Praying in a pandemic.

My new collection of prayers and reflections from the past year is now available.:

God. We Still Need You: A year of pandemic prayer and practice from a hospital chaplain.

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Here’s the back cover:

Healthcare workers go to work every day no matter what. Even in a pandemic.

With thousands of his coworkers and millions of other healthcare workers, Chaplain Jon Swanson went to work during the pandemic. They cared for physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people in the beds and people outside, unable to come in.

Every Sunday, he prayed in the hospital chapel for people—patients, coworkers, families, communities. Other prayers were offered along with other chaplains on a daily video for coworkers. And occasionally, his daily blog reflected his experience in the hospital.

Organized from Advent 2019 through Thanksgiving 2020, this book is a collection of those prayers and writings, gathered as a resource to help those who lived through the first year of the pandemic reflect on what happened and remember what we asked for.

In the Afterword, Chaplain Jana Vastbinder talks about starting her work as a chaplain just before protocols changed the way chaplains serve patients, families, coworkers, and each other.

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I’m incredibly grateful that Curtis Smith was willing to write the Foreword. He was the co-creator and producer of an internal daily program for our co-workers. We were able to work together on that project.

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From the Foreword-
“Jon always seems to be processing how outside forces are impacting people.  More than that, and the thing that most impresses me, is how Jon then turns that understanding into thoughtful prayer and care for other people.  Jon leans on God and talks with Him in a meaningful way.”
-Curtis Smith Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Lasting Change, Inc. During the time of this book, he was Corporate Director of Community Engagement for Parkview Health.

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I’ll talk more about the book soon, but I wanted to let you know it’s out.