Heart & Mind
In Honor of Chaplain (CPT) Linda Norlien
by Marv Norlien
I’m writing to honor my wife Linda, an active duty U.S. Army Chaplain serving at Darnall Army Community Hospital at Ft. Hood, Texas. Her strong leadership gifts and pastoral heart make her an outstanding chaplain. She loves soldiers and their families. She cares about both their spiritual and their physical well-being and pours her heart into this ministry.
Linda and Marv Norlein Bethel Seminary played a significant role in enabling Linda to fulfill
her call to vocational Christian service through the chaplaincy. Not
only did Bethel provide the highest level of theological education, but
through the modular program (now called SemPM), made it available to
Linda in an obtainable way.
Linda has been called to ministry since she was a young Christian. We met at Oak Hills Bible Institute (now Oak Hills Christian College) in 1973 where Linda was training to be a missionary. In the years that followed, Linda was my partner in ministry and a supportive wife and mother while I fulfilled my ministerial call in both parachurch and pastoral ministry.
Through Bethel’s modular program God provided the means for Linda’s call to be fulfilled. Linda and I were privileged to be part of the first modular group, which began in the fall of 1994. At that time I was pastoring a Baptist General Conference church in Houston, Minnesota, and Linda was teaching seventh grade math at LaCrescent Middle School. Together we commuted to Bethel each Monday night for class and studied together during the rest of the week. What a privilege to walk across the platform with Linda and both receive our M.Div. degrees the same day!
When Linda was called to be an active duty Army chaplain in the summer of 1999, it was clear to me that God had spoken. I often say that Linda followed me for nearly 25 years in ministry, and now it’s my turn to follow her! Though leaving the church I loved and served for 13 years was difficult, I knew beyond a doubt that God had called Linda to the chaplaincy. Knowing and serving the Lord is my greatest joy, and my second greatest joy is the privilege of supporting Linda and her ministry.
Prior to serving as a chaplain, Linda served as an enlisted reservist and was activated for four months for Desert Storm in 1991. Her time spent as a soldier in Saudi Arabia and Iraq prepared her to understand the needs and burdens of soldiers. Her past service has included the 168th Engineer Battalion and 1-14th Cavalry Squadron at Ft. Lewis, Washington. While there she was selected for a year of residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at Madigan Army Medical Center at Ft. Lewis.
She is currently implementing her year of residency with a three-year assignment at the hospital at Ft. Hood. Because so many soldiers from Ft. Hood have been sent to Iraq, her current role, among other things, involves ministering to deploying soldiers and their families, to injured soldiers returned for recovery, and to families of soldiers who have been killed.
Linda often says that she feels so privileged to be able to fulfill her call to serve the Lord by serving the men and women of the U.S. Army. It is my privilege to say thank you to her and the other chaplains who so faithfully serve the Lord by caring for the women and men who wear the uniform. •
Marv and Linda Norlien graduated from Bethel Seminary in 1998. They live in Killeen, Texas. Marv is interim senior pastor at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Austin, Minnesota, working one week each month from his home office in Texas. Linda was awarded the Army Commendation Medal on April 14, 2005, for her ministry to more than 900 wounded soldiers who have returned to Ft. Hood.