God Is With You: Stories From An Army Chaplain

Ellen:
Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. I’m Ellen, your host, and I am so glad that you are here with us today. Before we dive in, I just want to say that you picked a good episode to join. When life blindsides us—when the phone call comes, the diagnosis lands, the relationship breaks, or the job disappears—hope can feel like the first thing to evaporate.

And in those moments, you may wonder, Is God here? Well, today’s guest isn’t speaking to us from an ivory tower, but from years of walking people through their darkest valleys. Bob Page is a retired Air Force Brigadier General and chaplain who has sat beside people from all walks of life in moments of loss, fear, and uncertainty.

Now serving as the Chief of Chaplains for Marketplace Chaplains, overseeing a ministry that reaches one and a half million employees and their families, Bob brings seasoned, compassionate wisdom to the question we all face at some point or another: Can I trust that God is still for me even when life is hard? So if you’re searching for evidence that God’s still here, looking for guidance on how to walk through pain with a loved one, or just needing room to feel hope in God’s presence, this conversation is for you. So, Brigadier General Chaplain (retired) Bob Page, welcome to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.

Bob Page:
Thank you, Ellen. I’ve been looking forward to this time with you so very much. Thank you for the warm welcome.

Ellen:
Well, absolutely. It’s my honor to have you here with us today. And I have to admit that I was so curious about your background that I had to ask AI what an Air Force navigator and brigadier general does. And it’s so fascinating to those of us who are unfamiliar and have no idea. Can you give our audience a brief understanding of your role in the military? I know you explain bits and pieces of that in the book, but this will help us understand how God used that experience and how He wove it into your call to ministry.

Bob Page:
Yeah, I’d love to do that. I was a freshman in college when I had this profound experience. I was reading my Bible one day.

God gave me a great purpose, and I knew He had this purpose for me—to share the good news the way I understood it at the time, as a missionary, one who shares God’s love across cultural and language barriers. As it all unfolded, it didn’t look anything like what I imagined it might, because the next year, my draft number came out. At the time, this was during the Vietnam War. There was a draft lottery, and let’s just say I won the lottery. That meant I was going to do military service. Ellen, that was so confusing to me.

I thought I had clearly discerned a way forward. I had a plan, and I had God and life all figured out—as only a 19-year-old can—and I was so confident. And then life blindsided me. Here I had this draft number that meant I was going to have to do military duty.

Ellen:
Hmm.

Bob Page:
Somehow, I found my way over to the Air Force ROTC building, and I took a test called the AFOQT. I experienced the military’s love of acronyms for the first time. That’s the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. When I got the results, they said, “You are qualified to be an Air Force officer, and you show an aptitude for navigation.”

So, as it turned out, I went into the Air Force as a navigator. I did a year of navigator training and then five years as a navigator on a KC-135 doing in-flight air refueling.

But through that time, I grew to love Air Force people. I learned their language, and I learned their culture.

And when my six-year commitment was up, I got out and went to seminary.

Then I was pastoring a church in Arkansas, and the Arkansas Air National Guard state chaplain came knocking on my door one day and recruited me. He said it would be good stewardship of those six years I’d invested. He said that whenever I walked into a hangar, a shop, or an office with those navigator wings on, there would be instant rapport. So I put a cross over the wings on my uniform, and he was exactly right.

Ellen:
Mm.

Bob Page:
After serving as a pastor for six years and in the Air National Guard, I got a call one day from our denomination that endorses and recruits chaplains. They were going to get one slot to put a chaplain on active duty, and they wanted to include me.

And off we went, to serve airmen and their families.

Suddenly, what had seemed like a great big detour…I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that those six years were not a detour at all. They were the perfect preparation. I was ready then to put on their uniform, live out the gospel before them, and come alongside them—be one of them. Incarnational ministry, right?

Ellen:
Mm-hmm.

Bob Page:
Because we loved them. We knew their language. We knew their culture. And we knew where life was hard for military members and their families, so we were prepared to come alongside them and help.

Suddenly, that verse I had learned as a teenager: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” made sense.

At the time, Ellen, it did not seem straight. It seemed like a big detour, and I did not understand it. But down the road, checking the rearview mirror and looking with the eyes of faith, I could see something wonderful.

We often think of faith as forward-looking, right? I can’t see what tomorrow holds, but God, I’m going to trust You with that. But I believe faith also operates when we look in the rearview mirror. We see how God has provided, protected, helped, and guided us. And that’s exactly what I saw.

I saw a straight line, and suddenly that verse made sense to me—that if we trust Him, He takes life as it unfolds and uses it for good.

Ellen:
You know, I think spelling that out for each one of us who is listening really helps put things into perspective. If you’re listening and wondering why it feels like you’re on some kind of detour—just wait until you have hindsight. I know I’ve experienced that in my own life, through some very difficult years.

Understanding how God allowed those experiences to shape me into what I need to be doing today—I love that this is part of your story. Bob, as a chaplain, you must have walked through so many experiences with people in the military. What are some of the most common reactions people have when life unravels?

Bob Page:
Sure. And when we say “unravels,” it sounds a bit benign, doesn’t it? Like a loose thread on a sweater. But in reality, for the person experiencing it, it can be excruciating—very confusing and very painful.

I think of someone who’s been betrayed and feels broken. I think of a diagnosis. I think of a dear one whose husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Life kind of unraveled at that moment, didn’t it?

Reactions range from shock and fear to anger and depression. And a very common reaction, I think, is that people are twice wounded—once by the traumatic thing that has happened, and then again by the mistaken idea that because this has happened, God is against them or has abandoned them.

Or maybe even more painful—the belief that they are not worthy of God’s love and care, so God must not be there. That’s a hard place to be.

But we learn from God’s Word the truth that God is with us and for us even when life is hard. And sometimes, even when we’ve made a mess of our lives through our own choices, God is still for us in those times.

Ellen:
Yes—you know, help us understand how we can walk with people when they are going through pain and heartbreak. Because I feel like there’s this balance of experiencing the pain with them, encouraging them with God’s Word, and being sensitive to their circumstances of heartbreak.

Bob Page:
Yeah. Yeah.

You know, that’s what chaplains do, isn’t it? And we all get to be a chaplain for somebody at some time, and God prepares us for that.

Ellen:
Yeah.

Bob Page:
I would say, first of all, be with someone and listen—with your heart, with your ears, and with your eyes—before you ever speak. And sometimes that—we call that the ministry of presence. Sometimes that ministry of presence is just the touch somebody needs to know that God is with them, that God has not abandoned them.

Man, I’ve experienced some of that in my own life, in our own family. About seven months ago, I had the shock of my life. I was on the other side of a conversation with a heart surgeon who said, “You need open-heart surgery.”

And I never imagined that. Talking about being blindsided by life—I thought I was making great choices. I’m the health geek in our family, exercising and doing all the right things, and yet I had these blockages.

At the time, I was working with the publisher, Kregel Publications, going through the editing process, as you know. So I was reading my own words. And amazingly, all this time I thought God was giving me this message for others—and I know He did—

But He was also preparing that message for me. As I read those words, my goodness, they brought hope and encouragement to me in that hard time. There was such a beautiful truth that stood out to me in vivid color: that in our hard times, one way we know that God is for us is that He prepares people to help us, and they show up in our lives.

And that’s exactly what happened. Just one very simple story of how that happened: the day of the surgery, my wife and I showed up at this massive, intimidatingly huge hospital in the medical center in Houston.

And we made our way to the area we were supposed to report to. When we got there, the person at the desk wasn’t there, and we waited and waited. No one came. So we went up to the floor where I was to report for surgery.

When we got there, I think we were feeling a little like scared rabbits, even though we had our game faces on, you know.

Ellen:
Mm-hmm.

Bob Page:
And I’d walked through this so many times, Ellen, with others—but it’s different when you’re the one going through it, right?

So outwardly, maybe fearless, but inwardly feeling some anxiety. Then a woman came and spoke to us, and everything changed when she said, “Let me go get Mary for you.”

She walked through those double doors, and pretty soon Mary came out. Mary was the chief shepherd there for all of us who were waiting for open-heart surgery. She was calm, competent, compassionate—just warm and welcoming.

She took us in and said, “Let me take you down there.” She didn’t send us back to the first floor. She went with us and made everything right.

I’m telling you, a peace came over us because God had prepared her—personality-wise, gifting-wise, experience-wise. She had done this for decades. She was so prepared to be with us in that moment and to care for us.

I had this profound impression that God was with us—that God had prepared her to help us in our hard time.

Well, after the surgery, I was in intensive care. And who shows up but Mary—and she was off duty.

She came in, stood by my bed, and chatted with us a little. She said, “I’ve just come to check on you.” Now, this wasn’t her job. She was showing up on her own.

Then she said, “May I pray for you?” And I said, “Sure. Yes, you may.”

She pulled out a little vial of oil, Ellen, and anointed my head and the sole of my bare foot. And she prayed such a prayer for me. I felt such peace in the presence of God.

You know what? She was my chaplain in that moment.

What a beautiful way to come alongside people in their hard time—to be with them, to be calm, to listen, and to pray.

Ellen:
Yes.

Bob Page:
And I believe God brings people to us that He has specifically prepared to help us.

I remember once, back when I was a colonel in the Air Force, I was on a plane in civilian clothes, headed somewhere—I can’t remember where. A young man got on and was assigned the seat next to me. I had the middle seat; he had the aisle seat.

He put this clean-looking military backpack in the overhead bin. He looked young, fresh. We chatted a bit, and I found out he was a young airman on his way to his very first deployment to Afghanistan, doing a very dangerous job.

I shared with him that I was a chaplain, and he was amazed that on his way to his first deployment, a chaplain had been assigned the seat next to him.

I pulled out one of my coins—I think I’ve got one here on my desk. As a senior officer, I had a personal coin. I put it in his hand and said, “I want this to remind you there’s a chaplain back home in your corner who’s praying for you.”

As we talked, I found out his primary concern wasn’t so much the danger awaiting him, but something back home. He had left behind a young wife who was pregnant with their first child, due to deliver before he got home.

She was in Okinawa, Japan—millions of miles from the support of her family.

Now, if this young woman had ever imagined what marriage and her first baby would be like, I guarantee you it wasn’t this—being alone while her husband was deployed. He was very anxious for her.

So I reached into my backpack, pulled out my Bible, and opened it to Psalm 121.

Ellen:
Right.

Bob Page:
That passage is still so dear to me because it opens with this. Here’s a warrior—David, the warrior and songwriter. What a beautiful combination. A man with such a heart for God, in a difficult and dangerous place.

He says, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?” That’s a question we all ask at some point, isn’t it? Where does my help come from?

And he answers it himself: “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” That’s a great helper—the Maker of heaven and earth.

I asked him to read it with me, and as he read it, he was just thrilled. He said, “I’m going to send that to my wife. She needs to hear this.”

What’s so interesting to me now, looking back, is that when I was brand new in the Air Force, Ruth and I were expecting our first baby—and guess where I was? Deployed.

We had been through that same experience.

So God didn’t just put a chaplain next to him—He put someone next to him who had been there, who had lived it, and who could listen, encourage, pray, and offer him truth from Scripture.

Because when you’re the lowest-ranking kid in a big Air Force, you might wonder, Who am I that the Maker of heaven and earth would care about my little issue?

But isn’t that the truth—that God sees the shepherd boy and watches over him?

And who’s to say what titles that young man would wear? Shepherd boy. Military member. Leader. Husband. Father. Who knows?

But what I do know is this: regardless of the title, that young man and his wife needed to know there is a God who sees them, loves them, and is ready to help them in their time of need.

Ellen:
What a remarkable story of how God uses what you’ve personally been through to lift up and help someone else. I mean, if that doesn’t show that God is right there and still for us, I can’t imagine what does. That’s just so beautiful—and I’m sure something that impacted him for the rest of his life.

Bob Page:
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Ellen:
Without a doubt. You know, one thing that I love about your book, Bob, is that it’s just full of these golden nuggets of wisdom. I wrote down a few that I want to share with our listeners, and then I’m going to ask you to talk about them.

Bob Page:
Thank—thank you.

Ellen:
One of them was, “I’ve discovered that going the extra mile is also a formula for success in life. Try going the second mile for your spouse, a friend, a customer, or your boss. It’s just a good principle in life to give more than is expected.” I love that.

Another one you said was, “When you don’t understand God’s ways, trust His heart.”

And just one more here—you said, “Don’t give up and drop out when life doesn’t load as fast as you want it to.”

Bob Page:
Don’t we need that one sometimes?

Ellen:
All of these—I’m writing them down. I want to put them on little cards to be able to encourage someone with them.

You share ten reasons why we can trust God even in the hardest of times. What’s one of those that you’d like to highlight for our listeners today?

Bob Page:
Yeah, yeah. One of the chapters, Ellen, as you know, is called All Us Sparrows.

I start that chapter with the story of a woman most people probably aren’t familiar with today, but they should be—Ethel Waters. She’s not well known now, but a generation ago, America knew and loved her.

She was the first African American woman to star in her own national television program, and only the second African American woman ever nominated for an Academy Award. She was a big star on Broadway—a truly remarkable woman.

One of the wonderful things Ethel Waters did for us was introduce a beautiful song called His Eye Is on the Sparrow. That was her song. She didn’t write it—there’s a beautiful story about how it came to be, which I tell in the book—but she made it her song.

She sang it on Broadway. She sang it in a movie. And I got to sing it with her—at a Billy Graham crusade at Louisiana State University when I was a student. Now, I knew I was singing with Ethel Waters. She didn’t know I was singing with her, because I was part of a 3,500-voice choir. But we sang His Eye Is on the Sparrow with her.

Ethel grew up unwanted, unloved, abused—passed from house to house, sometimes sleeping on a grate on the sidewalk where warmth would rise up. When she was thirteen, she was married to a man much older than she was, and he was abusive. She left him and got a job cleaning rooms.

Ellen:
Hmm.

Bob Page:
Who would have ever known that this girl—so abused, broken, and unwanted—would grow up to be a beloved Broadway star, motion picture star, and bestselling author? She wrote an autobiography that became a bestseller. Guess the title: His Eye Is on the Sparrow.

Ethel died in 1977, and on her gravestone are her dates and the words His Eye Is on the Sparrow.

That points us back to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus was busting a whole bunch of myths. He said, “You’ve heard it said, but I tell you.” Turning everything they thought they knew about God and life upside down.

Then He looked at these little birds flying around and said, “Look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow or reap, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” The point was this: if God cares for these tiny creatures—so insignificant, so low on the list of what seems to matter in this world—then hear these beautiful words: How much more does God care for you?

Sometime, Ellen, that’s a great study—to go through the New Testament and find all the “how much more” statements. I love those.

If God cares for the little birds—two for a penny in the market, as Matthew says—how much more do you matter to Him? That’s His point.

That chapter begins with Genesis 16:13, which talks about Hagar—a pregnant woman abandoned by her family, out in the wilderness with her baby. What a vivid picture. A single mom in the wilderness, wondering, Am I going to make it?

And there she has an encounter with God, and she calls Him, “The Lord who sees me.” Man—He sees you. He sees you, and He cares.

The point of that chapter—and at the end of every chapter I make a clear, straightforward statement of why we know God is for us—is this: God sees you. You are His treasure.

Of course, the greatest way we know God is for us is that He sent His Son. Even when we were sinners, God sent His Son to die for us so that we could live forgiven, with the slate wiped clean—and have the strength and grace we need for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Ellen:
So applicable. It’s amazing how words from centuries ago—the Bible—are still so relevant today.

And for those of you listening, if you’re feeling like a sparrow or feeling insignificant, remember this: how much more God thinks about us. It’s such an encouragement. Thank you, Bob, for reminding us of that.

Bob Page:
Could I say just a word…to speak to someone who may be listening and feels invisible, unseen, unheard?

My hope for you today, dear one, is that you would know there is a God who loves you and sees you. That you would have an encounter like Hagar did. And that God would bring someone into your path—so watch for that someone.

Reach out for help. That’s such an important part of it—allowing God to help us through the people He’s prepared to help us.

Ellen:
Absolutely. And if you’re feeling the Holy Spirit nudge you toward someone, lean into that. He may be calling you to be that person.

Well, Bob, as we begin to wrap things up today, help us understand…for those you minister to in the military, is the receptivity similar to what you see in the non-military world? And are there things we can draw from how you minister to both?

Bob Page:
Yeah. One of the wonderful things about serving as a chaplain in the military is that you wear their uniform—whatever uniform they wear, you wear. You visit them in their workplaces. You deploy with them. You run PT with them. You do life with them.

And then there comes a day when someone in the unit introduces you to a new person and says, “This is our chaplain.”

That word—our—means something.

It’s about being present with people in such a way that they feel your care, your love, your acceptance. I call it incarnational ministry—putting flesh on God’s love, putting skin on His care.

It’s showing up again and again and again.

Listening without judgment. Not trying to straighten out behaviors, but loving people where they are and listening until there’s an invitation—Tell me more.

God will engineer those circumstances. And then you can share the grace you’ve experienced—the life-changing grace that’s been working in your own life, cleaning out broken places and bringing healing.

And you introduce them to the Savior—the One who can do that for them.

Do we have time for me to tell you one more story?

Ellen:
Yes, please.

Bob Page:

All right. So I was deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.

I was the senior chaplain there, leading a team of seven or eight chaplains and that many chaplain assistants.

My first day on the job, a sergeant comes to the office and wants to talk to a chaplain. “Come on in, Bill.” Well, Bill had grown up very rough. He’d been passed from house to house.

He had never experienced church in the slightest—you know, church had never been even the smallest part of his life. He was a firefighter, and when he arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base several months before I did, he was carrying a lot of baggage—not the kind you could see.

Ellen:
Mm-hmm.

Bob Page:
He was into some really dark and bad stuff and was leading a whole separate life. And he admitted to me that day, “My marriage is in shambles.”

So he told me his story. He said, “Just this past Friday night, just before you arrived, I got off from my shift. I was walking across Coalition Complex—that’s where our lodging was, where we were staying.

“And I saw people going into a building that I hadn’t noticed before. There was a big rock standing at the entrance, and it said ‘Desert Hope Chapel’ on it.” Well, these folks were going in, and out of curiosity and boredom, he followed them in.

They went up the stairs; he followed them. They turned right into a large open room, and he heard this amazing music—a free concert, he thought. “This is going to be wonderful.” So he stood in the back until he felt comfortable, and then finally he took a seat.

After the singing, a fellow about his own age got up and talked about things Bill had never heard in his life. He heard that Jesus had died on a cross so that he could be forgiven of every wrong and shameful thing he had ever done—and that he could start again. He could begin life anew. Now, he had walked in on our Friday night gospel service.

At the end of the service, when there was a call to come forward for prayer, Bill was drawn, and he went forward. He knelt there and said, “I didn’t know anything about prayer. I just knelt there with my head down and my eyes closed.”

Well, that same night there was a young officer there by the name of Marcus, and he was a regular at the service. Marcus loved the Lord, and he felt a nudge from God to go kneel beside this fellow, so he did. And then, as his knees touched the floor, he felt another nudge from God to put an arm around him. That’s awkward.

Ellen:
Right.

Bob Page:
  —but he did. Then he felt compelled to pray for him. He said, “I was just overwhelmed with emotion, and I prayed for this stranger I’d never seen in the service before.”

Here’s what Bill told me. He said, “Chaplain, I opened my eyes and I saw something that changed everything.”

I thought, I can’t imagine what he saw on that beige tile floor. I didn’t know what to expect. 

He said, “I saw tears.  Chaplain, no one had ever—ever, ever—cried for me.” And he said all his defenses came down, and he knew he needed to start over, and he wanted to start over. But before that night, he had no idea—

Ellen:
Hmm.

Bob Page:
—that God would even have anything to do with him.

So Bill got to the reason he had come to talk with me. He said, “Marcus talked to me about the next steps after my decision to trust Jesus and follow Him. And I want to be baptized. Would you baptize me?”

My goodness—I said, “Yes, yes, yes. I would love to. It would be such an honor to baptize you, Bill.”

So we set the date and time. Bill showed up early, and a big crowd came with him. Ellen, I mean, he had told everybody about his decision to follow Jesus. They saw the change in his life, and they came to witness his baptism.

They set it up for us, and that morning we went to the pool.

Ellen:
Mmm.

Bob Page:
The lifeguard blew the whistle—“Everybody out of the pool.” People gathered around to observe, and Bill’s friends surrounded him.

I asked him, “Bill, are you trusting Jesus as your Savior?”

He said, “Yes, I am,” in a good, strong, bold voice.

Then I had prepared him for this question, and I asked, “What is your confession of faith?”

And man, he said it strong: “Jesus is Lord.”

I said, “I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” And the next words kind of described what was already happening in Bill’s life—buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk a brand-new life.

I guess I should have stopped there. I could have stopped there, but you know, being the preacher, I said, “And all the people said—”

Ellen:
Amen.

Bob Page:
They didn’t say that. Bill’s friends gathered around, shouting in unison, “HOO-AH!” [laughs] It was a great day.

And man, it just shows that sometimes Jesus walks past the people who would seem like obvious choices to us, and He goes to the wayward one—one far from Him—and calls him to follow Him. If that’s not evidence that God is for us, then no one is beyond the grace of God.

Ellen:
That’s such an incredible story—and I know it’s just one of many beautiful ways that God has shown up over and over again in your ministry experience and in what you’ve shared in your book, God Is Still for You. Tell our listeners where they can go to learn more about you and the book.

Bob Page:
Yeah, thank you so much. They can go to my website, bobpageauthor.com, and there are links there to various vendors. It’s available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, christianbook.com—wherever books are sold.

They can also read a sample chapter there. And if they enjoy that, there’s a free 88-page small group study guide they can download if they’re using the book in a group setting. I’d love for them to connect with me there.

Ellen:
We’ll make sure to include all of those links in our show notes.

I personally absolutely love your book and this resource. As I said before, it’s filled with golden nuggets of wisdom drawn straight from God’s Word that are so incredibly applicable. It really helps each one of us see the importance of being a chaplain in everyday life for someone else. So thank you for that encouragement.

Before you go, I have to ask you our favorite Coffee and Bible Time questions. What Bible is your go-to Bible, and what translation is it?

Bob Page:
Yeah, thank you.

Well, it’s right here with me. My favorite old standby is my NIV Bible. I use it regularly, and it’s marked up. Sometimes I use colored markers to indicate a promise, a prophecy, or instruction, and I jot notes in the margins. This has been my companion for many years.

Another way I study is by using Bible Gateway online—

Ellen:
Okay, that was going to be my question. Awesome.

Bob Page:
—yes, I do use online sources like that. I like being able to check a verse in multiple translations. One I often look at is the New American Standard Bible, which is closer to a word-for-word translation and can be really helpful for deeper study.

Ellen:
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your favorites with us.

Bob Page:
If I could share one other favorite tool…

Ellen:
Yes, please.

Bob Page:
Music really ministers to me when I’m studying. One thing people have told me they love about the book is that at the end of each chapter there’s a prayer, questions for reflection, journaling, or small-group discussion, and a song that fits the theme of the chapter—songs that have encouraged me during difficult times.

A wonderful friend took all of those songs and created a Spotify playlist called God Is Still for You. If you have Spotify, you can listen to those encouraging songs there.

Ellen:
Wonderful.

That’s so helpful—and yes, I loved that about the book. We’ll be sure to include a link to that playlist in our show notes as well.

And Bob, thank you so much for reminding us that even when life feels unbearably heavy, we haven’t been abandoned. Thank you.

Bob Page:
Yeah, thank you so much.

Ellen:
For anyone listening today who feels weary, may this conversation serve as a gentle nudge back toward hope. May God walk with you, carry you, and give you strength for the very next step.

Thank you for joining us. We’ll see you next time here on the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.