By Lavonia Winford, Active Duty Air Force Chaplain; Installation Chaplain; Pituffik Space Base, Greenland

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” – Philippians 4:13

This verse is the mantra I repeated to myself as I strived to do what no other African American woman had done in the Mississippi Army National Guard. To get the full picture, I will take you back to where it first began—where God introduced me to a woman whose husband would later become my mentor and spiritual father.

The year was 2001 and I was standing at the counter in the Department of Human Services (welfare office) when the administrative person began to make small talk. She asked me if I had a church home and invited me to her church. I was recently divorced and had very little money. I found it to be a sign that God was calling me to something greater.

I visited her church the following Sunday with my seven-year-old son in tow. I strategically sat at the back so I could leave immediately as the service ended. And I executed my plan to perfection for about three weeks. The senior pastor noticed my pattern and changed his routine. The next week when I went to worship, he ended the sermon at the exit door. This meant that I would have to pass him on my way out. Wouldn’t you know it? He stopped me before I could exit and asked me to stay so we could chat.

After shaking hands and kissing babies, he asked me, “to not come to church and just sit, but to come to participate since I would get out what I put in.” Then he put me to work. I started out as an usher, then graduated to Sunday school teacher, and eventually to associate pastor. With his encouragement, I wanted what he had, a seminary degree. However, I did not want to follow in his footsteps and be a local pastor. I was in the military and felt called to be a military chaplain.

Bishop Cornelius McClellan took the time to nurture my faith; without him, I would not be able to imitate Christ for all the military men and women in my charge. I have been deployed to Kuwait, stationed at Thule Space Base in Greenland, stationed at a training base in Mississippi, with my next assignment in the United Kingdom. With a divine encounter that started in a welfare office in Mississippi and through the mentorship of Bishop McClellan, I too am teaching people from all over the globe to be about the Father’s business. For, I (you, we) can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (you, us).

PRAY, PRACTICE, PONDER

Who has been a spiritual father to you? This Father’s Day, give thanks for the spiritual fathers in your life who have shaped your view of yourself and of God as Father.