in the rooms and being quickly aware of what they needed taught me how much I must learn regarding meeting the needs of those in pain.
John was patient, looking for little clues about what a patient or family needed and then seeking to meet those needs if possible. He reminded me that there is nothing that God does not see. Big and small things all matter to God, and in John, I saw that God cares for the little things of all people as well as the major things. John also provided me with the opportunity to pray for a patient who was recovering from a procedure. I was empowered to be a small part of blessing others who desired to be reminded of God’s peace and presence with them.
John was patient, looking for little clues about what a patient or family needed and then seeking to meet those needs if possible. He reminded me that there is nothing that God does not see.
Thursday, my last day of shadowing, was perhaps the most personally profound. Cooper is the chaplain of the oncology department. These patients were ones that he visited on a regular basis because of the long-term nature of cancer treatment as well as their pastoral care needs. As the daughter of a cancer patient with a poor long-term prognosis, I could see that he was bringing God’s presence exactly the way these patients, their families, and their care teams needed. He was a quiet, joyful presence in an otherwise difficult place. The staff welcomed and appreciated him. He had missed the daily prayer gathering on the oncology floors, and all commented that his presence was missed. One group of nurses even requested that he pray with them right then because they felt it was needed.
On these floors, patients were in difficult circumstances. Cooper shared that on one floor, 40 percent of the patients experienced failed treatment and subsequently died. That knowledge did not change how he treated the patients or families, except possibly to make him more attentive to their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. For me, my time with Cooper was an embodiment of the quote: “None of us has the impossible task of preventing death. And all of us have the theological task of imparting hope – sometimes hope of an extension of earthly life, but always hope for life beyond death, in God” (Margaret E. Mohrmann, Medicine as Ministry: Reflections on Suffering, Ethics, and Hope). Cooper lived this out for the care teams, families, and patients that he encountered. He helped the patients feel seen and heard by God, and that provides hope.
My interactions with chaplains, residents, patients, my classmates and professor over the week taught me much about God’s presence and protection in all of life's joyful, sad, painful, and relaxed moments. I have learned that the hospital is a place where people are perhaps more willing to see God at work, regardless of their faith background.
Chaplains help people feel God’s presence and protection in difficult times through their prayers, and their advocating for the patients' and families' mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Chaplains also provide much needed emotional and spiritual support for the hospital staff and care team who are responsible for the physical and/or mental well-being of the patients. Their example of a ministry of physical presence, spiritual willingness to listen, and comfort is one I hope to take with me into my future life and ministry.
Kristen Von Gonten
Courtesy Photo
Kristen Von Gonten was commissioned as a provisional deacon during the 2023 session of the Central Texas Annual Conference. Starting in July she will serve as an associate at Hutto Discovery UMC in Hutto, Texas, a city about 22 miles northeast of Austin. This article is adapted from an academic paper she wrote about her chaplaincy experience.