I was cleaning out some of my basement and came across the obituary of one of my Law Enforcement mentors.
I came into this field honestly, IE, I was not a friend of the program either through family, interest or drive. Rather, it first came across my perceptions while I was taking paramedic courses in college in Texas. I realized during my hundreds of hours of on the road clinical time that the police can be proactive and paramedic/firemen can only be reactive. The idea of preventing calamity rather than reacting to it was very appealing. A few years later I found myself in the Police academy.
Fast forward nine years and I found myself in a professional crisis, due to a mixture of my mistakes and a management change that soon found me deselected from the fast track and placed me on the no track. It was looking that I was going to be having a "meeting" once every eight working days on patrol for the rest of my career. I began fishing around to advance myself outside of work. I first did what everyone does in a crisis/test/trial I went back to God. I started leading a small group at my church and set it for Tuesdays at 10:30am so that anyone who was a second shifter could have a Bible study. It was a disastrous. Just in case you are thinking of using that time, while there are a number of people who work afternoons and midnights that need bible study, there are also a number of people that are free during that time mainly due to complete insanity. Anyway one day a Chicago Cop named Mike Touhy came in and had a prayer request for an old partner of his who had just been diagnosed with cancer, Bill Powers. I soon called him, enrolled in the Master program he created and got to know him and learned of his love of the Lord. I was amazed his career path was incredibly similar as mine and he managed to become deputy superintendent (my hopes are not half that high). He provided me with some advice and things immediately got better back at the home department. Because of his mentoring I was able to right a nearly sunken ship and I because a believer in the idea that everyone needs a Christian mentor.
A quick anecdote as to the kind of man he was. My wife and I came to his home during his home hospice on the second to last day that he was on this earth. When we arrived he was a sleep on the couch. My wife and I were sitting across from him when he woke up. He looked up and said, "(my name) how are things? How is school going? How are things back at the department, any better?" I said, "How am I doing!?! I think the only thing that matters today is how your doing!" He looked up at me, sighed and said, "I know how I am but I want to know how you are." He then made me answer his questions. That was the man that he was and a man that I have tried to emulate as I have moved forward in my life. Below is his obituary.
Link to Mike Touhy's truck stop ministry:
Transport for Christ
and a quick article about it
I came into this field honestly, IE, I was not a friend of the program either through family, interest or drive. Rather, it first came across my perceptions while I was taking paramedic courses in college in Texas. I realized during my hundreds of hours of on the road clinical time that the police can be proactive and paramedic/firemen can only be reactive. The idea of preventing calamity rather than reacting to it was very appealing. A few years later I found myself in the Police academy.
Fast forward nine years and I found myself in a professional crisis, due to a mixture of my mistakes and a management change that soon found me deselected from the fast track and placed me on the no track. It was looking that I was going to be having a "meeting" once every eight working days on patrol for the rest of my career. I began fishing around to advance myself outside of work. I first did what everyone does in a crisis/test/trial I went back to God. I started leading a small group at my church and set it for Tuesdays at 10:30am so that anyone who was a second shifter could have a Bible study. It was a disastrous. Just in case you are thinking of using that time, while there are a number of people who work afternoons and midnights that need bible study, there are also a number of people that are free during that time mainly due to complete insanity. Anyway one day a Chicago Cop named Mike Touhy came in and had a prayer request for an old partner of his who had just been diagnosed with cancer, Bill Powers. I soon called him, enrolled in the Master program he created and got to know him and learned of his love of the Lord. I was amazed his career path was incredibly similar as mine and he managed to become deputy superintendent (my hopes are not half that high). He provided me with some advice and things immediately got better back at the home department. Because of his mentoring I was able to right a nearly sunken ship and I because a believer in the idea that everyone needs a Christian mentor.
A quick anecdote as to the kind of man he was. My wife and I came to his home during his home hospice on the second to last day that he was on this earth. When we arrived he was a sleep on the couch. My wife and I were sitting across from him when he woke up. He looked up and said, "(my name) how are things? How is school going? How are things back at the department, any better?" I said, "How am I doing!?! I think the only thing that matters today is how your doing!" He looked up at me, sighed and said, "I know how I am but I want to know how you are." He then made me answer his questions. That was the man that he was and a man that I have tried to emulate as I have moved forward in my life. Below is his obituary.
Link to Mike Touhy's truck stop ministry:
Transport for Christ
and a quick article about it
