THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605110297
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
The memory still haunts Paul Burch: Opening the container about the size of a saxophone case and tying an identification tag around a baby's ankle.
Burch's mind replays the scene as vividly as the day he investigated the case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As a father, the policeman knew he would have trouble dealing with the child's death, but that would come later - after he had removed his badge and undressed for bed.
``Once you go home and cut off the light, that's when it hits,'' said Burch, a 10-year police veteran.
To help other officers deal with such job-related stress, Burch recently started a ``church for police officers,'' a ministry to those in law enforcement fields.
Not quite a month old, the local chapter of Police Officers for Christ was organized in Suffolk, where Burch lives and works, but it has spread quickly to other departments. The nonprofit, nondenominational organization is open to any sworn personnel, clerical staff or other employees in police, sheriff's and correctional departments and jails in Hampton Roads.
Police officers say those who haven't walked in their shoes can't understand what it's like to kill someone. Or watch a fellow officer die in a shootout. Or feel a bullet tear through a shoulder. Or knock on someone's door to say a family member has been killed.
Most civilians don't know what it's like to leave home in the morning, not knowing whether they will be alive at the end of the shift, said Burch, 38. He couldn't take such risks without knowing where he would spend eternity.
``To go out there where people have guns and shots are being fired, you have got to have that issue settled,'' he said. ``I couldn't put on my gun and badge and go to work if I didn't know where I would be if I didn't come home at night.''
But Police Officers for Christ is also a ministry by the officers.
The members will go to local churches to tell about the ministry and give testimony to their faith.
``We'll let them see we are human, that we've been through what they've been through,'' Burch said. ``It makes a difference when they see us coming in the community. They'll say, `Oh, yeah. He came to my church.' ''
Burch believes the organization should help with the department's image.
``We're not just a gun and a badge,'' he said.
The ministry has several purposes.
``The main goals are to minister to the police officer who is hurting, to minister to those who aren't Christian and to glorify the Lord, Jesus Christ,'' he said.
The members will set up a 24-hour telephone hot line for officers - members or not - who need to talk. They will visit sick or injured officers or families of those killed in the line of duty. They will circulate a list of Christian books and materials that members are willing to lend others.
They will provide motivational and instructional speakers at monthly meetings and circulate a newsletter to help members stay in touch when they cannot attend.
And they will be trained to support one another or to direct a member to get help with a specific need.
For Burch, Police Officers for Christ solved a dilemma.
A Sunday school teacher at Liberty Baptist Church, he wanted to do more and considered trading his uniform for a pastor's robe. Yet, he struggled with what he felt was a calling to full-time ministry. He believed he was a good investigator and had skills that were useful to the department.
One, then another of his fellow officers turned to him for advice on marital problems because they knew he was a Christian.
``I had an opportunity to minister to these police officers,'' he said. ``God was just pointing me in a direction. I thought, `Maybe this means I need to get out of this and go into the ministry full time.' ''
He talked with his pastor, the Rev. T.A. Powell, who told him he thought there was ``a real mission field in the Police Department,'' Burch said.
Burch's wife, Stephanie - also a police officer - reminded him that a training officer several years earlier had given him some literature on Police Officers for Christ.
By the time a third co-worker asked his advice, his call had become more specific.
``I felt God put them in my path to say, `You can do full-time Christian service; you don't have to leave,' '' Burch said.
Once he realized he could keep his badge and the cross, he was filled with peace.
``Everything started to fit into place, like a jigsaw puzzle,'' he said.
One of the officers he had helped and who knew he was considering leaving the department later told him, ``I had been praying for about a week, asking God that you would stay,'' he said.
Burch contacted the organizers of Police Officers for Christ in New York, where the movement started 17 years ago. Three New York leaders immediately flew down for a weekend and helped organize the Hampton Roads chapter.
Other chapters have been formed in Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Burch said the New Yorkers insisted that he should be president.
``They told me, `You're the one with the burden, the one who called us,' '' he said.
Interest has spread quickly. Nearly 20 Suffolk officers have joined or asked for an application. That's nearly a fifth of the department, Burch said.
``People I never heard of are coming to me and asking about joining,'' he said. ``A guy from Norfolk called Saturday. It has just spread like wild fire.''
He hopes to contact officers in all area police departments to let them know they have a place to turn, knowing that they will be understood and that their problems will be kept confidential.
``That's what we're there for,'' Burch said. MEMO: For more information, call Paul Burch at 925-6350 or page him at
925-5005. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II, The Virginian-Pilot
Paul Burch says his Suffolk ministry, not quite a month old, has
quickly spread.
by CNB