Serving Those Who Serve
Calvary Chapel Endorsed Chaplain Strengthens Faith Under Pressure
Photos by Tom Price
This story was first published in the Summer 2016 issue of Calvary Chapel Magazine, Issue 68.
U.S. Navy Chaplain Daniel Robinson, right, encourages a young man after a hike. Daniel, a Calvary Chapel-endorsed chaplain, ministers to those going through U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, VA.
Around 10 p.m., U.S. Navy Chaplain Daniel Robinson (“Chaps”) headed toward the Command Duty Officer’s office. The errand signaled the end of a meaningful but grueling day at USMC Base Quantico’s Officer Candidates School (OCS). He eyed the bunkroom where disqualified candidates waited to fly home. Reminding himself that he had already visited that group, he determined to slip past unseen. He remembered, “I felt the Holy Spirit saying, Just stick your head in and say ‘Hi.’” Inside, former candidates in civilian clothes perched on bunks, chatting. As usu-al, most looked slightly sad but excited to be going home. “Hey, gang, when’s pizza coming?” Daniel called, and was greeted with a flurry of cheerful, “Hi, Chaps!” followed by one forlorn voice: “Chaps, can we talk?”
But the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4b
Wednesday night chapel is a respite from the staff sergeant’s scrutiny. The Protestant service, led by Daniel, is optional at Officer Candidates School (OCS).
That young man had boasted days earlier that OCS was “the only card in his deck,” Daniel recalled. “Now, his face was filled with despair and uncertainty.” In the chaplain’s office, the candidate explained that a previously undiscovered medical condition had been revealed during a routine screening. After four years of preparation, he was being discharged from not only OCS, but from the military itself. Daniel continued, “He’d felt so certain this was God’s plan for him—he felt he couldn’t believe in God anymore if that wasn’t true. I picked up my Bi-ble, and starting in Habakkuk 2, we had an hour-and-a-half long discussion about God’s direction for his life. By the end, he realized he’d never had a true relationship with God. He accepted Jesus as his Savior and left my office beaming. He still didn’t know what he would do with his life, but he knew all that mattered was following his Lord and Savior.” The young man arrived home just in time to replace a member of his uncle’s Christian mis-sionary team who had dropped out at the last minute. He is now serving on a long-term trip to Cambodia.
A candidate with the flu asks for prayer. If she is too sick, she will need to begin training again later.
The Making of a Chaplain
When Daniel entered the Navy in 1990, he confessed, “I wanted nothing to do with God. But the Lord kept after me. I love that about Him, how He pursues us.” Over the next 14 years, Daniel was active in outreaches on bases wherever he was stationed and frequently found himself counseling troubled sailors. While in Washington state and attending CC Olympia, he felt led to leave active duty for the reserves in order to complete the require-ments of being endorsed as a CC chaplain. Military chaplains must have a Masters of Divinity degree in addition to all the training and mentoring requirements of a CC pastor.
“I wanted nothing to do with God. But the Lord kept after me.”
Chaplains are responsible to lead services for their own faith group; Daniel, being with Calvary Chapel, leads the Protestant service. Chaplains offer care and counseling to all Marines, regardless of their faith. “That’s where we have the most opportunity to share the Gospel,” Daniel asserted. “Candidates start out going strong but en-counter struggles they’ve never faced before over the next weeks. The chaplain is the first person they go to. I’ve counseled Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Buddhists, and atheists. Though I’m respectful of their background, I’ve never had to compromise my faith. I always share biblical tenets, in most cases—with their permis-sion—straight from Scripture.”
Officers in Training
Daniel encourages the officer candidates. He participates in most of their rigorous activities.
In addition to the inherent challenges Josh Humburg faced at OCS, Josh learned that his grandmother—to whom he was very close—had become severely ill. Through Josh’s letters and infrequent phone calls, the Humburgs were comforted to learn that a chaplain was supporting Josh through biblical teaching and in personal interac-tion. When Josh’s grandmother died just before his most difficult week, Josh’s mother wasn’t sure whether she should tell him and risk affecting his performance. She called the chaplain, trusting him to make the call.
After being commissioned, new officers solemnly sing the Marine Corps Hymn.
Together they decided to notify Josh the next day, after his most crucial tests were finished. Daniel planned to inform Josh himself, but through a miscommunication with the Red Cross (the official channel for such notifica-tions), Josh was told at 1 a.m. before his most grueling day at OCS. However, the frustrating circumstance creat-ed an unexpected blessing—Daniel lobbied for a travel exception, enabling Josh to return home for the funeral. Josh returned and finished well at OCS, buoyed up by the support of both his family and his chaplain.
His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness … by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises. 2 Peter 1:3a, 4a
Sunday and midweek worship services provide a rare respite from high-pressure, exhausting training. As the term progresses, the services’ numbers swell. Josh told his family, “The first service had about 30 people; the next one, after we met the drill instructors, there were about 150.”
“When God sent us Into the World, He never promised it’d be easy—just that He’d be with us.” Chaplain Daniel Robinson
“When God sent us Into the World, He never promised it’d be easy—just that He’d be with us.”
“At first,” admitted Candidate Joseph Ettien, “I attended services out of habit. Before long, I realized I needed them to revitalize me for the week ahead.” The Ettiens have served in the military since 1777, when Joseph’s ancestors came to America with Gen. Lafayette to fight in the Revolutionary War. “I expected OCS’s physical challenges,” Joseph related, “but I wasn’t expecting it to be so mentally demanding, having to constantly make sound decisions while exhausted.”
After the commissioning ceremony, Daniel is thanked for helping when candidate Josh Humburg’s grandmother died during Josh’s most intense trials during training. Daniel lobbied for and obtained a travel exception, allowing the candidate to travel home for the funeral.
During Joseph’s most difficult test, in which he estimates he hiked at least 18 miles while carrying a heavy load and making strategic calls, his whole body began cramping up; he feared he would fail. He remembered the field sermon Daniel preached from the Book of Joshua the day before. He persevered, passed the evaluation, and completed OCS. Now a second lieutenant, Joseph is attending the University of Pittsburgh before continuing training. His time at OCS has fundamentally changed him. He expressed: “I rely much more on God’s guidance. You can toughen your body and strengthen your mind, but in difficult times, they’ll still fail you. Chaps taught me God is the only one who never fails.”
Peace Amidst Politics
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right, a female Marine entered the chaplain’s office, announcing, “Hey, Chaps, I’m engaged—do you do premarital counseling?” Something alerted Daniel to ask, “Who’s the lucky person?” rather than “Who’s the lucky man?” The young woman was in-deed engaged to her girlfriend. Though Daniel felt alarmed facing that situation for the first time, he asked the Holy Spirit for guidance as he did for every situation. He explained that because he believed God designed mar-riage to be between a man and a woman, he could not perform her wedding. He could, however, care for her personally. He reported, “She continues to come in, and I share God’s Word with her. She understands where I’m at, and I understand where she’s at. I am very clear about what He calls sin, but also about His grace.” Since then, Daniel has been approached by a number of same-sex couples. Rather than turning them away, he sits down with them to explore Scripture’s teaching about marriage. He continued, “I always start by explaining God’s plan for marriage, that He desires we model our relationships after Christ’s relationship as husband of His church. Usually at that point they say, ‘Thank you, but we should probably find someone else.’ If not, I explain the purposes of this counseling session: one, learning the biblical model and its impact on their future relation-ship; two, to see if I’m the right person to counsel them, since I cannot counsel outside my faith; three, to see if they qualify for marriage biblically. I’ve remained gentle but clear on my position. I still have a good relationship with all those people.
“Representing Calvary Chapel ensures I can instruct verse by verse from a biblical perspective. Honestly, I’ve never had a bad response. But even when a person is resistant, the wonderful thing is that when God sent us into the world, He never promised it’d be easy—just that He’d be with us. I keep loving people and leave their hearts to Him.”
“Our ministry in that way is a reflection of the Lord, who went in the trenches for us.”
In the Trenches
Halfway through OCS, Candidate Gill confessed to Daniel, “I don’t think I have what it takes physically to do this.” He gently told her, “You know that’s not your decision. It’s God’s. He knows the strength He gave you. If He wants you to get through, you will.” Laughing wryly, Gill replied, “OK, Chaps. We’ll see if I’m here next week.” Every week the conversation repeated. The night before a long hike, she came to the chaplain for prayer, knowing failing meant being sent home. Starting off alongside her on the hike the next morning, Daniel reported, “Her humble faith impressed me. She was loaded up with gear, but even if she was unsuccessful, she was deter-mined to praise God by taking step after step.” Later on, though, he found her sitting on the roadside. While scaling a steep hill, her seven-pound rifle had swung loose, gashing her forehead. Already dizzy and exhausted, she struggled to see through sweat and blood. It was already too late to finish in time. Kneeling beside Gill, Daniel prayed, “Lord, please give her strength. Let her know what You want her to do.” He recalled, “God’s comforting presence was tangible there; I felt something bigger happening than just this situation. As the rest of the company reached her, she grabbed her things, put her gauze in her pocket, and declared, ‘Lord, You said You’d help me do this, so I’ll get through it.’ She finished that hike. Though she technically failed, what mattered to every staff sergeant who saw her was that she got back up. She graduated because of their testimony, but more importantly, she was a testimony to them—everyone knew she was a Bible-believing Christian. After the hike, a staff sergeant turned to me and said, ‘I haven’t seen faith like that in a long time.’”
Colonel Julie L. Nethercot, Commanding Officer, OCS, shakes hands with Daniel.
“A chaplain’s greatest job is relating to his flock,” Daniel declared. “We aren’t technically required to participate in hikes, obstacle courses, and activities, but as a chaplain I feel it is necessary. When you crawl through the mud with people, they learn to trust you.” He sees his everyday interactions outside his office—what he calls “the ministry of presence”—as the foundation for everything happening within it. He concluded, “A chaplain is a Ma-rine’s one safe harbor for his deepest struggles. Chaplains earn that right by being on the trail and in the desert with him. Honestly, I think humbling yourself to relate to your people’s struggles is a biblical concept. There’s not a thing we endure that Christ has not suffered likewise. Our ministry in that way is a reflection of the Lord, who went in the trenches for us.”
Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 27 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.
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