My Blog
This Blog is meant to give you a window to my heart and help you understand what it means and takes to be a Fire and Police Chaplain. I will try to share some of the unique experiences and situations I am called into, yet I want to be careful to protect the privacy of those that I minister to. Please feel free to comment if you desire. I value input and thoughts from others.
Corby Hunich 
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. As a Chaplain, I find that every call teaches me something new and better equips me to help others in the future.
However, the bottom line is not what I know or what I say. It’s just showing up and really “being there”. The ministry of presence is the most powerful tool we can use in truly impacting and helping hurting people. The Ministry of presence is hard at work in total silence, in a caring look, touch, or embrace. It is heart felt and seldom forgotten. What you say is important but being present and plugged in is vital and impactful!
Corby Hunich
I recently was talking to a several fire fighters that I am Chaplain for. They thanked me for my role and mentioned how much they value what I do for them. I blurted out how much I love what I do for them. It kind of hit me as I said those words that truthfully what I do is not fun in itself. Helping suffering people grieve and navigate through a traumatic loss is not fun but rather it is fullfilling and rewarding. I wake up each day being glad to know that God has been able to place me in a very special role in people’s lives to help them in what may be the worst thing they have or will ever experience. Even as I say it here, I can imagine how weird it sounds. Yes…..I love to help people who are suffering. I love to be a comfort, I love to have an encouraging word in the midst of darkness, I love the challenge of walking with someone through the initial steps of grief, and most of all, I love doing what God created me to do.
Corby Hunich
Empathy is a vital tool in connecting with hurting people. Empathy is related to sympathy yet different. Sympathy means you feel sorry or bad for someone. Empathy means that you feel and understand what they are feeling. Its as though you climbed into their life and experienced it through their perception and experience. Empathy can be developed and learned to some degree but it is also a spiritual gift that some have more than others. Empathy allows you to identify well and communicate both verbally and non verbally that you really get what a hurting person is feeling or experiencing. Though it does not fix their situation or make the pain go away, it helps so much to know someone knows what you are going through and is there to compassionately support you in it and through it.
As a Chaplain ministering to those who have suffered a traumatic loss, I must do more than sympathize with those I am helping. My body language, my comments, my tone and the speed of my words must communicate a deep respect and understanding for exactly what the emotional tone is of the situation and what the person who has suffered traumatic loss is experiencing at that very moment. Canned words and text book condolences mean little without empathy.
I had the pleasure this last week-end to perform a wedding ceremony for a young couple. It was such a pleasure and a privilage to be a part of a day and an experience that both of them will remember for the rest of their lives. The setting was on the deck of a ship with the Downtown Seattle skyline behind me. In front of me was a couple with all their hopes, dreams, and faith fixed on their future together. Above us was a God made opening in the threatening clouds to blue sky and sunshine. My heart and faith longs for that oneness that was created that day to last a lifetime! Thank you God for letting me be your representative!
Corby Hunich
I have two questions to ask you today. Do you really love God? Do you really love people?
Mark 12:30-31 says “…you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
As a Christian, I have heard this verse quoted in so many ways by well meaning people. But what does it really mean to love God in this way and love your neighbor as yourself?
1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Again we are faced with the Biblical Truth that God is love, that God loves people, and that if we love God and have made HIm our Father, then we mannifest that by loving people. So how do we love people? Scripture gives us some direction….
Matt 25:35-40 NKJV
35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
So everything we do to other people…its as if we did it to God! That means good or bad! How you been treating and helping people lately…or should I say…how you been treating and talking to God lately?
Eph 4:29-32 NKJV
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
So here is a good start. How about just being this way with everyone you come into contact with. Don’t let anything out of your mouth that does not edify, encourage, comfort, exhort or impart grace to the hearer. Don’t let any bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, gossip, or negative junk come out of you or be demostrated by you. Just be kind to others, tenderhearted and forgiving. This ought to keep you busy pretty much most of your life!
Each of us has a calling from God and a way that these traits, words, and actions are to be manefested towards others. But it all boils down to one thing. We have to loose our life or self. Selfishness keeps our thoughts and our attention on us and not on God or loving people. You cannot love people and love yourself. You cannot love people and think about yourself, what you want, how you feel, how it might effect you, and what others are thinking about you.
So…Let me ask you again…Do you really love God? Do you really love people?
Corby Hunich
I was called out to a failed CPR call today. I thought I would journal this a bit to show a typical progression through a death by natural causes. The deceased man had a history of medical issues and appeared to have died of a heart attack. Left behind was a greiving wife and three adult sons. The shock and reality of what had just happened on its own was still setting in. The human mind was never made to accept sudden death as normal or a fact of life. When a person dies, every dream, every plan, every normal routine, and every future intereaction they would have had in a loved one’s life dies as well. The impact of this is overwhelming at first and then continues to unfold as time and events in life continue on.
When I arrived, there was audible wailing coming from the home’s open door and one of my department’s fire fighters greeted me with a run down of the situation. As a solo Chaplain this day, I had to begin to stretch myself and figure out where I was most needed. I checked in with the police officer who was there. He was in the process of communicating the details with the medical examiner and glad to let me take over with the family. Two fire fighters were checking out the heart of the audibly grieving wife who was now compalining of chest pain. I began to slowly approach family members and introduce myself and share as much empathy as I could communicate. The fire fighters acknowledged that the wife appeared to be fine though emotionally overcome. I heard the comment said” Chaplain’s here so we can wrap this up here.” I love to hang out with the crew but I draw great satisfaction and hearing that my presence there allows the whole team to go back into service.
I was able to sit with the family and help them process through what just happened and dismiss all the guilty thoughts that typically come to those greiving a sudden loss. For some reason, people all seem to torture themselves with all kinds of what if’s. What if I had been there? what if I had checked on him sooner? what if I had not left him alone?
The Police Officer finisehd speaking with the medical examiner and let me know that there would be no investigation by the ME’s office. I explained what this meant to the family and began to help them wrap there mind around moving his body to a funeral home and selecting one to call and take away there beloved’s body. With this underway, the Police officer asked me if I needed his help any further in this process. I turned him loose and got him back in service as well.
As I spoke with the family, I gathered the personal info needed to supply the funeral home with all they needed. This completed, I called a funeral home and made arrangements for them to come and pick up the deceased body. When they arrived, I was a go between explaining to the family what was happening and gathering them in a location where they would not have to watch the removal process.
In closing, I was able to minister to and walk this family through the worst moment of their lives. Before I left, we were able to gather in a circle and pray. What a privledge and rewarding feeling to help those who are suffering find some sense of peace and understanding in the midst of turmoil.
Corby Hunich
This week has been a very crazy one for deaths in South King County. In a period of 4 days I responded to 4 death calls. This is on the heels of 3 calls the week before. Every call takes an emotional toll on me but some dramaticly more than others. It is always a sad atomosphere sitting with those left behind when a loved one passes on. My compassion buttons get pressed and bubbles of empathy rise up within me. Generally I am able to help without suffering a major emotional toll. Yesterday however, I responded to a call that really got to me. I found myself deeply moved with grief and pain for this family. I found myself searching deep in my heart for why this one hit so deep and hard. Perhaps it was the fact that the calls this week came one after another and there was little time to emotionally “recover” between each of them. Maybe it was the fact that I had numerous identification points with this family. The woman who died was my age, healthy, active, had kids the age of mine, and seemingly had a great life going on. No place for me to fit this one in the box of “bad life choices” or “too bad they didn’t take better care of themselves” box, or “disease sucks and got another one” box. Maybe it was how close this family was and how deeply hurt each member of the family was. Maybe it was watching each one say their good byes to her. Maybe it was hearing the deep gut wrenching cry of her husband as he said I just lost my best friend!
I think it is human nature to try to justify or make sense of death. Sometimes that is easy and other times it is not. We all know death comes to all yet when it hits close by, it produces a confusing barrage of thoughts that seem sereal and so hard to organize or make sense of.
I praise God that He has chosen to use me in this way. I really don’t get it. Its not fun nor is it easy. It hurts deeply at times yet what a rewarding feeling it is to be right there with a family to help them through their darkest moment.
Corby Hunich
Had a chaplain call that forever changed me. I was contacted by a Sherriff’s Office on the other side of the state and asked to do a death notification to a family in my area. The family member who died was their 18 year old son. He and 3 other teens set out to swim a large river and this young man was unable to make it to the other side. He was sept under in the fast moving current and had not been seen since. There was quite a bit of mannuvering to get the young man’s father to meet me at his home. Then the moment of painful reality. “I regret that it is my duty to inform you that your son has drowned and is presumed dead.” The stare and 5 seconds of silence that follwed seemed like an eternity. The message finally settled in his mind and the grief and pain hit like a sonic boom. The pain and agony that consumed this family and the atmosphere of the room was overwhelming. How I wished I could fix it or in some way take away the pain but there is no answer for this kind of pain. It must be lived and it must run a long and painful course. All I could do was be there, be compassionate, and try to guide them through the sudden panic and confusion. 60 minutes later I was driving home to return to life as normal for me but knowing that for this family, it will never be the same again. May the comfort and peace that only the Holy Spirit can truly minister be on this family. Thank you Lord for using me to help a family through the first few moments of the darkest time of their lives.
Corby Hunich
This week I had an awesome opportunity to speak at an emotionally charged ceremony at Station 62. Media and Federal Way dignataries were there along with numersous FD staff. Two of our fire fighters drove across the country with a piece of steel from the World Trade Center that came down on 9/11 ten years ago. The steel was carried in a custom made trailer with banners on the sides and on the inside walls, a display with all the names of those killed in the towers. As they entered with the flag covered steel, they had a police escort, honor guard, and a pipe band. I was asked to speak a few words as Chaplain for the department. It was a great honor and a very emotional ceremony. I felt honored to stand amongst so many brave and courageous men and woman who put it on the line every day to be on call for us in a time of emergency and exteme need.
Last week on September 11th, we remembered the vicious attack on America that took place 10 years ago. We remembered the 343 fire fighters that lost their lives running into the burning towers as others ran out in fear for their lives. We remembered the 60 police officers that also lost their lives running into the burning towers to help get innocent people out. We remembered the nearly 3000 innocent human beings that lost their lives so that a small group of angry and hateful people could make their statement to the world that we should fear them. What they meant to bring fear and confusion only united the passion of a nation that had grown a bit sleepy and apathetic about its roots. It united us all and reminded us that we are truly one nation under God, indivisable, with liberty and justice for all.
I was honored to have the opportunity to represent South King Fire and Rescue as their Chaplain and give the innvocation at a memorial service held on 9/11 at the actual times the events unfolded. What an incredible priveledge it was to stand and pray in the midst of our Mayors, Fire Chief, Police Chiefs, Fire Commisioner, and many citizens of the Federal Way community. I was even more grateful to have this opportunity when I heard that NY City decided to purposefully not allow any clergy to be present or speak at their memorial at Ground Zero. I am constantly amazed at the places God brings me and the tasks he sets before me. I am so thankful to my creator to have a life with meaning and purpose!
Corby Hunich.
Last week I had the opportunity to spend the evening and night with the C Shift at one of the fire stations I am Chaplain for. They invited me to have dinner and ride with them on any calls that came in. I had a great time and got a great opportunity to see What station life is like. I also got a birds eye view on several medical calls. All of the crew made me feel welcome and accepted. I experienced the rush of darting to the Aid Unit and heading to situation that awaited their immediate attention. Back at the station, I worked on burning off all the adrenline on board with a bowl of Ice Cream and a TV show. Some of the guys cruised the internet and others worked on some online training. Though these guys get to relax at times, it is clear that they have many responsibilites to fullfill between calls and are constantly training and sharpening their skills. So…I was off to bed at 11:00 in a dorm like room a college student would love. I finally wound down and dozed off to sleep… 30 minutes later I awoke to my beeper and bright lights in the room. Jumped into my pants, grabbed the pager, my coat and struggled with my shoe laces. I really thought I was fast but found the guys I was riding with already dresssed and firing up the Aid Unit. Guess they know what their doing! Back at the station…Wow… how do I go back to sleep now? Anyway…found a way and woke up at 6:30 as things came back alive in the station. Got to hang out as the new shift rolled in and took over for the next 24 hours. Headed from there to my other job at Church as a pastor. Though a bit sleeping a think I coasted all day on the excitement of hanging with the C Shift crew. Thanks Guys for letting me be a part and letting me see what you all do!
Corby Hunich
This last week, one of the fire fighters from the department I serve was hit by a car that was sliding out of control as he was tending to an accident scene on the side of the freeway. He suffered many injuries but most critical of those was a severe head injury. Nothing of this magnitude had ever happened to a fire fighter in our department’s history. My wife and I were able to join the fallen fire fighters family in the hospital ER and be a support to them in the traumatic moments following his critical injury. I counted it an honor to be a part of such an outpouring of respect and intense support by not only our department members but from many other local departments. The “botherhood” and sense of family connection between all of these fire fighters and medics was clearly seen. As this week has progressed, the injured fire fighter has shown steady improvement. We have been able to continue to drop by the hospital and be supportive to his wife and family there. It is been awesome to see our department and many others rise up to assist the family with every possible need they might have. Clearly God has been flooded with sincere heart felt prayers for this man’s healing and restoration from all his family members and fire fighter family members. I am glad to be one of those called of God to stand in the gap for him and his family both in prayer and in emotional support. I look forward to the miraculous testimony that lies ahead for this brave fire fighter.
Corby Hunich
With every new year comes an opportunity to hit the restart button and institute new things in your life. This year marks a big change for Mary & I. We have felt led by God to increase our role as fire and police Chaplains. I am joining the chaplain team for The Valley Regional Fire Authority and the Auburn Police Department. This will be in addition to what I do for South King Fire & Rescue. What an honor it has been to serve alongside our first responders.
One thing that I always like to regularly ask myself is why do I do what do. When we do good things for the right reasons, it is a good thing and the outcomes bear good fruit. When we do good things for the wrong reasons, we can produce some good results but with that generally comes with some bad fruit. God is more interested in the reasons that motivate us internally to do good things than He is on how we look on the outside. 1 Samuel 16:7 says: “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Jesus challenged the religious leaders who paraded around trying to look godly and spiritual. In Matthew 23:25-28 he says: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
I believe God does not only want us to do good things but he wants us to have good motives. When our motives are self centered or manipulative, we open the door to bad outcomes. Jesus clearly opperated with one motive. He loved the Father and was motivated by love for others. He commanded us to do the same. Matt 22:37-40 says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” If our motives stem from loving God and loving people, then we cannot fail to bring forth good things.
Corby Hunich
In the last few weeks, I have had some very emotionally intense call outs as a Chaplain. The first one involved a young baby that may have accidently positioned itself in such a way while in its sleeping mother’s arms that it smothered itself. That was followed up by a suicide by a gunshot to the head that was done in the heat of an argument in front of a spouse and several young children. That same night I responded to another suicide by gun but this was an older person who was very depressed about their failing health issues. Last night I was a part of a death notification informing a mother my age that her young adult daughter had been killed in a tragic accident.
Tragedies like these leave loved ones, parents, friends, and first responders with the pain of loss and the heartach of grief. I cannot fix their pain or take it away from them but I can minister to them with my presence. I’m a fix it guy. I also like to talk and teach. None of these things are what people need in a crisis where they have lost a loved one. I have never had anyone say how much my advice, teaching, or positive confessions were helpful in a crisis such as this. Where I said little and listened much, where I wept with them, where I sat silently beside them as they struggled to make sense of things, where I repetedly explained what was happening around them (police investigation, Medical examiner, and funeral home) because their minds were too overwhelmed to remember what I just explained to them. These things seemed to bring comments of gratitude from those in crisis.
In the movie Karate Kid, Mr. Meogi explains to young Danny about how to dodge an attack. He says in his Japenese accent, “Best defense…not be there”. For Chaplain work and helping those in tramatic stress, “Best help….be there” It is best known as the Ministry of Presence.
To really help people and love people who are struggling in pain , heartache, grief, sadness and such, we must learn how to just be there, track with them, and empathize with them.
Corby Hunich