LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
Crisis management is a main area of concern
for all law enforcement and now the Angelina County Sheriff's office has a new
deputy to help with that need.
Last week, Sheriff Greg Sanches made it official
that reserve deputy Ford Adkins would be the first chaplain for the department.
Guns, ammunition and tasers
are all three essential when suiting up as a sheriff's deputy, but for Adkins,
he carries an extra tool, his trusted Bible.
"We are in a fallen
world with a lot of people and they need some hope," Adkins said.
Adkins has been a reserve
deputy for four years, but now the full time pastor of Cross Timbers Cowboy Church
will also be the department's chaplain thanks to Sanches vision of wanting to
set up a crisis management team.
Adkins will be used in a
support role mainly at crash sites, helping grieving families who are finding
out they just lost a loved one.
"I know as a trooper
a lot of the times, it was tough out there and it was good to have a pastor
with you, because people are upset and a pastor knows more what to say,"
Sanches said.
"I'm there for the
victims," Adkins said. "I'm able to bring some compassion and some hope to
these families, an arm around them and somebody to pray with them."
Adkins will also help with
stressful situations.
"I'm trained through
crisis intervention and I am going to speak to them through a manner to let
them know that we have all made bad mistakes and choices in life and give them
an option and a route out," Sanches said.
Adkins will also be an
asset at the jail by lending a helping hand to those looking to turn their life
around.
"God makes good of
all things," Adkins said. "The bible says all things work to the good for those who
love him and work for his purpose. He can take peoples testimonies and bad
choices and mistakes and turn them into positive things."
Changes he has already seen in his first
week.
Before Adkins
was a chaplain or deputy, he was a rodeo performer and even earned hall
of fame status.
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