Whether you are a pastor of a large Chicago area Lutheran church, or functioning under the arm of the Illinois National Guard as a chaplain, the effects of the pandemic were the same. Everyone had to cover up and distance themselves from even family members. But ministry continued with virtual Bible studies, social media platforms, and community development to sustain the believers, and those not yet believers in Christ. Join Pastor James Buckman in a fascinating story of ministry in Qatar, and how he was blessed while serving in chaplaincy there.
Transcript
The following program is sponsored by Evangelical Life Ministries.
Welcome to Engaging Truth, the manifestation of God's Word and the lives of people around us. Join us each week as we explore the impact of his message of spiritual renewal from the lesson of Forgiveness Forged and the crucible of divorce, to the message of salvation learned by an executioner from a condemned killer to the gift of freedom found in the rescue of victims of human trafficking. This is God's Truth in Action.
Welcome to Engaging Truth. My name is Jonathan Schultz, standing in today for Reverend David Schultz. And I'm here with Aaron National Guard Chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel James Buckman of Faith Lutheran Church in late Forest, Illinois. Good evening, James. It's a great pleasure to have you with us. Good evening. It's great to be with you. Thank you for this opportunity,
He joined the Army at age 18 after 10, and after 10 years of active duty, returned to pursue an undergraduate degree. And, and then seminary culminating in his first spiritual leadership assignment at River of Life Lutheran Church in Springfield. Shortly thereafter, he became an Army, Army Reserve chaplain for the 10th Syop Battalion in St. Louis. Roughly 10 years later, Chaplain Buckman transferred to the, from the Army to the Air Force Reserve joining the four 42nd fighter wing. It was there that he began to discover new and innovative ways to minister to this very diverse group of people known as Airman. Now, I think the rest of the story is yours. I don't think I can say much more. Um, so maybe we start out with James. What were some of the roadblocks that led you to innovate in your approach to the chaplaincy? That's a great question.
Um, so, you know, I, some of the hurdles in, um, doing ministry with airmen, uh, with service members, um, you know, include the fact that, um, your people are, uh, all over the place. And so, you know, um, you certainly hold worship services where you invite people to come to you, but then also, um, the importance of of, of going out and establishing Bible study groups and, um, even a remote location, worship services on, uh, deployment. Um, you know, the challenges there are, you know, your service members are separated from their loved ones, and so, you know, how do you minister to them? Uh, and one of the things that, that I have found to be super helpful is what, what we're doing right now, and that's leveraging technology. And so I, I did quite a bit of that. I was blessed to do quite a bit of that, um, in the ministry, especially on deployments, um, where we would set up, uh, Bible studies where, uh, people back home could join in and participate in them.
And so, you know, I've had bible studies and deployed locations where loved ones who are also serving in the military would, um, log in from other parts of the world, and then their loved ones back in the states would log in. And so we would have virtual bible studies with people on multiple continents at the same time. Uh, so that, you know, that's, uh, one of the challenges. And, uh, we, we are just so fortunate these days with the technology we have that really, you know, chaplains, you know, 30 years ago even, uh, didn't have. And so it's, um, it's a blessing and you can, you know, you can provide, uh, very personalized ministry too. So one of the things that I would do in pastoral counseling on deployments is, uh, is use, um, social media platforms to do live, um, counseling with loved ones back home.
And I found that to be very beneficial, very helpful for our service members, helping them just work through, uh, relationship challenges, um, and, uh, helping them to stay on top of that, uh, that, that was, uh, tremendously helpful. Um, one of the things I also did on deployment was a renewal of wedding vows, and that was something that was very popular, uh, again, you know, leveraging technology and doing it, you know, separated by continents and time zones, uh, but just, you know, strengthening, building up the institution of marriage and the family. And, um, and that was, that was a blessing also, you know, uh, we had funerals at deployed locations, and so we were again, able to leverage technology so that bases back home could gather people in the chapel back home, and, uh, people could participate there, uh, using this. Um, there, there's, uh, just a lot of different, um, obstacles, but there's also a lot of opportunities.
Gotcha. So, so, um, not missing some of those special moments in life because you're deployed, which is pretty beyond amazing considering. Um, we really, we, I think as a culture, we, we've come to the point where we seem to hammer all the new technology and, and we frequently mention all the things that it's pulling us away from and that it's not good for, and we're too connected, but, um, clearly, you know, as long as we, you know, our heart's in the right place and we, we try to keep it in balance, it can be such a powerful tool. Amen. Amen. Well, so from the perspective of a full-time parish pastor, perhaps you could share with us some of the unique differences between ministering in your church and serving soldiers and airmen. Sure. So, um, you know, one of the strengths of the chaplaincy is that you are, you're embedded right in the workplace.
And so you have, um, pretty much unfettered access to the service members. Now, sometimes you have service members who maybe, uh, have a job that requires a very high level of security clearance that you may not have. So you may not be able to go right directly into their workplace, but you can certainly still meet with them in other locations near their workplace, uh, for Bible study and things like that. So, whereas, you know, a parish pastor, um, you know, you're probably welcome at most of your members workplaces, uh, but for one, uh, the distances involved, uh, do not, um, allow you the same ease of access, uh, to them. Uh, so, you know, there's that distinction. Um, you know, when as a military chaplain you have, you have a great diversity of people. So when you have a Bible study, um, you're going to have, you know, one Lutheran and they might be Missouri Senate.
You know, you're
And so everybody knows these are the ground rules that we play by here. And, uh, and so it's, it's a different perspective. Um, so there's that. I think, you know, one of the things that I really enjoy, you know, about parish ministry is the community development, the civilian engagement, and you have just a ton of opportunity with that. So like this Saturday, our church is, uh, we're having our second annual faith on the fairway, uh, golf outing. So, you know, I was talking to your dad earlier about the covid, and you know how much that impacted all of us, and thank the Lord your dad is recovering and recovered from that. And, um, so it was during the height of Covid when everything was largely shut down, uh, I reached out to the superintendent of the school system for the city of North Chicago. The city of North Chicago is an economically challenged community, um, very demographically different from your typical LCMS congregation.
And, uh, reached out to the superintendent of the public school system there and just, uh, initiated a conversation with them and asked him, you know, what were the, what were the needs? What were the challenges there? He shared them with me. And, uh, as we talked about it, uh, one of the things that he shared was that they started a scholarship, um, fund there for the graduates of the, uh, high school there, the public high school. It's called the Warhawk Scholarship. And, uh, as I thought about that and was praying about it as he was talking, I, uh, I just, I asked him the question. I said, You know, how would you feel about our church doing a, a golf, uh, outing, a fundraiser? The proceeds would go to the scholarships, uh, for the kids. The scholarships provide for the kids to go to the high school graduates to go to the Community College of Lake County for two years.
And it's a full scholarship. It also gives 'em a living wage, and that's so important with immigrant families, uh, lower income families, because those young people are under a lot of pressure from their family to go to work to provide the help for the family. So then that takes that pressure off the table. And, um, so the, uh, superintendent said that, That'd be fine. That'd be great. And so we did that last year. And by God's Grace, we, we raised $27,000. And, uh, so this Saturday we're gonna have a second annual, uh, faith on the Fairway fundraiser, and we have already received, uh, $40,000, and we are going to, uh, have a silent auction there Saturday evening. Uh, we conservatively estimate value of that to be about 7,000. So, you know, if you do some envelope math, it looks like, you know, as a possibility, we're gonna raise $70,000 in our first two years for scholarships for these kids.
And one of the reasons why this is so important is because then this builds a relationship with the community of the city of North Chicago. For us as a church, the city of North Chicago has not had an LCMS church for 35 years. 35 years ago, the last LCMS Church closed its doors in the city of North Chicago. And, um, last year after the fundraiser, our church, uh, leadership team, fundraising team was invited to come to a televised public meeting of the school board of the city of North Chicago. And at that meeting, um, Dora King, uh, the lady who's in charge of the entire school system there, um, she said these words, she said, Your church, your church is always welcome in any of our schools.
Now, you know, John, we could probably count on our left hand the number of churches that have that invitation into the public school system. And so, uh, we see that relationship strengthening. In fact, just this morning I was talking with the superintendent John Price, um, about some things where we may expand this a little bit to give even more opportunities for the kids in the coming year. And he and I are totally in agreement on board with that. And so I, I don't wanna get ahead of myself and announce stuff that isn't ironed out completely. Um, but we are very excited. We've started a mentoring program for the kids there. Um, so it's a great discipleship opportunity for our members. And, uh, um, in fact, this afternoon, uh, at three o'clock, I'm gonna be prayer walking with some of our church members in the community there in North Chicago.
And, uh, the man who is the communications director for the same North Chicago, he's coming prayer, walking with our church team. And, uh, and so it's been a great, uh, witnessing opportunity as I've gotten to know his first name's Ambrey, uh, as I've gotten know him. And, um, and he talks about Faith Lutheran Church with lots and lots of people. And so, um, I, I love sharing the gospel with people. I love building relationships, um, uh, to make that happen, to help that happen. And, um, as a parish pastor, you have that opportunity to build long term relationships and to develop ministry, uh, in the military, you tend to get moved around a bit, and it's just a slightly different environment that way. Uh, so, um, I think that's one of the, the differences between, uh, you know, military chaplain league parish, uh, being in parish faster, and it, you know, with the guard, you get to do both.
And, uh, one set of skills helps the other, the other set of skills helps the other, uh, it works together well. Makes sense. Now, thinking in terms of, as, as you were talking about the differences, I was immediately led to the thought that you're a military chaplaincy. It's like, it's, it's the mission field. You may not, you may not leave your normal, you know, be a mile away from where you spend your entire life, and that you're in the mission field because you're just surrounded by, you know, you're not walking into church surrounded by people who already believe, are on a path to believe, you know, the way you do. Um, but you're, you don't know who you're gonna run into on a daily basis. And, and it sounds like you're, your church is now following that same foray into Chicago. Yep. You know, it, in our church body has always had the, uh, ministry to the armed forces as part of our mission board.
That's how we're structured as a church body, know different church bodies do in different ways. But our church body has always said that ch exactly what you just said, that our chaplains are missionaries. And, and I believe that's the exact right perspective to have on it because we have, within the military, we have a great, uh, mission field opportunity, uh, and we're invited to be there. Um, but then also our military chaplains, our LCMS military chaplains have a tremendous track record of establishing, uh, worshiping communities wherever we go get deployed, whether it's in combat operations or peacetime operations. So, you know, our military chaplains have established worshiping communities in places where we've been at war, um, you know, in Germany, Korea, when, even when we were in Vietnam, you know, um, over the years we have had a tremendous track record of doing that. And so when I was deployed to the Middle East, you know, that was always my prayer is that I would be able to do that also.
And I, I, I have to tell you an amazing story. So, um, my last deployment was, uh, to Ed Air Base in Qatar. Ed Air Base is our largest air base in largest base period in the Middle East. We have about 10,000 people there. And, um, Qatar is a Sharia compliant country, so obviously a Muslim majority country, it's a Sharia compliant country. But the fact of the matter is, is that there's more Christians in QAR than there are Muslims. And that's something a lot of people don't, don't know, they aren't aware of. And why is that? How did that happen? The reason is because qar as a country wants to have host. They love soccer. So they wanna host, you know, all these international soccer events. So they've gotta build stadiums, they've gotta build hotels. And qar is a country that's a wash and oil money.
And so there's basically five families, five primary families in Qatar, and none of those family members are gonna lift the shovel, I can promise you that. And so, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just, it's just the reality of it. And so then what they do is they hire their labor from countries like the Philippines and India, Nigeria, Uh, and these are countries that are largely Christian. Um, and so there are just thousands, thousands and thousands of Christians in. And so then being good Christians, they wanted to worship. And so, um, the, um, the mirror of guitar, he met with, uh, his religious Muslim religious leaders, and they agreed that Christians could worship in their private residences. And so that was fine, but then there was no control over that. And so then the interesting thing came about that then the Amir of Guitar had to build a place that we all call Church City in downtown Doha in Qatar.
And it's a massive, a massive place. It's a couple city blocks by a couple city blocks, and, um, there are 20 something sanctuaries, uh, in there used by 60 something different worshiping communities. The largest ones seats over 10,000 people. Uh, none of the denominations own the buildings. Um, they, we, we just, uh, all the Christians there just rotate through. There's a schedule. Everybody works together well, plays together well. And so when I was on deployment, um, uh, I was, I became the wing chaplain, so I was the top chaplain for the LD Air base. And, uh, Ron Harel, who was the command chaplain for Sentcom, he was my boss. He came to me and he said, Jim, and Ron Harel is a good, good Southern Baptist. Ron Harel came to me and he said, Jim, do you wanna, do you wanna go down to Church City?
I said, Absolutely. And so he said, All right. So made the arrangements and went down and, um, uh, had a great visit. And then he asked me, he said, Would you like to preach in Church City? I said, Of course. And he said, Okay, well, I'll get, I'll get introductions made to you. Um, the Amir uh, selected one of the clergy people from the civilians worshiping there in Church City to be his bishop. It's a Protestant pastor, but he's called Bishop. And, um, so I met with the bishop of Church City and shared with him as Missouri Senate Lutheran. And I asked, There's a Missouri Senate Lutheran congregation. He said, No. I said, Well, are there any Missouri Senate Lutherans here? He said, Yeah. And he said, The usually worship at this one service. And I said, Okay. And he said, Would you like to preach?
And I said, Sure. And, um, and so he made the introductions and the arrangements, and I, and I got to preach, uh, in Church City downtown Doha guitar. And the congregation I preached for was one of the smaller ones. It was only about 600 people, uh, in the worship service. And, um, it was amazing. And so while I was there, you know, and I, I was invited back, uh, they, they asked me to come back and preach again for 'em. So I did while I was on deployment. And while I was there with them, I shared, you know, at the time I was a missionary of New Jersey and I did the house church planting and about house. And after service, uh, a Middle Eastern man came up to me and, and said, uh, Our house church would like you to and teach, Would you do that?
And, uh, uh, I said, Yes. And then I started praying because there's a lot of obvious, you know, safety, security issues when you're in a Muslim majority country. Uh, there's different things that you have to be, uh, careful about. And so then I thought, you know, what am I gonna do for my, about my safety of this situation? And I was a chaplain for security forces, uh, there on base. And so one option I would be to go and ask some of the biggest muscle bound guys to come with me, and they would've, Um, but I thought, you know, that probably is not gonna let, let the be, you know, create the best impression. So then I went to my chaplain assistant who was like 60 years old. He was like a Vietnam veteran and, you know, weighs 180 pounds dripping wet. And, uh, and I went to starting Dene and I said, You don't have to say yes to this, but I've been invited to teach in at a house church in Church City.
I'd appreciate it if you came along, but you don't have to say yes without be. And I, he said Yes. So we got on Google Maps and pulled up the address and looked around the neighborhood a little bit there on Google Maps, and there's like three moss within the, within close proximity of this house we were supposed to go to. And so we drove down there and drove around through the community in a, you know, unmarked civilian car and, um, and found some more moss that weren't even on Google maps. And, uh, there's a, there's a Dunking Donuts on the corner. And so he and I went and we said, This might be our last cup of coffee. And so we, we went, had coffee at Dunking Donuts there in Doha and uh, and had some prayers and then drove over and the man who had invited me to come and teach there at his home, uh, was staying out there in the, in the yard and, uh, pulled up and Mike and I got out of the car, walked across the yard, walked into the house, and inside the house were people from every continent.
And, um, um, they had me, uh, we've had some, some time for song and prayer. And then they said, Now we want you to teach us. I said, Okay. And I said, How long do I have? And they said, Take as long as you want. And that's, you know, what every preacher loves to hear. And so I probably took about an hour with them and uh, they had me come back also. And so, um, that was one of my highlights as a military chaplain. Um, definite highlights was to preach the gospel in a Muslim majority country on a, on combat deployment. And, um, and to support the Christians there in that country. And so, um, yeah, yeah, that was, that was good. Interesting. Uh, fascinating that no one, I mean, I've heard of a lot of places that we wouldn't expect had large Christian populations, but Qatar had never came up on the radar, so.
Right. That's interesting. But I mean, it makes sense. We do, I mean, um, a lot of places import, um, Yep. Um, Western technology to technology Yeah. For a lot of the construction and a lot of their manufacturing and obviously a lot of the oil companies. Yeah, for sure. So, um, but that's wonderful. Well, so we've got, um, we've got about, uh, a minute left. Oh no, I wish we had a whole lot more time, but I've gotta ask you about Antarctica and Okay.
So, No, sir. What was your immediate first impression when you arrived in Antarctica? So, great question. So my immediate first impression was, I thought I was on the movie set of Star Wars, you know, uh, that one Star Wars movie where they go to that frozen ice planet, whatever that one is. And oh my gosh. Cause we flew out of, uh, Christchurch New Zealand, that was our jumping off point to McMurdo. And so, you know, you're going along, you're starting to see ice floating on the water and all that stuff. And, uh, and then, and I was invited up into the cockpit and, uh, so I was up, I get, and I've got great pictures and video. And so then you're coming out over the continent. And I mean, it is
And if you don't start praying for the safe landing of your aircraft, you are a foolish person. And, um, yeah. And so, and you know, you get the seven layers. There's a seven layer system that you wear when you're down there. And I got to stand on the South Pole. Uh, and what I've been told is that there are more people who have stood at the top of Mount Everest and have stood on the South Pole. And, um, it was an amazing experience. Uh, totally, uh, reinforced my belief in the biblical account of the worldwide flood. Um, uh, just, uh, an amazing experience. Thank you for your, you blessing us with your time today and coming, Sharon, you know, your industry experiences all over the world. And again, thank you for your service, both military and to God's children. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys and God's blessings on your ministry.
Thank you for listening to this broadcast of Engaging Truth. Be sure to join us each week at this time to help support our ministry. Contact Evangelical Life Ministries, post Office Box 5 68, Cypress, Texas 7 7 410, or visit our website@elmhouston.org or find us on Facebook at Evangelical Life Ministries. Thank you.