Agnesian Healthcare, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

by Esther Schmidt

As I look back, my call to diaconal ministry has really been a life-long process. I always enjoyed “helping” and sometimes “leading” or “teaching” in various situations. As a teenager, my choice of careers varied from year-to-year or sometimes even more frequently. I thought of becoming a teacher, a secretary, a Marine, a medical missionary, and of course, a wife and mother. I finally settled on becoming a nurse. Having been raised and confirmed a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran, church was mandatory; however, every time I wanted to read the Bible, the KJV (the only one available) got in the way. Spending two years of full-time study at LSTC was such a blessing in my life.

I have actually accomplished all of the above and continue to do so through my ministry in healthcare. Every job requires organizational (administrative) duties. As a nurse and now a diaconal minister in hospital chaplaincy, I sometimes need to lead people through tough, scary “battlefields”; and I’ve had the opportunity to help in a remote hospital in Tanzania when I accompanied my husband in his “mission” to help bring justice to the coffee farmers there. I sometimes feel like a wife/mother to patients, families, and visitors when a hug, a cup of coffee, a listening ear, or an encouraging word to someone who is trying to exercise a paralyzed arm back to life is needed; or when I give a small reward (some stickers) to a child for coming to visit grandpa in the hospital, they become a little less shy.

The picture I supplied is of my addressing an adult forum at a church. They wanted to hear about my story of surviving two bouts of cancer, becoming a diaconal minister (“What is that anyway?”), and “What does a chaplain do?”

Besides addressing forums, my position as a chaplain is every bit as varied and unpredictable as it was as a registered nurse. I can be saying “hello” to a patient one minute, grabbed by a nurse to be with someone who just received a devastating diagnosis the next, and paged to an emergency two minutes later. Our department has one full-time and two part-time chaplains. We cover two hospitals 24/7. I take night call once a week, which means I go to work one day and go home the next in the late afternoon. I still have administrative duties—scheduling and timecards. One of the most rewarding duties is being spiritual mentor for the hospital’s four parish nurses. I work closely with social workers, particularly in helping people (patients and family members) work through end-of-life decisions. I am a member of the Ethics Committee at one hospital.

I would say that my biggest blessing is working for a faith-based hospital (Roman Catholic); it is also my biggest challenge because I have to constantly “teach” people that I am Lutheran, not a “Sister.” Local clergy (particularly the ELCA ones) are usually quite thankful for my help and ministry to their people.