Marine follows call to become pastor By Stephanie N. Grimoldby Chaplain’s gift of communion
leaves lasting impression While deployed as a Marine in Iraq in 2005,
Nathan Huffman received a visit from a chaplain that would ultimately change his life. “He came to me and he asked me how I was
doing,” Huffman said. “[I gave him the] ‘I’m fine’ typical Marine response. But he knew I wasn’t.” When the chaplain pushed for a real answer,
Huffman divulged he hadn’t received communion in over a month due to combat readiness. So the chaplain brought out his communion kit and of- fered Huffman the sacrament. “That night I went out on patrol,” Huffman said.
“It was a really, really difficult mission. I felt very confident that I was going to die that night. It felt spooky; I felt like I was being watched. We were all terrified. But after receiving communion, I felt at peace with dying, and I felt confident.” It was a rough tour, the now 37-year-old retired
reservist remembered. His unit lost 46 Marines and two Navy corpsman that year, and he was directly engaged with the enemy during Operation New Market. That night nothing magical happened, Huffman
said. He doesn’t believe God stepped in and made his enemies’ weapons malfunction. “There was no angel on my shoulder. … I just felt confidence, and I wasn’t afraid to die. It wasn’t because I was so brave, it was because I was confident in Christ. I knew that whatever happened that night, I was going to be OK. [And] nothing happened. … We went out that night; we came back in.”
Accepting the call Huffman, now a husband and father of three, is the son of an ELCA pastor. His father, Jim, is now retired. While Huffman always maintained his strong
‘ They sang about love and it made me feel worse.’
faith in God, he wasn’t certain pastoral leadership was in his future. “As a pastor’s kid, you never want to do what your dad did,” he said. In fact, Huffman first served with the Richmond
[Va.] Police Department for nearly nine years, with some of that time overlapping his seven years in the reserves. Still, the experience he shared with the chaplain in Iraq got him thinking. But it wasn’t until 2011
While deployed to Al Anbar Province in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines Infantry Regiment in March 2005, Nathan Huffman had an experience with a Lutheran chaplain that led him to seminary.
that he and his wife started talking seriously about seminary—and chaplaincy. Huffman had started an ultramarathon
fundraiser—a relay run from Richmond to Washington, D.C.—to support veterans’ organizations. Over the years it turned into a second job. With little time left for family, something had to change. “I talked to [my wife] about seminary. … She
knew I felt called to help other veterans or other people in the military … who were really suffering because others had helped me, and my faith had been a large part of that,” he said.
36 JULY 2016
Photo: Courtesy of Nathan Huffman
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