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| Truckin' on a prayer: trucker chaplains spread their faith on the highway | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| I heard about Transport for Christ about a year ago, when a friend who was moving apartments tossed me an old Bible published by the organization. It had been given to him by his uncle, who used to be a truck driver. It was printed in the 1970s, a thin, pale yellow book with the title Your Roadmap of Life printed above a simple sketch of an 18-wheeler. I took the copy home. | I heard about Transport for Christ about a year ago, when a friend who was moving apartments tossed me an old Bible published by the organization. It had been given to him by his uncle, who used to be a truck driver. It was printed in the 1970s, a thin, pale yellow book with the title Your Roadmap of Life printed above a simple sketch of an 18-wheeler. I took the copy home. |
| The religious organization has been around since 1951. It sets up mobile chapels and currently boasts 35 across the US, two in Russia and one in Zambia. The long hours and unpredictable schedules of drivers make it nearly impossible to catch a service at their home churches, so TFC brings its chapels to the parking lots of travel plazas and trucking events. It also publishes a monthly magazine, Highway News and Good News, and offers a prayer hotline in case a trucker needs quick guidance. | The religious organization has been around since 1951. It sets up mobile chapels and currently boasts 35 across the US, two in Russia and one in Zambia. The long hours and unpredictable schedules of drivers make it nearly impossible to catch a service at their home churches, so TFC brings its chapels to the parking lots of travel plazas and trucking events. It also publishes a monthly magazine, Highway News and Good News, and offers a prayer hotline in case a trucker needs quick guidance. |
| This year, TFC’s 45th annual family truck rally took place in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. This time around, 80 tractor-trailers sat in the parking lot of the Valley Expo Center – most years, the group gets upwards of 200 trucks in attendance, but events were canceled due to torrential downpours. | This year, TFC’s 45th annual family truck rally took place in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. This time around, 80 tractor-trailers sat in the parking lot of the Valley Expo Center – most years, the group gets upwards of 200 trucks in attendance, but events were canceled due to torrential downpours. |
| Prayin’ on the road | Prayin’ on the road |
| TFC chaplains have a variety of jobs, but they mostly do outreach work. They hold services, give sermons, offer spiritual counselling, and evangelize at truck stops, which they call “walking the lot”. | TFC chaplains have a variety of jobs, but they mostly do outreach work. They hold services, give sermons, offer spiritual counselling, and evangelize at truck stops, which they call “walking the lot”. |
| Chaplain Jake Wise explains it in plain words: “I often say that three-quarters of our jobs is listening. We got two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Wise started driving in the late 1970s, when the interstate system was a network of unlit two-lane roads snaking their way through towns. He has spent the better part of 50 years fixing his gaze on the open road, and he knows a thing or two about the job’s difficult side. | Chaplain Jake Wise explains it in plain words: “I often say that three-quarters of our jobs is listening. We got two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Wise started driving in the late 1970s, when the interstate system was a network of unlit two-lane roads snaking their way through towns. He has spent the better part of 50 years fixing his gaze on the open road, and he knows a thing or two about the job’s difficult side. |
| Long, isolated and sedentary days with improper nutrition lead to many health issues, while limited access to healthcare makes way for quick, over-the-counter fixes. According to a 2013 survey, 66% of drivers polled reported having a problem with obesity, and 90% were on at least one prescription for blood pressure, high cholesterol, or cardiovascular disease. | Long, isolated and sedentary days with improper nutrition lead to many health issues, while limited access to healthcare makes way for quick, over-the-counter fixes. According to a 2013 survey, 66% of drivers polled reported having a problem with obesity, and 90% were on at least one prescription for blood pressure, high cholesterol, or cardiovascular disease. |
| And then there’s the loneliness, which follows a driver down the highways of America for four to eight weeks at a time, which is the average span of time an over-the-road driver spends away. This can creates chasms within the family. The loneliness edges its way into significant gaps of silence, into desperation, into unlocking a key into the door of an empty house, or finding a stranger in your own bed at the end of the night. | And then there’s the loneliness, which follows a driver down the highways of America for four to eight weeks at a time, which is the average span of time an over-the-road driver spends away. This can creates chasms within the family. The loneliness edges its way into significant gaps of silence, into desperation, into unlocking a key into the door of an empty house, or finding a stranger in your own bed at the end of the night. |
| The chaplains with Transport for Christ have seen it all. | The chaplains with Transport for Christ have seen it all. |
| Redemption truckers | Redemption truckers |
| At the rally, a massive tractor-trailer emblazoned with the words “Mobile Chapel” sat in the parking lot. Inside, the box opened up to a seating area, dressed down in wood panelling and plush benches. | At the rally, a massive tractor-trailer emblazoned with the words “Mobile Chapel” sat in the parking lot. Inside, the box opened up to a seating area, dressed down in wood panelling and plush benches. |
| We were greeted by Bunny O’Hare, a chaplain coordinator with an impeccably manicured white moustache who oozes western charm. Bunny travels “coast to coast with the Holy Ghost”: he goes across the country checking up on all the TFC locations. | We were greeted by Bunny O’Hare, a chaplain coordinator with an impeccably manicured white moustache who oozes western charm. Bunny travels “coast to coast with the Holy Ghost”: he goes across the country checking up on all the TFC locations. |
| Bunny was born Dennis O’Hare. He served in the army for 31 years and went to Vietnam. Before he left, he married his high school girlfriend, who became pregnant with his son. He was overseas when he got a call from home one day: his six-month-old had pneumonia in both his lungs. On a three-day leave to check on his son, he found out his wife had disappeared – nobody at the hospital had seen her since she had dropped the baby off three weeks before. The house was empty. | Bunny was born Dennis O’Hare. He served in the army for 31 years and went to Vietnam. Before he left, he married his high school girlfriend, who became pregnant with his son. He was overseas when he got a call from home one day: his six-month-old had pneumonia in both his lungs. On a three-day leave to check on his son, he found out his wife had disappeared – nobody at the hospital had seen her since she had dropped the baby off three weeks before. The house was empty. |
| That was the beginning of his angry period, he said. Years passed, along with a long bout of alcoholism. He started driving a truck. He found a new wife, left the army, got saved, quit drinking and joined prison ministry to aid veterans in prison coping with PTSD. He heard that a lot of veterans were truck drivers, so he got involved with TFC. “You see this mobile chapel right here? I says to them, it’s actually a maintenance shop and I’m the mechanic on duty.” | That was the beginning of his angry period, he said. Years passed, along with a long bout of alcoholism. He started driving a truck. He found a new wife, left the army, got saved, quit drinking and joined prison ministry to aid veterans in prison coping with PTSD. He heard that a lot of veterans were truck drivers, so he got involved with TFC. “You see this mobile chapel right here? I says to them, it’s actually a maintenance shop and I’m the mechanic on duty.” |
| This narrative of redemption is present everywhere. Jeff Batzer, the vice-president of ministry programs for TFC, was a mountaineer in his past life. He took a hike up Mount Washington in New Hampshire with a friend, and they got terribly lost. Three days later, they were found and taken to the hospital – he lost one leg, the fingers of his right hand and some toes to frostbite. After that, he turned back to the Lord. | This narrative of redemption is present everywhere. Jeff Batzer, the vice-president of ministry programs for TFC, was a mountaineer in his past life. He took a hike up Mount Washington in New Hampshire with a friend, and they got terribly lost. Three days later, they were found and taken to the hospital – he lost one leg, the fingers of his right hand and some toes to frostbite. After that, he turned back to the Lord. |
| On the road, truckers can help the most vulnerable | On the road, truckers can help the most vulnerable |
| We find Lynn Kolb sitting alone in the chaplain’s area, going over her notes. She greets us with a handshake. She seems nervous, as she’s about to deliver three talks to separate groups to raise awareness of human trafficking, but she’s passionate and well-informed. She has spent the last few years partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking for a campaign called Exit 58 (from Isaiah 58: “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday”). | We find Lynn Kolb sitting alone in the chaplain’s area, going over her notes. She greets us with a handshake. She seems nervous, as she’s about to deliver three talks to separate groups to raise awareness of human trafficking, but she’s passionate and well-informed. She has spent the last few years partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking for a campaign called Exit 58 (from Isaiah 58: “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday”). |
| Traffickers spend days rotating from city to city, just like truck drivers. They stop at a travel plaza once in a while to take showers, use the toilet and grab a bite. And truck drivers – some of them at least – have a tendency of finding bad ways to cope with their loneliness. Not all, but some. She doesn’t elaborate on that point. | Traffickers spend days rotating from city to city, just like truck drivers. They stop at a travel plaza once in a while to take showers, use the toilet and grab a bite. And truck drivers – some of them at least – have a tendency of finding bad ways to cope with their loneliness. Not all, but some. She doesn’t elaborate on that point. |
| Kolb wants to encourage drivers to call authorities if they ever see anything suspicious, like girls (or, in some cases, boys) who are accompanied by a pimp and might be forced into prostitution. The FBI believes that 100,000 victims are recruited every year, and a reported 1,200 girls were recovered in 2011, most of them 14, 13, 12 or even younger. “We’re talking about a pedophile nation,” Kolb says. | Kolb wants to encourage drivers to call authorities if they ever see anything suspicious, like girls (or, in some cases, boys) who are accompanied by a pimp and might be forced into prostitution. The FBI believes that 100,000 victims are recruited every year, and a reported 1,200 girls were recovered in 2011, most of them 14, 13, 12 or even younger. “We’re talking about a pedophile nation,” Kolb says. |
| Men find local girls through the internet and on the CB radio, pretending to be emotionally invested. The more vulnerable the girls are, the better – like those who come from broken families, or who have already been sexually abused. Kids who believe they’re being saved from their current lives. | Men find local girls through the internet and on the CB radio, pretending to be emotionally invested. The more vulnerable the girls are, the better – like those who come from broken families, or who have already been sexually abused. Kids who believe they’re being saved from their current lives. |
| Within the first few days, Kolb says, the victims are raped, drugged and beaten. Within seven years, they’re usually dead. Kolb lists these facts by heart; she has spent hundreds of hours researching it. In a way, she can empathize with both the johns and the victims. When she was 11, she was first exposed to pornography, and, the way she tells it, she fell into the deep. “I didn’t even understand what was happening to me and why I was so drawn into it,” she says about this lifelong struggle. “I was desperate for love and I really thought this was the answer.” She directly relates her porn addiction to a sex addition and to getting pregnant after a one-night stand at 21. After giving up the baby up for adoption, she felt she needed God’s rescue and turned her life around. | Within the first few days, Kolb says, the victims are raped, drugged and beaten. Within seven years, they’re usually dead. Kolb lists these facts by heart; she has spent hundreds of hours researching it. In a way, she can empathize with both the johns and the victims. When she was 11, she was first exposed to pornography, and, the way she tells it, she fell into the deep. “I didn’t even understand what was happening to me and why I was so drawn into it,” she says about this lifelong struggle. “I was desperate for love and I really thought this was the answer.” She directly relates her porn addiction to a sex addition and to getting pregnant after a one-night stand at 21. After giving up the baby up for adoption, she felt she needed God’s rescue and turned her life around. |
| “We’ve seen just about everything,” says the president and CEO of Transport for Christ, Scott Weidner. “Death, prostitutes, traffic victims, drivers with guns ready to commit suicide, drivers whose wives have called them to tell them: ‘When you get back, I won’t be here.’” | “We’ve seen just about everything,” says the president and CEO of Transport for Christ, Scott Weidner. “Death, prostitutes, traffic victims, drivers with guns ready to commit suicide, drivers whose wives have called them to tell them: ‘When you get back, I won’t be here.’” |
| He recounts a story of getting a call from the 13-year-old daughter of a driver. “Driver was in Massachusetts, daughter was California. She had been mugged and raped by three men. It was by God’s grace and the work of our chaplains keeping track of him all across the country to help him get there and not do something that he had planned to do.” | He recounts a story of getting a call from the 13-year-old daughter of a driver. “Driver was in Massachusetts, daughter was California. She had been mugged and raped by three men. It was by God’s grace and the work of our chaplains keeping track of him all across the country to help him get there and not do something that he had planned to do.” |
| Back in the main complex, the crowd seemed thinned out. Only a spitfire auctioneer selling off the last of the haul to a group of senior citizens, burnt-out parents and sugar-crazed kids remained. The stalls in the market were closing up shop, leaving empty tables behind. | Back in the main complex, the crowd seemed thinned out. Only a spitfire auctioneer selling off the last of the haul to a group of senior citizens, burnt-out parents and sugar-crazed kids remained. The stalls in the market were closing up shop, leaving empty tables behind. |
| After saying goodbye to Bunny, Scott, Jake and Jeff, we found our car in the field, started up the engine, and went back on the road. | After saying goodbye to Bunny, Scott, Jake and Jeff, we found our car in the field, started up the engine, and went back on the road. |