Chaplain speaks to GOP Women
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007
BENTONVILLE — The Republican Women of Bentonville on Thursday heard guest speaker Chaplain Norman Hamby talk about his considerable experience with tragedy and hope.
Hamby serves as a chaplain for law-enforcement organizations — he is chaplain for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, the Arkansas State Police and the Little Flock Police Department.
He has had chaplaincy duties since 1993.
“ Chaplaincy is much like pastoring; it’s just a different crowd. The chaplain has got to be available 24 / 7, day or night, anytime, ” he said.
Some of his chaplaincy experiences are always with him. He once helped to talk a barricaded man with a shotgun out of taking his own life, Hamby said.
He won’t forget many experiences with less positive outcomes, either, the chaplain said.
He had to break the news to an unprepared mother that her teenage daughter had been killed in an auto accident.
And he notified other parents that their missing 3-yearold girl had been found dead, having fallen into a creek and drowned, Hamby said.
On such situations, he’s been as much comfort as he could but realized the survivors’ lives had been changed forever, Hamby said. “ I’ve left the room with people screaming, ” he said.
Still, the work is incredibly fulfilling, too, Hamby said.
“ It gives you a really good feeling to stand around the bedside of an officer, with other officers, and pray that God would touch that person that is so sick, ” he said.
That reference to an officer points out a major part of the work of a chaplain that is often overlooked by the public: Hamby counsels and otherwise helps many law-enforcement officers, their families and support personnel.
Many people rightly pay respects to service men and service women fighting overseas but may forget to pay respects to the policeman who protects their freedoms at home, the chaplain said.
People sometimes forget that police officers or sheriff’s deputies are people just like any other, subject to all the problems humans can have but also required to grapple with the problems of others, he said.
Hamby even does baptisms at the Benton County Jail, Hamby said.
People baptized at the county jail may or may not be sincere converts, but the same is true of anyone baptized, he said. Some people baptized at the jail are sincere, and some are sincere for the moment, he said.
Hamby works for the county as an unpaid volunteer. Everything he uses at the county jail, including a special room provided for baptisms, is paid for by volunteers and doesn’t cost county taxpayers anything, he said.
Outside his work with law enforcement, Hamby stays busy. “ I pastor First United Pentecostal Church of Rogers, and I’ve been here (at the church ) a little over 41 years, as pastor, ” he said.
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