The Chaplains

Two male and two female chaplains make up this department. One of their main ministries is counseling patients. There are the kinds of problems common to all of us: coping with the suffering or death of a family member, our relationship with God, guilt, marriage problems, and the like. The more distinctively African problems often concern the fear of the spirit world. In the African view, illness and "misfortune" are often caused by spirits or unseen powers which are either hostile or indifferent to humans. Some of these are ancestral spirits, while others are a part of nature. A person who is angry with his neighbor may use a spell or ritual to cause him illness or accident. Even more educated people who understand scientific explanations still believe in the same supernatural powers. Rather than seeing this as primitive ignorance, I think we Westerners would do better to consider that our own scientific naturalism is equally confining. We who are Christians say we believe in God and his power, but often act as if we do not believe in his reality in the world. In this area the Nigerian has much to teach us.

While the American chaplain might have to convince patients of the reality of God, the Nigerian one will have to convince them that God is in fact loving and powerful, and that he can save them from the evil powers that surround and threaten them. The chaplain needs to help them understand that Christ in his death and resurrection proved his ultimate power over all of creation including the spirit world, and that he offers them the right to become his own children, saved and protected by that same power.