Spirit Matters
Come Fly With Me
I know you’re busy, so in this month’s column I ask for only a few minutes for you to consider two questions.
First question: Feel like taking a trip with me?
If so, I’m inviting you to join my wife and me March 8–15, 2020, as we return to Honduras.
“Why would I use my vacation dollars to go to a third-world country?” you ask.
Navigating Your Faith
Navigating Your Faith Look for ways to find the answers together By Norris Burkes September 2019 As a teenager, I often told my high school ROTC instructors that I aspired for a dual Air Force career—first as a flight navigator and second as a chaplain. “Strange...
To Toot or Not to Toot
Several times during my years in the Air National Guard, folks jokingly asked me how I became an officer without knowing how to play golf. Their questions finally challenged me to rectify my shortcoming with some lessons.
With only a few years before retirement, I was on my annual training in San Luis Obispo when I found an opportunity to play my first game with fellow chaplains.
What is a Chaplain?
What is a Chaplain? Let’s set the record straight By Norris Burkes July 2019 In the 18 years I’ve been writing this column, many readers have shared their impression of what a chaplain is. And more than a few have certainly told me what a chaplain is not. A few...
Finding Your Faith
Imagine taking a virtual plane ride today and meeting me in San Francisco for a 30-minute drive south to Moffett Federal Airfield, formerly known as Moffett Navy Air Station.
With my military ID we easily slide past the Smokey-Bear-hatted federal guards. A quarter mile in, we pull curbside and walk across the lawn to the Moffett Chapel, built in the style of the Spanish Colonial missions.
I’m comfortable here because this is where, in 1994, I took my first Air Force active-duty chaplain assignment.
Color the World with Hope
Do you ever find it helpful in risky situations to disregard worrisome thoughts and push yourself past tragedy, pain and danger?
Some call that approach denial. I call it “exactly what I need” as I rendezvous with 13 library volunteers at the airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The group arrives on a humid Sunday afternoon in response to an invitation I extended in my column last year. Most hail from Missouri, South Carolina and Alabama, but two of the women—Lisa Dobeck and Terri Young—are from the Sacramento area.
