Hospice Chaplain's Music Brings Peace

A Hospice client gives a high-five to Hospice Chaplain Chuck Hallin after they had sung several songs together during his visit to her home. Edith held the chaplain's hand.
She sang with him and told him stories about her nephew who sang in the Navy.

Her room was decorated with quilts and cards from her family, and the presence of Chaplain Chuck Hallin seemed to brighten her dimly lit room.

Chaplain Hallin provides ministry for patients who have been given six months or less to live.

Hospice Chaplain Chuck Hallin, right, holds hands with a hospice patient as they talk and pray with each other at the end of their time together.

Friedrich begged him to stay and asked him to come back soon.
"It's the message that he brings," Friedrich said. "I like the old songs that we sing."

Though Chaplain Hallin has five similar visits every day, nothing about his job is redundant.

"I try to find where they are at in their journey of life and get on board and journey with them," he said.

Chaplain Hallin's most effective tool in his ministry is a guitar. He enjoys singing to his patients, hoping to bring them some sort of peace. For one of his patients, he learned to play, "Wabash Cannonball."

Chaplain Hallin always asks, "Can you stump the Chaplain?" He reported that one man stumped him seven times.

Prior to coming to hospice ministry, Chaplain Hallin ministered in Oregon for 10 years, but he'd always been interested in chaplaincy so he decided to become an Army chaplain.

During his stint in the Army, he toured in Korea for a year. His duty in Korea ended a week and a half before Operation Desert Storm started.
During the Gulf War, Chaplain Hallin was trained to tell parents their sons and daughters were killed in combat. "We were all so glad there were only just over 100 casualties."

When he first entered the Army, Chaplain Hallin took a class in clinical pastoral education, which laid the foundation for his transfer to the medical side of chaplaincy. "For over eight years, I had it in my mind that I was going to do clinical pastoral education."

Once he got into the program, he realized how different this kind of chaplaincy was compared to any other ministry he'd done before. He said with clinical pastoral education, he was taught to look at himself and his own ministry. "You have to look at how you were raised, and use that in your ministry," he said. "That year was really helpful to me."
After he completed the program, he started working as a chaplain for an oncology unit in a Medical Center. Two years later, he decided to try hospice care.

"My supervisor told me to try it for two years," Chaplain Hallin said. "I've been here for six, and I know I'll retire from this."

His greatest joy in his job is being able to share the love he's been given to his patients. In return, he said he receives a lot of blessings. "Even if it's just a smile on a very sick person's face, it's worthwhile."
One of his biggest victories is dealing with patients who have problems dealing with their illness. He says that oftentimes these patients don't want him to be there or to pray for them. He spoke about a client who was on hospice care for a year and a half.

"He didn't want anything to do with me," Chaplain Hallin said. "We talked about hunting and fishing." Finally, several months into his ministry, a man asked him to pray for him. Chaplain Hallin baptized the man shortly before his death.

Though he's dealing with patients who are dying, he says it's never really bothered him. "I wouldn't change it," he said speaking of the man he baptized. "I'm glad I was a little piece of the puzzle for him."

Chaplain Hallin's goal through his ministry is to bring a little joy to the lives of his patients, and the volunteer coordinator for the hospice thinks he is successful in doing that. She said the patients and families really enjoy his work. "I see how patients and their families respond and I think he does a really good job in helping them deal with their emotions."

He has learned with this job he has to be flexible. Because his entire purpose is making a person feel at peace, his visits sometimes run longer than normal, but he doesn't mind. For him, it just gives him more time.

"You have to tend the spirit, when their spirit is at peace it makes their passing much easier."

Stephanie Howard, reporter
(used by permission)