Many of our fire departments have a chaplain, some larger departments have more than one. Many smaller, often volunteer, departments don’t even have one. FFAM is no stranger to fire chaplains, its Chaplain’s Committee working closely with the Missouri Fire Chaplain Corp to take care of any requested Chaplin’s duties for FFAM. But just what is a chaplain and what does that chaplain do? That can be as varied as the departments that they serve, the chiefs that they serve under, and even the personalities and training of each chaplain.
While I have had the privilege of serving my home department of Lakeview Heights Fire Protection District under Chief Ryan Metscher, I have also had the privilege of serving FFAM’s own department, Missouri State Fair Fire Department under Chiefs RB Brown, Kegan Wilson, and Kyle Arnold. That’s the chaplaincy I want to tell you about today.
At MSFFD, the chaplain is on site as much as his schedule allows and is available for any department personnel who would like to talk to him. He doesn’t report conversations to anyone, unless there is danger to the firefighter or someone else. He can even just be a listentening ear when you need to vent. He can pray with you or possibly offer some advice, as the situation calls for. He’s also there for victims on scene as well as family. His involvement can be as different as each call is.
Then there are the times he gets to serve the whole department, from a prayer at the general meeting to a prayer of blessing for the new station. In between these, he gets to interact with the public, whether that’s showing kids the trucks or handing out water, or any number of little ways to help. It’s really great to get to be a small, but important, part of the life of this unique department in so many ways!
FFAM
