In some circles he's known as Captain select Burmeister, U.S. Navy Chaplain. In other circles he's known as 'Pastor Paul'. For us, his name is Paul. A brother, mentor, and a best friend. Heck. Paul even had the guts to marry Tess and I when I was a brassy, classy, U.S. Marine Sergeant.. (I can embelish my own memories as much as I want.)
Paul is deployed to Germany for the next year to serve as chaplain to America's wounded warriors coming back from Iraq. On occassion he has the opportunity to write letters back home. Here is what I affectionately call, 'Paul's letters to the church'.
You'll be blessed by his words. We love and miss you bro.
Dear family and friends,
Greetings from Germany! I hope you are all well. I'm doing fine, andgetting into the groove of the very busy ministry that exists here in Landstuhl.This is a truly incredible place! We see wounded soldiers come in, whose livesare hanging by a thread - for example, one recently came in with 92% of his bodyburned - and they are able to save them (with God's help, for sure!). Somerecoveries, that are nothing short of miraculous, seem to happen here eachday. God is good! He hears the cries of these patients, and theirfamilies, and all of us who stand with them as they walk through "the valley of theshadow of death."
It is such a sacred privilege to be here, ministering tothem. It's humbling, and inspiring, and exhausting, all at the same time.My roles and responsibilities here are much different than what Ianticipated prior to arrival. I am not working the patient wards in the hospital atall.
I handle all the ministry to outpatients, housed in barracks on a separateArmy base about 30 minutes from Landstuhl - which means I'm doing a fairamount of traveling too. I spend 4 days a week visiting with them in theirbarracks, listening to their "war stories" and guiding them towards the LordJesus Christ as best I can.
I conduct two evening programs of groupdiscussion and teaching on Combat Operational Stress, or better known asPost-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD). I have two social workers available toassist me, and another Navy Chaplain, who is assigned to a separate group ofMarines. You can pray for me/us on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, when thesegroups sessions are taking place.Many of these young men and women are in shock, in denial, in pain, andangry at God, or someone or something else (including the health care system thatis trying to help them). I represent both God and the health care system, sothat anger occasionally gets directed at me. I am also leading worshipevery Sunday at the barracks, and will be launching some Bible Studies in the nextfew weeks as well. The biggest thing is simply "being there" for them when(and if) they are ready to talk. Simple talking through their experienceshas proven to be one of the best facilitators of healing for combat stress.
My other responsibilities include the mortuary/decedent affairs division ofthe hospital, which handles all of the deaths that occur here, and caringfor their families - who often are here when patients die (we have two "FisherHouses" for them to stay in while they're here); the Central Command Stafff or Health Promotions and Preventative Medicine (so no patients with thisgroup); and of course duties as the on-call Chaplain to handle emergencies - atleast one day a week, plus one 4 day period every three weeks or so. As thesenior Navy Chaplain here, I'm also trying to take care of the 350+ Navy personnelwho came with us and, when in need of a Chaplain, want to speak to their ownNavy Chaplain instead of one of the Army or Air Force Chaplains. All inall, it's PLENTY to keep me busy! It's amazing...we have 8 full-time Chaplainshere, and none of us are lacking for work!I must apologize for not writing sooner, but the process of getting settled,getting trained and oriented to the hospital, etc. has been very consumingand time demanding.
What little extra time I have typically gets used for doing physical exercise, writing Nancy or the girls, cooking and cleaning (yes,I'm getting quite domestic!) or trying to see a few of the local sights. Nancywill arrive here tomorrow for a stay of 6-8 weeks (hopefully) which will bea huge morale boost, although I would have to say that my morale has been verygood - thanks be to God. It will be fantastic to have her here for theholidays, as we will be getting a little extra time off, and hopefully thetwo of us can enjoy some excursions to Heidelberg, Salzburg Austria, and maybeeven Paris. You can do ALOT over here if you have ALOT of time and money!!I never expected we would be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary overhere.The spiritual fruit of my ministry is a bit hard to gauge at times, althoughI try to move conversations toward the things of the Lord with people at everyopportunity. Some don't want to get into "religion" (as they say it) andmake their feelings very clear about that.
As I said, some are very angry, andit will take them much more time to work through what they have experienced,and God's part in all of that. Others have found that their faith is the onlything they really had to hold on to in combat, and are on the journey ofreturning to or rediscovering the faith they were exposed to in theirchildhood. I find very few who have a vibrant, vital relationship withChrist...which is sad, but good in the sense that "the fields are ripe untoharvest" for my work. Pray for me to be bold and forthright with the gospel and to recognize the opportunities He gives me to share it!
Most of these patients are under alot of medication, and are in a great deal of pain - and not in the mood to talk to a stranger. The fact that I am a Chaplain givesme some level of "entree" with them, but even at that, I am not theirunit/command chaplain, and they may only be here for a few days, so theytend to not want to engage. It's a challenge! I know that the Holy Spirit hasbeen using me to plant seeds in many of their lives, however, and I onlypray that someone will be in their lives after they return to the States or tocombat who can water those seeds and encourage them along.
I thank each and every one of you for your prayers for me, and the rest of us working in the hospital here. I praise God that He has answered your prayers for my health (which has been great!) and daily strength, to face the manynew challenges that come each day. One of those is working within an Armycontrolled community, and working alongside Air Force and National Guardservice members. Each service community has its own culture and its owntraditions, policies, and ways of doing things, and we're finding out thatthey can be very different from what we are used to in the Navy. So we"roll with the punches, and go with the flow!" It was great watching Navy beatArmy in the great football classic, and give the soldiers here a hard time aboutthat. In spite of any athletic rivalries, we truly are one team.
We have had many dignitaries and distinguished visitors come through here since I arrived, including the Secretary of the Navy, the Surgeon General,the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Medicine, and several professional NFLcheerleading teams, racecar drivers, and entertainers. I am currently usingan acoustic guitar donated and signed by the Beach Boys, who performed herelast week! Like I said, this is an amazing place!
Well, I better sign off for now. I hold all of you in my heart and thankyou again for your prayers. Please feel free to forward this message to any andall who may care for me/us. I can be e-mailed at either my former personale-mail account: piburmeister@allcom.net OR at this revised Army e-mailaddress:paul.burmeister@amedd.army.milI pray God's richest blessings upon you all, and for a Christmas holidaythat is filled with great joy at the thought of God giving us His only Son, to rescue us from our sins, the dominion of darkness, and eternal destruction.Christ is truly the LIGHT of the world, and this world needs Him SO badly.
I see the horrors of war with a very real and personal face now, and know anew that only Jesus Christ is the answer to the problems of evil, war, sin,pain, suffering, etc. May the presence and power and peace of Christ Himself fillyour hearts and homes, and give you great hope and joy.
I send you all mylove and the assurance of my prayers.Your Brother, Friend, and Pastor - PAUL
Daddy dressed Grace, and EVERYTHING matches.. Even her socks! -Weird.
