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Chapel delivers holiday cheer in deployed environment

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Vincent Borden
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  In almost ten years of service as a military member, Chap. (Capt.) William Spencer had the good fortune of spending every holiday season carving turkeys on Thanksgiving and opening gifts with his wife and children on Christmas Day. Every season, that is, except this one.

Like many members deployed at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, the chaplain has exchanged his familial holiday traditions for deployed ones, as duty has demanded. He's trying to make the best of a season normally decorated with the fall and winter foliage of Ohio and the smiling faces of his sons and daughter.

The holidays always present a tough time for deployed members separated from the ones they love.

But instead of concentrating on what he was missing, and of the season away he'll never get back, Chaplain Spencer decided to make the best of a tough situation. With the help of fellow chapel members and Airmen around the wing, Chaplain Spencer focused his efforts on spreading joy to all as much as possible. And as a result of the efforts of the chapel, hundreds of Airmen here are making the best of their own circumstances as well.

Among that effort was the chapel performance of a Christmas musical focusing on a holiday message of praise and peace. It also offered an extensive array of worship events including Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish services.

Chaplain Spencer said the event planning started with a suggestion from someone who was used to participating in musicals back home. But the event required talented musicians, vocalists and volunteers willing to put their free time into the project. And in a deployed environment that could be a tough thing to get.

"We started putting out feelers that we needed musicians," said Chaplain Spencer, who is deployed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "I saw our instrument room and it was just full of brass instruments and guitars, drum sets and all these things. So people came and found about it, and a couple of people just stepped up. They came here ready to be part of a worship team. That's what we were praying for all along."

Chaplain Spencer's extensive musical background took him through the responsibilities of choir singing, touring and directing since he was twelve. Equipped with a motivated musical team he said "took off on their own" after receiving general direction on song selection and themes, the chaplain began to shape the musical in a way that would maximize the talent available and send out a positive, constructive message to Airmen of the wing for the holidays - in three short weeks.

Lt. Col. Timothy Faaborg, 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Plans and Program chief deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill., was one of the musical's choir members who volunteered to take part in the events. As a servicemember who has deployed extensively throughout his career, he became used to missing special events and holidays with his family. But he said he still understood the disappointment that comes with it. And it's part of the reason Colonel Faaborg volunteered to participate in the performance.

"You have to be aware of the first term Airmen ... many of which I would imagine, have never spent a holiday away from their family," said Colonel Faaborg. "You see them walking out of the [dining facility], and if they seem like they're depressed or angry, you can try talking to them a little bit. Mostly, if you see someone that doesn't seem like they're doing well, one of the best things to do is just show them that you care."

Colonel Faaborg said the Christmas musical was one way to do that to a large group of people. And in that vein, the chapel considered the production a success.

Chap. (Lt. Col.) David Nordstrand, 386th AEW chaplain, said the event encompassed a wide variety of song styles to accommodate everyone, and laid the groundwork or future holiday chapel events.

"Lots of people enjoyed it," Chaplain Nordstrand said. "Music moves people in different ways, and you can tell that by all the different genres of music that we have out there. This musical had some different styles; from African-American to hymns and everything in between. We had a lot of people show up at both of those worship sessions, and it was our way of telling people that Christmas was coming."

The chapel continued to spread their holiday message through different avenues, beginning with numerous worship services for the different faiths and denominations.

Chaplain Nordstrand said the chapel also performed Watch Night service, a popular worship service in the African-American community, that combined a lot of traditions focusing on getting Airmen ready for the New Year.

The services were held at a time that wouldn't conflict with other New Year's celebrations around the base. Chaplain Nordstrand said he hoped that the combination of chapel services and base events would help them maintain a positive attitude and outlook while facing the difficulty of making it through the holidays without their families.

It's one of the main things the chapel tries to accomplish during the holiday season, especially in a deployed environment. Chaplain Nordstrand said it will also be something that continues to challenge the efforts of the chaplaincy as a whole.

"Many people either embrace their faith more on deployment, because it's one of the things they bring with them that they really enjoy, or they run from it," said Chaplain Nordstrand. "Especially during Christmas.

"Faith matters here for people a great deal. For some people that has been a lifeline for them as a healthy way for them to get through deployments. It's amazing when people's lives are threatened how much more they embrace something greater than themselves," Chaplain Nordstrand said.

But there are those that don't embrace faith and worship, and the chaplains know the only way to normally reach them are through workcenter visits and commander's calls. So the holidays present an opportunity for the chapel to not only provide a haven for those who regularly practice and participate in the festivity of holiday events and service, but as a place of comfort and love for those who may have never had an interest in matters of spirituality and faith.

Chaplain Spencer learned this lesson early on. When he was first commissioned to be a chaplain during a service in Anderson, Ind., the chaplain and other newly commissioned chaplains and missionaries found themselves surrounded by thousands of people at a candle-lighting ceremony. It was their jobs to light the candles of everyone in the audience, and Chaplain Spencer, faced with an enormous task, asked if there was sort some of procedure or special order in which to light them all.

He was told to simply find a dark spot, and light it up. That experience remains with him to this day, and gives him a singularity of purpose no matter the method he uses to draw people to his message.

"Sometimes that means people don't want me around," said Chaplain Spencer. "But I try to be a bright spot. Whether it's through services, unit visitations, concerts, morale meals or trips, that's what I aim to do. I try to find the dark places and light them up with the light that I have within."