WEBVTT

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My favorite things about being in

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chaplaincy is the people . Here's the

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truth . If you don't have people , you

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don't have ministry . I am chaplain

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Brandon Stewart . I'm out of the four

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25th air base squadron in Izmir Turkey .

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I do a lot of counseling , preaching ,

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teaching , advising . And ultimately ,

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when you see this big smile here , my

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job is to keep people excited and

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energetic about life and living . So

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that's as a chaplain , that's

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ultimately , my job is keeping excited

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about the mission , the goal and doing

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the best that they could do . It is

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really hard to be a chaplain and not be

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embedded inside of being spiritual ,

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right ? Spirituality is who I am . I

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mean , I'm passionate , I love energy .

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I'm fiery . I'm excited . But people

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are always like , where , how do you

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wake up so much energy ? Where does

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that come from ? That's because I truly

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believe in my spiritual faith . I

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believe in the power of God and it

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impacts me because as much as I'm

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preaching and teaching , I have to

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swallow the pill of practicing what I

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preach . I can't give advice and talk

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to other people without being able to

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take in that advice and be able to

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model it for myself . So each and every

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day , whether it's waking up in the

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morning , um reflecting going to bed at

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night , I mean , literally , even with

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my family , my family is someone who

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keeps me to the core of you can't come

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around and give us advice if you're not

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being able to do it yourself . So it

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impacts me because it , the

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spirituality , not just a Sunday

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worship thing , it's a lifestyle , it's

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a calling . It's a everyday experience .

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And so it is who I am and what I do .

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So I couldn't wake up and be a chaplain

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just because of the title . It's what I

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am . I remember coming to work one day

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and I come in and the Turkish um

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individuals , they don't speak any

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English , but this one particular

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individual , uh they're always smiling

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when they came in . They had a frown on

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their face and I knew something was up .

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And so before I even came into work , I

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pulled out my phone and I went to my

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translation app because I may not know

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the Turkish language , but I knew

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something was wrong and I started to

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translate , hey , I don't know what

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happened last night , but I need you to

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get that smile back on your face and it

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translated into the Turk and she

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immediately went , she gave me that

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smile . I go listen just because I

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can't speak your language I know when

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something's going on . If something's

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not right . She gave me that little

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roll in her eyes face . I said , listen ,

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listen , I'm here for you too . Look

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whatever it is . I want you to know

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your smile determines your outcome .

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That makes your day . You got to be

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ready and you gotta be determined that

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you put a smile on your face and you

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let whatever happened , you know that

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you can defeat whatever is by starting

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with a smile . And it was unique in

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that experience . That person just

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started smiling , lighting up and

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realizing you may be in another country ,

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but you can use different technology

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experiences , things that you have to

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work with , not just our American Army

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Air Force NATO individuals , but

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sometimes you can also inspire their

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those that are different just by

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thinking outside the box and being able

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to make the total environment of even

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our local nationals realize I'm not

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just a chaplain for us . I'm a chaplain

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for everybody .