From the Director's Desk
By Sean Barnhart
December 21, 2009
I needed an internship to finish my Masters of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. So in the spring of 2009 my wife, baby boy, and I moved from Pasadena, California to my wife's family farm in Northwood, ND. From there I commuted to Grand Forks where I worked as a chaplain intern at Altru Hospital.
During my time at Altru I was challenged to attend to several families and individuals who were suffering through the tough unknowns of life caused by accidents, heart failures, and cancer. Here I was fresh out of three and a half years of intense theological training, and I was still stonewalled by life's most difficult questions. I found myself asking what the purpose of all that schooling was if I still couldn't minister to people in their most difficult times.
Eventually I discovered that the best way to ease the troubled minds of patients and families was to simply pray and name aloud their fears. But before we could address their fears, we had to address the One to whom we were praying.
I often found myself entering into prayer by calling out to our "Good and Gracious God." Time and time again, as I spoke those words they turned from being a simple way to address God, into a confession of who God is. "Good and Gracious God," I would say, "We confess that You are good and gracious, though it may be hard to see how that is so at this moment." Entering into the pain of those hospital rooms, I felt an overwhelmingly powerful need to make that confession on a daily basis. Eventually the confession became a way of fighting back the despair of so many situations. I needed to make that confession.
But now as the Director of Ministries at PRBC, I am reminded every day of God's goodness and graciousness. I am reminded through people like you who have found the ministry of Park River Bible Camp to be a worthy ministry to partner with, whether it's through your donations of time or money. My confession of God's goodness and graciousness is no longer a confession of necessity, but rather one of proclamation. Thank you, and may we join together in proclaiming that God is good and gracious.
