{"id":200,"date":"2026-04-16T15:18:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=200"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:18:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:18:40","slug":"hospitality-on-the-front-lines-the-ministry-of-being-seen-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=200","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality on the front lines: The Ministry of Being Seen, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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he Once Lived Among the Dead. Now He Serves the Living on the Margins.<\/h2>
Bob is a volunteer chaplain who delivers the gospel to strangers at funerals\u2013 the rare moments when hope and life is presented amid grief and death.It\u2019s a role he was born to play, having grown up in a funeral home in Schaefferstown in the 1960s and 70s.His father owned Clauser Funeral Home, where right outside his door was so much life \u2013 he compared it to the nostalgic Rob Reiner film \u201cStand by Me\u201d \u2013 endless summer days and adventures with over 25 other kids who lived on that street who would play at the ballfield until the street lights came on.\u200bAnd yet, the echoes of death were always present. Bob would have conversations about his soccer and basketball games with his father who was in the next room embalming a body in the morgue. He looked up to his father, a steady presence for others experiencing the profound depths of grief on their worse days.\u00a0<\/div>
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Bob helped in the family business by driving a hearse, or lending a hand at Amish and Mennonite funerals.One time a pastor was preaching at a funeral and Bob, 16 years old at the time, went into the basement to see if there were cookies, as he\u2019s come to expect at these things.But his father, in his wisdom, had other ideas.\u201cHe said, sit down upstairs and take in some spiritual food,\u201d Bob said. \u201cI was 16. I thought, \u2018what do you mean?\u2019 Now I know what he was talking about.\u201d\u200bFast-forward 50 years, and you\u2019ll find Bob sitting down providing spiritual food to LCCM\u2019s free noon meal guests.He first came to LCCM through Calvary Chapel\u2019s School of Ministry program during the pandemic in 2020.\u00a0<\/div> <\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\u200bHe spent his days \u2013 sometimes 5 days a week – at the door as a greeter \u2013 providing \u00a0the same steady presence that his father did to grieving families all those years ago.At the time, LCCM shifted to take-outs, and more than 200 people would pick up meals each day. In 2021, the meal shifted back inside the dining room.\u200bWhether it was take-outs or dining in, Bob made it a point to know everyone by name here. Bob breaks the bread and the ice with people who were once strangers that he now calls friends. His ability to remember names is impressive. On any given day, 130 people filter in and out of the dining hall in an hour.\u00a0<\/div>
He either jots down names, prayers and details about a person down in his tiny notebook or will write a person\u2019s name on his hands. Knowing a person\u2019s name is of the utmost importance for this local street evangelist.\u201cThe sweetest sound in someone\u2019s ears is when someone calls your name,\u201d he said.Bob heard Jesus call his name May 3, 2013.Today, his heart overflows with grace, mercy and forgiveness.But before that day, his heart was filled with hate, bitterness and unforgiveness.What began as an outlet, turned into a counterfeit god.His love of sports became his identity.\u201cSports was my god with a lower case \u2018g\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cPerformance, and my dad\u2019s approval.\u201d\u200bForty years ago, Bob, nicknamed \u2018Buggs\u2019 \u00a0received notoriety when ELCO won its first state title in soccer. In his senior year of high school, Bob earned a scholarship to Temple to be the Owls\u2019 placekicker.<\/div> <\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>
He was so good, in fact, that he received a call from the Philadelphia Eagles who were looking for a kicker.But by that time, his heart felt a different tug \u2013 he wanted to get married. He told the Eagles to give him two weeks to think about it, but they filled the position in that time.A month later, Bob married and went on to have three children.But inner turmoil caused him to walk away from his family in 1990.Bob\u2019s early life had been marked by physical death.But like the elements\u2019 eroding away a rock over time, Bob slowly experienced an emotional and spiritual \u00a0death over decades.That is until Jesus called his name.Bob had been watching a lengthy series on the History Channel about the bible. Something inside of him clicked, and for the first time, he got on his knees and prayed.\u201cI saw the first episode and, I just \u2026 it was time,\u201d he said. \u201cI hit my knees and thanked the lord and received Christ. The next morning, when I got on the phone, at the end of every conversation I said \u201cGod bless you\u201d to everyone.\u00a0 I got crickets, quiet, or \u2018amen brother,\u2019 but this is what I feel I want to do.\u201dThe gospel offers forgiveness and redemption where none should be found.For Bob, that place was his daughter.Thirty years had passed.When they finally stood face to face, she asked him a question that carried the weight of all that time:\u201cDo you know who I am?\u201dHe did.\u201cI sinned against God,\u201d he said. \u201cI sinned against you. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?\u201dIt is a particular kind of vulnerability\u2014to ask for forgiveness without any guarantee it will be given.She cried.\u201cYes,\u201d she said.And just like that, something long buried\u2014something he had carried like a quiet death\u2014was made alive again.God had quietly begun the resurrection work of the gospel in Bob\u2019s life.Having spent years working in a dementia unit in Landis Homes in Lancaster County, God laid on his heart to enter into Calvary Chapel\u2019s School of Ministry, a program that trains people to become humble servants, developing the needed tools so they may become effective in ministry and grow in their own personal walk with Jesus.To join this program, he would have to enter Calvary\u2019s Uturn program, a discipleship program where Bob discovered some past hurts and habits that have kept him stuck, and prepared his heart for service to others.Fast forward to today, and Bob says God given him a second chance at family life after remarrying, becoming a husband to Alexandra and becoming a stepfather to his stepdaughter, who is an adult with autism.Through this program and his work with dementia patients, Bob discovered his passion for the ministry of presence and evangelism on the streets of Lebanon. \u00a0There was a time when Bob walked among the physically dead.Now, he walks among the \u201cinvisible people\u201d the world has learned not to see\u2014the overlooked, the wounded, the ones standing just outside the edges.And he does something so simple.\u200bHe calls them by name.\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>
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he Once Lived Among the Dead. Now He Serves the Living on the Margins. Bob is a volunteer chaplain who delivers the gospel to strangers at funerals\u2013 the rare moments when hope and life is presented amid grief and death. It\u2019s a role he was born to play, having grown up in a funeral home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}