It is a ministry requiring compassion and the humility to simply be present to people caught up in a living nightmare.

Among its members are a former Christian gospel singer, a retired highway patrol officer, a retired Catholic school principal, a priest, and a former health care executive.

They belong to a fellowship of 150 law enforcement and community chaplains serving in Sacramento Law Enforcement Chaplaincy programs.

“It’s a ministry God calls people to do,” said Mindi Russell, Law Enforcement Chaplaincy executive director and senior chaplain. “You really need God’s guidance to help people through the worst times of their lives.”

Russell, who started out at the Sacramento Law Enforcement Chaplaincy in 1994 as deputy senior chaplain, said the chaplaincy’s training program has come a long way in the past few decades.

When law enforcement chaplaincies began nationwide in 1977, members of the clergy cared for personnel who were struggling with the loss of a loved one.

By 1992, Sacramento’s Law Enforcement Chaplaincy, which serves both Sacramento City Police and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, grew to include two programs which involve not only clergy but volunteers from the community. Law enforcement chaplains now serve employees and their families, while community chaplains provide emotional support for citizens traumatized by homicides, suicides and accidents.

The community chaplaincy program began assisting the Sacramento County Coroner’s office by doing all death notifications and launched an innovative training program teaching volunteers trauma and crisis intervention skills.

Once a Christian gospel singer who left the music ministry behind when she moved from the East Coast to Sacramento, Russell found her way to the chaplaincy, a ministry that she has found “stirs your heart.”

“It’s not from you, it’s from God,” said Russell, who acknowledges there is nothing easy about knocking on someone’s door at 3 a.m. to deliver a life-changing message. “We can’t change the message, but we can change how a person reacts and how they will be from there on,” she said.

The chaplaincy also requires humility, Russell added. “Effective chaplains know how to work in authority, with authority, under authority and beside authority,” she said.

A case in point occurred five years ago, just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Russell found herself in New York City at Ground Zero. The office for victims of crime in the U.S. Department of Justice — familiar with the Sacramento Law Enforcement Chaplaincy’s training program — asked Russell to train 500 volunteer chaplains serving surviving families of Sept. 11.

“It’s work that requires letting God use you where he wants you, sometimes just handing someone a tissue or a drink of water,” she said. “It turns into a ministry of permission.”

Today, the Sacramento chaplaincy training program has been standardized for use by chaplaincies nationwide, and is a partner in Sacramento’s homeland security program.

Russell said that local churches and citizens have the potential to be key players in disaster preparedness. “The church needs to be a forerunner and soldier,” she said.

One Sacramento Catholic answering the call to serve in the chaplaincy program is David Vincent.

Vincent, a member of St. Stephen the First Martyr Parish in Sacramento, said he first became aware of the chaplaincy several years ago while shopping for produce at the Thursday night Farmer’s Market, then held on the K Street Mall in downtown Sacramento. He noticed several people whose burgundy shirts identified them as community chaplains.

Vincent, who was for a time in formation for the priesthood, felt a tug, and thought “being a missionary in your own hometown” would be an interesting possibility.

A few years passed, and then he filled out an application for an orientation session with the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy.

In the years since then, Vincent has responded to literally a thousand calls, working with people through their worst nightmares.

“I’m always at a total loss. I have to let go and let the Holy Spirit do the work,” said Vincent, who since 2003 has served as Russell’s executive liaison.

Applicants to the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy community program undergo a thorough background check by law enforcement prior to entering the academy, which involves attending 10 weekly classes held during the spring.

They then participate in field work, covering a variety of calls with seasoned chaplains.

Volunteer chaplains, who come from a variety of faith and ethnic backgrounds, are required to be on call a minimum of 12 hours a week.

“We see a lot of people at orientation who say, ‘I don’t think I can do that,’” Vincent said. “They soon become our best chaplains. It’s very affirming work.”

Maureen Douglass, a former principal of Catholic elementary schools, said while as an educator she developed abundant crisis management skills, she was still nervous when she enrolled in community chaplaincy classes two years ago.

“You forget your nerves because the training is excellent,” said Douglass, a member of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Sacramento.

She said she found the chaplaincy “a sort of Odyssey experience…with God helping us all out to say the right things.”

Maureen O’Brien, a member of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Roseville, encountered the chaplaincy 12 years ago. It was a time when her own family experienced a series of losses and a dear friend suffered the tragic, violent death of her husband.

“It touched me so much to see the difference it made in people’s lives, helping them through those moments when nothing in the world makes sense,” O’Brien said.

The full-time teacher and mother of four children has found the chaplaincy does require “letting go of yourself and letting the Lord speak for you.”

For others, like Bob Benton, a member of St. Paul Parish in Sacramento, becoming a Law Enforcement Chaplain was a natural fit when he retired after 28 years as a California Highway Patrol officer.

“I saw the need and had the desire to be with people who need help,” said Benton, who is both a law enforcement and community chaplain. “My faith makes it possible for me to cope.”

Father Joseph Ternullo, pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in North Highlands, finds chaplaincy work an extension of his ministry as a priest.

“We’re all doing some of the same things,” said Father Ternullo, who serves as chaplain to firefighters and sheriff deputies in the Sacramento area. “It’s essential to give people hope in time of crisis.”

For more information on chaplaincy programs, call Law Enforcement Chaplaincy Sacramento at (916) 857-1801 or visit the Web site at: www.sacchaplains.com.

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