His Church Is In The Back Of Police Car
Sometimes, Al Holm hides in the woods, wades up to his knees in Hayden Creek and screams his sorrow into space.
As a police chaplain in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, he sees more death and misery in a month than most people see in a lifetime. Suicides. Murders. Traffic accidents.
Al tells unsuspecting families that their child was killed in a car crash or their parent committed suicide. He holds their hands at the hospital and prays with them, if they want. He attends the funerals of their loved ones and checks on the families for months, sometimes years.
And he does it all as a volunteer.
“My church is the back of a police car,” he says, fiddling with the gold crosses pinned to his collar. “My congregation is one family at a time.”
Al, who’s 60, is no evangelist hoping to convert the distraught. He says everyone deserves comfort and kindness no matter his or her beliefs.
He embraced religion in 1975, he says, after he heard a dead friend warn him to quit drinking or die. That warning helped Al end 32 years of alcoholism.
Four years later, he became ordained as a First Christian Church minister and earned a degree in chemical dependency counseling.
But church politics frustrated him. He wanted to reach everyone, not just members of his congregation.
“I was tired of ministries that said, ‘Do it my way,”’ he says. “Chaplains have to be interfaith. When a person’s on the highway dying, you don’t care if he’s Jewish or Catholic or even believes in God. He’s a human being.”
Al takes chaplain-training classes several times a year. But he approaches each tragedy without a plan.
“I just say, ‘Here I am, God, use me,”’ he says, tipping his ruddy face toward the sky.
He bear-hugged the young father who backed his truck over his little son two years ago. It was the only way to keep the man away from the body. Al drove the boy’s family to the hospital and stayed with them until doctors said there was nothing more they could do.
He withholds religion until families indicate a need for it and he finds out what religion they practice.
“You can’t tell a Jewish family their son has gone to be with Jesus,” he says.
The deaths chip at Al’s heart, but so do the problems police officers bring him. Alcoholism. Nightmares. Failed marriages.
Al’s counseled them at work for two years. Now he’s opened an office in downtown Coeur d’Alene for them as well as for crime victims, witnesses, grieving families. He doesn’t charge for his services but needs an assistant chaplain and help paying rent.
“This is my way of paying back the community,” he says. “I figure in 30 years of alcoholism, I took a lot.”
To donate time or money to Al, call 661-2776.
Happy Birthday
Forget the presents, but bring your appetite. The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations has planned two shindigs for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 15.
The breakfast party starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Holiday Inn. The Hawaiian fruit muffins sound great, but check out this entertainment line-up: Rabbis Daniel Fink and Laura Rappaport from Boise and Coeur d’Alene-area Revs. Mike Bullard and Grant MacLean. Could be lively.
For the evening set, there are hors d’oeuvres, wine and blues from 6-8 p.m. at the Clark House mansion in Hayden Lake. Bring money for the silent auction. Tickets are limited. Call 664-6408.
MVP
There are most valuable players in every sport. But what about in your office? Every office has someone who knows how to work the phones, the copy machine, the computers, the lights.
Nominate someone in your office for Wonder Woman or Superman and tell me what makes them so valuable. Get those ballots in to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo