Adventist Health chaplain launches e-ministry
Every day at 7 a.m. Mark Woolfington boots up his computer at Adventist LaGrange Memorial Hospital and checks his email inbox for “Please pray for me” messages.
Then he does.
Because for some, dealing with loss or pain, it can be a difficult and quiet time.
“There aren’t a lot of people who walk in here and say ‘Pray for me,’” said Woolfington, a chaplain at the hospital. “This is a way for us to bring our ministry to people who need it, especially during the holidays, but can’t bring themselves to ask for it.”
Woolfington recently launched an E-Chaplain ministry that will extend chaplain care and counsel electronically. Adventist Midwest Health chaplains currently provide spiritual and emotional care with Christian compassion at all four Adventist hospitals in Hinsdale, Bolingbrook, La Grange and Glendale Heights. They are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and try to see all new patients.
The e-ministry is accessible from keepingyouwell.com and people can submit everything from simple prayers to complex theological issues. Woolfington will then respond and offer chaplain services through counseling, answering questions and simple encouragement. If requested, he will follow up with a phone call.
“For some people, prayer face-to-face with a stranger is very difficult,” Woolfington said. “I think the anonymous aspect of this program is very appealing.”
After all, prayer is personal. Rarely does a patient heading into surgery pass up a prayer. There are other patients who politely decline a prayer when surrounded by family, but have a chaplain paged after the family leaves, Woolfington said.
People don’t have to be patients or staff to use the E-Chaplain ministry either. In fact, about 90 percent of patient contacts at Adventist Midwest Health are not admissions to the hospitals — instead they are through outpatient services, Adventist Health Care at Home, or Adventist St. Thomas Hospice, said John Rapp, regional vice president of ministries and mission at Adventist Midwest Health.
“Our mission statement is to ‘extend the healing ministry of Christ’ to everyone we serve, and this is a major extension of spiritual care into the community,” Rapp said.
Information about the E-Chaplain service will be given to patients with their discharge packets and an Adventist Health Care at Home chaplain can make a home visit if requested. If a professional counselor is needed, Woolfington will forward that information on. A Spanish-speaking chaplain will help out with the Spanish prayer requests.
Every single prayer request will be answered. Woolfington checks his email inbox throughout the day for requests. As word spreads and the program gains popularity, Woolfington may forward some prayers to other Adventist chaplains.
The E-Chaplain ministry will also serve employees, who are often overlooked when tragedy strikes.
For example, after a 14-year-old girl who lived near LaGrange was recently stabbed and pronounced dead at the hospital, television cameras and reporters lined up across the street to cover the murder. Grief counselors were brought in to talk to her family and friends.
But what about the doctors, nurses and staff who work at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital? They live in the area. They knew the girl. And they too were devastated by the loss.
“After such a tragedy, I’m sure many of our employees went straight home to be with their families and loved ones,” Woolfington said. “But their grief and their heartache may have surfaced later. With E-Chaplain ministry, we’re there whenever our staff, our patients or our community need us.”
To view the website, see www.keepingyouwell.com/PastoralCare/EchaplainMinistry.aspx.