June2003

Chaplain Larry F. Wildemuth
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
One of the local missions we support is that of Larry F. Wildemuth at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Chaplain Wildemuth reports to the Medical Institutional Chaplains, which is the qualifying organization for this type of ministry. Two of our church members Lee Camphouse and Howard Phillips are actively involved in this organization and are on its board of directors. Chaplain Wildemuth has been extremely active this year. He became the lead chaplain at VMC when his Catholic counterpart retired. Also, the advent of SARS has brought a safety issue to the ministry. Since VMC is a county hospital, it receives all potential SARS cases.

Larry and his volunteer workers must take precautions to protect themselves and the SARS patient during their visits. Although health risks are involved, Larry feels it is so important to minister to those in need of spiritual nourishment and prayer. He asks us to pray each day for wisdom and protection for his chaplains and himself. Most of us have heard of the new Patient Privacy Act which took effect in April 2003. Larry has been working to implement it in his area of patient interaction. This means that all volunteer hospital chaplains have had several additional hours of training in order to be allowed to visit with patients. Recently, Chaplain Wildemuth completed the training of two new volunteer chaplains. One is a cancer survivor with special empathy for hospital patients, and the other speaks fluent Spanish. In looking over the summary of Chaplain Wildemuth’s volunteer visiting reports, one can see how active his ministry is. He averages 285 hours ministering to 500 patients and 150 staff members per month. He enthusiastically welcomes new volunteer chaplains into this ministry as the needs of patients and staff are great.

Last year at VMC 58 individuals committed themselves to Christ. We pray that these new brothers and sisters in Christ will be connected with local churches and nourished by a fellowship of believers in their community.