Sherry Vokoun-FNW Alumnus

Sherry Vokoun ::

While I was still in seminary I became my mother’s caregiver for almost a year. She had developed dementia and had to be moved from Arizona to Silverdale in order to be near me, and my family.  She passed away in February of 2008 and after the acute grieving process I decided to do a chaplaincy internship at Harborview that following fall. During that first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (C.P.E.) I clearly felt God’s call to ministry in chaplaincy.  After retiring from my nurse practitioner practice in Silverdale, in the fall of 2009, I was back at Harborview, this time for a one year C.P.E. residency. It was a transformative year to say the least. When spring arrived I found myself applying for chaplain positions across the West Coast. St. Joseph and Mt. Carmel Hospitals in Chewelah and Colville interviewed me in June and I began work there on August 30^th.  My husband and I have relocated to our new community, purchased a home and are settling into our new church family, Chewelah United Church of Christ. Although there are no Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) congregations in our immediate vicinity, the Presbytery of Seattle will ordain me on February 6^th as PCUSA Minister of Word and Sacrament to serve the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest in my current role as hospital chaplain. God has been faithful and has blessed this long journey through seminary, cancer, deaths, marriage and grandkids.