c. 2003 Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Kimberly Foreman’s dark eyes lit up and a big smile spread across her face when the Rev. Ed Azzam walked into her fourth-floor room at Crestwood Medical Center one recent day.

Not sure if she remembered his name, Azzam stretched out his right hand and introduced himself. “Oh, I remember you,” said Foreman, 31, who has sickle cell anemia. “You’ve visited me several times.”

Foreman is just one of many patients Azzam visits on his rounds as a part-time chaplain for Crestwood.

Although Jesus encouraged his followers to visit the sick, he really didn’t leave any instructions on how to make those visits _ and that’s where Azzam hopes to help. He wants to teach people, especially the laity, who find visiting the sick awkward or a somewhat difficult chore, how to visit the sick.

“What I teach is to make all the mistakes you want, but learn from them,” he said. “I made all the first mistakes. With just a little bit of listening, you can learn what to say. Sometimes you say nothing. Just be there for five minutes and they will tell you what they want you to know. You hold their hand and if they want to cry, cry with them.”

Azzam, 78, cautions against talking about the patient’s illness and against overstaying one’s welcome.

“Don’t stay too long,” he said. “That’s the worst thing people (who are visiting the sick) do.”

After chatting with Foreman a few minutes and having prayer, he left her with a smile on her face.

“He’s comforting and hilarious,” said Foreman, who lives in Madison, Ala., where she attends a Church of Christ. “I enjoy seeing him.”

Azzam is as comfortable talking with someone bedridden and hooked up to IVs and tubes as he is in the pulpit at Immanuel Lutheran Church, a congregation he started 18 months ago.

Unlike many chaplains, Azzam doesn’t wear a collar because he says “it scares people to death. I wore it for a couple of weeks when I first started. When I would go into a room, people would say, `Am I going to die?’ “

Now he wears a white Polo-type shirt with navy blue trousers, along with a navy blue blazer and chaplain badge given to him by Crestwood. It’s the “unofficial” uniform he wears during his 25 hours of rounds each week. He may only go into a hospital room if invited by a patient, the patient’s family, or a doctor or nurse who believes his presence may help.

Azzam quickly learned humor, if done in good taste, can truly be the best medicine for hospital patients.

“Men will test you by teasing you, then when you tease back, they know you are OK,” said Azzam, who has served as Crestwood’s chaplain for the past 15 months. He spends about five hours a day five days a week at the hospital. At other times, 14 chaplain volunteers are on call to help out when he is unavailable or during the evening and overnight hours.

Much of his time is spent in the hospital’s eight waiting rooms talking with anxious family members, trying to calm them during times of emergency or surgery.

“About 85 percent of the people who come here are Christians, but sometimes they forget that when they are here,” he said. “I just remind them to pray and reinforce what they already know. The easiest part of my job is just being there and listening. Many times people who have been (at a hospital) a long time are bored or anxious. The size of their smile tells me how anxious they are.”

Azzam, a licensed counselor, is not officially supposed to counsel hospital staff, but often “gives advice” when asked by Crestwood employees who talk to him about a personal or professional problem.

His presence at the hospital has been felt by hospital administrators.

Brad Jones, CEO at Crestwood, said the chaplain’s role there “is very important. We feel very fortunate to have Chaplain Ed as part of our hospital family. Whether it’s his endearing sense of humor, pearls of wisdom, or reassuring presence, he brings comfort to our patients and their family members.”

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Azzam said members of the clergy often overstay their welcome.

“People can’t be themselves when their minister is around and maybe they have things they need to discuss they don’t want him to hear,” Azzam said. “And the most scandalous thing anyone can do is to discuss a child’s illness in front of the child. You should never do that.”

Azzam has visited his share of sick folks during his ministry that spans nearly six decades.

A native of Flint, Mich., Azzam enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school. Following his military duty, he went to Boston where he intended to go into social work. But a retired minister asked him if he had ever considered the ministry, which was enough to send him down the spiritual pathway.

He enrolled at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Springfield, Mo., where he finished two years of undergraduate work and four years of seminary. He later earned a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Detroit.

After serviing at churches in Michigan, Nebraska, Maryland, Azzam moved to Alabama in 1989. He was assistant minister in Ascension Lutheran Church in Huntsville for six years and was in Scottsboro for one year before returning to the Huntsville area.

“I tried to retire twice,” Azzam said, “but I was miserable.”

DEA END BETOWT