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"How can a Christian be in politics?" People of faith ask me this all the time. They seem startled that a former United Methodist minister is serving in public office.

Once when I was about to preach, my friend Johnny Hayes introduced me to his congregation by telling of a political event that honored a 100-year-old gentleman. Johnny allegedly had asked the centenarian how he had survived so long as a member of a small minority in a county dominated by the other political party. The gentleman’s sage reply was: "Johnny, you’ve just got to know who you can trust and who you can’t trust."

When Johnny pressed him on how to tell the difference, the old man replied: "There’s just three types of folks you can’t trust. You can’t trust lawyers. You can’t trust preachers. And you can’t trust politicians."

As I squirmed behind the pulpit, Johnny turned to me and said: "This fellow here is a lawyer, a preacher and, last week, he went to work in a political campaign. You can’t believe a thing he says!"

The congregation roared with laughter.

People may generally think more of preachers, even of lawyers. But politicians are generally considered an untrustworthy lot. Why?

Police Receive Prayer Notes

In an age when handwritten correspondence is usually reserved for close family, friends and special occasions, Wilton is writing someone she doesn't even know––a police officer in her community.

Organizer Cathie Wilton writes a thank you card for a member of the city's police force.

"I can’t imagine what facing danger must feel like but I know the Lord is with you through it all," Wilton writes.

The note is one of thousands written over the last seven years by members of Peoria First United Methodist Church as part of their police prayer card ministry.

Each day, individual church members pray for two to three officers randomly assigned to them from a roster supplied by the police department. The prayers are followed up with a personal note.

Some of the notes are short and simple, while others share personal stories and may even spark a pen pal relationship. One officer told Wilton she especially enjoyed the letters she received from a woman who loved to write about her personal joys and travels. "She said, 'it was like conversing by letter with my grandmother. I really, really enjoyed that.'"

In the mailroom of the Peoria police station, Officer Jerald McKeen pulls a letter from his box and tears it open. It reads: "Dear Jerald, I just wanted to thank you for keeping our city safe." McKeen says he is comforted to know that the people he serves care. "We appreciate it. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer," he says.

Capt. Mike Scally has received countless letters from the prayer team over the last seven years. He looks forward to the notes now, but initially was wary. "When I first got a card, I looked at it. There was somebody’s name I didn’t recognize and I am saying, 'Why is this person writing me a letter?' I opened it and looked at it and it was kind of a nice, refreshing moment."

Prayer team members say some officers write back. They also know that other officers don't even open the letters.

Scally likes that his work is acknowledged. "The job we do is actually being recognized by the people we work for, and to know that they appreciate what we do gives me a good feeling of satisfaction."

UMC Sews for Soldiers

After sewing a pair of boxer shorts for more than two hours, Shirleen Harms pauses to "say a prayer for the young man that’s going to wear this."

"And I pray that he’s going to be strong enough to heal," Harms adds.

Harms is part of a sewing class at First United Methodist Church in Oviedo, FL that makes adaptive clothing for soldiers who have lost limbs or need special attire to fit over casts or medical equipment. The sewing class is part of Sew Much Comfort, a U.S. organization that distributes adaptive clothing to military hospitals.

"They need to know that we still see them as whole entire people," says Margaret Morris, a church member in the sewing group. The soldiers are "people first, but with a disability—not a disability attached to a person," she says.

At military hospitals, hospital gowns are often the only clothing available, but are drafty and do not cover many patients adequately. The adaptive attire gives wounded soldiers an alternative and is designed to make their recovery comfortable, both physically and emotionally.

"Anyone who’s ever been in a hospital realizes that a hospital gown doesn’t give you much dignity," says Joy Campbell, regional director for Sew Much Comfort in Florida. "And we’re talking about injuries to our troops that are of such a degree that they are not going to get well within a week, a day, a month." Read more here.

Jeffrey Lightbourn, a patient at U.S. Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, tries on clothing developed by Sew for Comfort founder Ginger Dosedel.

A UMNS photo by Thomas Warner,

LRMC Public Affairs.