Tripler Army Medical Center  –   This week, Tripler Army Medical Center celebrated the 248th Anniversary of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. Throughout the week, we are profiling the hospital's chaplains. 

Meet Maj. Jonathan Secrest who currently serves as a Clinician Chaplain. Learn more about him in the Q&A below:

Q: Tell us about yourself?
I am a Presbyterian Christian who is has served in the Army Chaplain Corps for a little over 10 years.  I have a wife, Stacy, and 6 children and 5 grandchildren. I have served at Tripler for a little over a year now as a Chaplain Clinician.
 
Q: Why do you serve?
My brother and I were talking once over the phone while he was deployed in a firebase on the Pakastani border and I was a civilian pastor in a church in South Carolina. He mentioned what his Chaplain had done in helping the wounded get back under cover during their latest bombardment from the enemy. That really grabbed at my sense of dynamic calling of the heart and helped motivate my sense of calling to transition from Civilian Ministry to Military Ministry.
 
Q: What is the source of your strength?
My source of strength is found in the hope that there is such a thing as an Outside Redemptive Agent in the person of Jesus Christ who actually effects, challenges, and shapes change from the outside to those who would feel called to look to Him.
 
Q: What advice would you give a student interested in becoming a U.S. Army Chaplain?
It is a very rewarding career/calling path!   Enjoy it!  Embrace the adventure couched in a challenge. Never lose sight of your own personal devotional development spiritually.  Very little in the Army will feed you in this way so you must be purposeful in nourishing your soul from the means of grace inside your own faith group. 
 
Q: In what ways do you make a difference in today’s society?
Routinely I hold the hands of desperate service members and look into their eyes as they pour out the complexity of their vulnerabilities. I interact with those challenging stories and walk beside them as they pick their way through how to relate to the complex chaos that threatens them. I help each person in unique ways to make sense of the storm they find themselves in. I believe that being part of that finding of balance does indeed make a remarkable difference!