Good advice here for my chaplain colleagues from a British army padre. MP+

Army chaplain Padre Stephen Hancock
[Picture: Corporal Andy Reddy RLC, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

“Sitting in a vehicle watching these guys, in body armour and helmet in 56 degrees [Celsius] heat, 122 [degrees Fahrenheit] in English money, you’ve got to be robust, but that’s how you earn their respect.

“Even if you fainted, they’d probably love you more – you’ve just got to join in.

“You’ve got to do what they’re doing, be with them, share with them, and then it’s incredible how, when you least expect it, they will come to you with their intimate pain and intimate secret.

“And that is a real privileged position and you start to think ‘my presence is not wasted’.”

More here.

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