Hello All,
First of all, I want to let you know that Greg Edwards, in Beaumont, and I, Diana Dale, in Houston, rode Hurricane Harvey out without damage. The Worklife Institute, where NIBIC is headquartered, had quite a bit of ceiling damage, but they are fixing it today, so we are good to go. Several NIBIC members did check in to see if we were OK, and we appreciate your thoughtfulness.
We are doing a Directory update, and I notice that the copied email list I am using has duplicate addresses. We will repair that before the next News Notes goes out. Sorry for any annoyance.
We are pleased to announce to you that we have two new Clinical Members this summer, Karen Diefendorf and Mark McCormick.
Karen is Director of Chaplain Services for Tyson Foods. She was 24 years an Army Chaplain, has 5 Units of CPE and is also a member of one of our sister organizations, ACPE. After retiring from the Army she was a hospice chaplain in South Carolina. She is stationed at Tyson corporate offices in Rogers, Arkansas, directly supervising four chaplains and indirectly their 100 corporate chaplains. Her endorser is the Christian Church / Churches of Christ.
Mark McCormick and his wife, Barbara, live near Fort Collins, Colorado where he is a full-time chaplain for Qualfon USA as part of Worksite Chaplains. He completed 4 Units of ACPE CPE in Oregon, after which they relocated Denver, where he was a PRN hospital chaplain. Mark is also a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Welcome aboard! Their emails are at the end of the “to” list, so drop them a line of welcome.
In other news, Alan Harris, Certified Clinical member from Kansas City, has been representing NIBIC well as our delegate to the Board of Managers of the Journal of Pastoral Care Publications. We are happy to say that we have submitted our entire 2017 Assessment fee so are in good standing. The Journal has had some challenges in the past year with its new online publishing system. I have tested the system through the NIBIC website, and it is working for me. Do give it a try and then contact Greg Edwards or Alan if you are having difficulties. New members, go to http://www.nibic.com and Greg will give you an invitation to get into the members, only, part of the site and also access the Journal.
Alan also reports that he became certified in 2016 with the Grief Recovery Institute and now conducts Grief Recovery Method groups in the Kansas City area. He is planning to explore how GRM groups could be adapted and used by workplace Employee Assistance Programs and is asking if other NIBIC chaplains involved in EAP work use GRM. He would like to initiate a discussion on this.
Juliette Jones, Certified Clinical member from Warm Mineral Wells, Florida, reports that she recently attended a great Carl Jung Society presentation and workshop with Dr. Rick Tarnas entitled, “Our moment in history: Is modern humanity undergoing a rite of passage?” Juliette is a chaplain with Tide Well Hospice, which carries a census of about 1,000 people across four counties. She states that this is the best hospice corporation she has experienced. So those with interest ought to check in with her.
Juliette also mentioned that her hospice administration is telling their chaplains who are not Certified that they will need certification in the future, so get going with that project. NIBIC is listed as one of the bona fide certifying bodies by the corporation. Greg Edwards, who now is Spiritual Care Coordinator for Kindred Hospice in Beaumont, TX, and I were discussing this subject today, and he noted that the Spiritual Care Association, by which NIBIC is recognized, has some alternative educational routes with on-the-job and remote learning in order to gain CPE equivalency required for certification.
Earlier this year, Bruce Maxwell, NIBIC chaplain with Breezewood Trucker/Traveler Ministry in Pennsylvania, sent their newsletter. They hosted seminary students from Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. for a full-immersion experience with truckers, travelers, the homeless, response to wreckage sites. Visit breezewoodtruckertraveler.org for more news of this dynamic ministry.
At Worklife Institute, our Texas Veterans Worklife Transition program is going strong into its 10th year. We served over 500 veterans and their families this year and are happy to report that over 70% of them became employed, 79% in professional positions or skilled trades. Most of them also took advantage of our “wrap-around” personal transition and family pastoral counseling and legal / financial advisement services. Many of our veteran families took a hit from hurricane Harvey and are displaced. A large company in California was cruising Houston-area service organizations and called yesterday offering to send direct-needs goods from their employee care program. I canvassed our clients and found that most wanted gift cards for gas, groceries and personal care items, rather than shipped goods. We are praying for a good response. I have been at the Institute each day fielding calls.
Please continue to share your good news and resources. For those of you who still owe 2017 dues and directory updates, please send them in ASAP. And please continue to pray for the thousands of persons displaced and with property destruction and for our ministry here with them.
Chaplain Diana C. Dale, D.Min., Ph.D., LMFT
Executive Director, NIBIC
CEO and President, Worklife Institute
Director, Texas Veterans Transition Program
1900 St. James Place, Suite 880
Houston, TX 77056
dianadale@worklifeinstitute.com
713-266-2456, 713-963-9456