“People person” perfect for chaplaincy role

While some may struggle to strike up a conversation with a stranger, for volunteer Salvation Army Chaplain, Betty Lanham, this comes quite naturally.

“I love meeting people. Someone said to me, 'how can you go into a ward and talk to someone you’ve never met?' I find that very easy actually. I’m a people person. That never bothered me,” she explains.

For the past 30 years, Betty has been volunteering as a chaplain for The Salvation Army at various hospitals and nursing homes. Betty was recently honoured at the Army’s Sydney East and Illawarra Divisional Headquarters for 25 years service. A woman in her 70s, Betty describes her work as a volunteer chaplain to be the glue that keeps her life together.

“When they presented me with that beautiful plaque they told me I had to go on until I was 99 and I said I will keep going until I am mentally and physically able," she says while laughing.

Betty began her work as a chaplain at the Royal North Shore Hospital when she was asked to visit a 16-year-old boy who was living in the children’s ward and couldn’t communicate. She read to him, talked to him and even organised one of the West Tigers NRL players to visit him. 

“That was a really good starting point for me … For six months we had a really good time together,” explains Betty.

Inspired by this experience, Betty was appointed assistant chaplain and began completing chaplaincy courses at the Royal North Shore Hospital. When the main hospital chaplain retired, Betty was then promoted to the Royal North Shore’s official Salvation Army Chaplain.

Betty spends two days a week volunteering as a chaplain at hospitals which also includes the North Shore Private, Mater Hospital and Sydney Adventist Hospital (also known as The San) and at various nursing homes. She is also on-call 24 hours, seven days a week at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

At the hospitals, Betty visits a number of wards including ICU, paraplegics and aged care. She also visits any Salvation Army patients wherever they are located in the hospitals. 

Roughly 10 years ago, Betty was honoured for her outstanding work with the mothers and babies at the Royal North Shore Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, receiving a special Grandma's Award from the hospital.

Betty says chaplaincy to be a rewarding role, particularly when she shares about the love of Christ to her patients.

“I enjoy meeting people and talking to them about God but I am always very careful to ask if they want me to pray with them,” she explains. 

Along with ministering to people in the hospitals, Betty runs church services at two nursing homes, Willow Wood and Ashley House Lodge in the Chatswood area.  

A few times a year, Betty also distributes knitted items created by The Dougherty Centre Ladies Knitting Group to the residents living at the nursing homes and hospitals she visits, Stewart House, a children’s respite care centre and a women’s centre in Dee Why. Betty also completes chaplaincy home visits.

Together with her late husband, Roy, Betty had two daughters, Nikki and Marnee and now has three grandchildren.

By Esther Pinn

This article first appeared in The Salvation Army's Pipeline magazine.

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