Reading: Video Transcript: Understanding Life on the Road

🚛 Life on the Road: Ministry Among Truck Drivers

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Welcome back. Today, we're going to talk about life on the road. Yes, you know, in some ways, before we get started, the reality is, life on the road is not for everyone.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
No, it's not, no, there's a fact. I talked to a driver the other day. He's been driving less than a year, and he goes, but I got to tell you, it's not for me. He says, I already have my exit strategy. Okay?

Speaker 1 (Henry):
So first, clearly, as you minister to people, this issue of life on the road is a daily truth, right?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
It is a daily truth. The romanticism of life on the road, especially back a few years, seems good, you know, you watch the old trucking movies and all that kind of—

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Yeah, wheels, yeah? So that is that. So let's talk very specifically now: understand the world of truckers. Truckers live between destinations, always moving, yet often unseen. Their world is filled with long hours, heavy loads, and deep stories. I'm interested to ask you about the deep stories—chaplains bring the steady presence of Christ into their world.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
I like the way you worded that—steady presence, you know, that's the optimal idea of the chaplain present at the truck stop. It's that steady presence, because a lot of the trucker's world is not steady. They've got deadlines. They've got dispatchers, you know, pushing them to get there. They've got, you know, other people calling, “When you're going to be there?” They've got home issues they're dealing with. And you know, pretty soon the loneliness—the loneliness breeds temptation, fatigue, all that kind of stuff—and pretty soon they can be living in a very unsteady world inside that cab. So the steady presence of a chaplain is so important.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
So let's dive into the world of the trucker. Life on the road means long hours and tight schedules. Every day is a balance between endurance and purpose. God goes before every trucker who calls on His name—Yahweh Himself goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. So is that true?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Absolutely. He does go before the truck driver. The truck drivers, as they're going in the course of a day, they're facing all kinds of traffic. They're facing all kinds of—like I said—issues outside of the truck, issues inside of the truck. And they're tired. They're dealing with it all. They're dealing with it in a professional way. A lot of people just look at a trucker and just think it's an obstacle that's in their way on the road, and they don't think about the driver being a human being inside. And when I do ministry presentations, I like to bring that aspect in. And I've had many people say, "My whole outlook has changed. Now when I see a trucker out there, I don't get mad at him—I pray for him." So we appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Wow, that is powerful. So the culture of the road—truckers have their own language. Hold on a second. You guys have your own language?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Not as much anymore, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Your own humor. Your own code. Is there a code there?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Yeah. You know, the idea of being a professional, the idea of being a gentleman or, you know, lady in a good sense of the road—projecting the image of a professional truck driver—should be the idea of every trucker out there. This is something we try to promote, we try to encourage them when we talk to them, and just try to remind them that they're appreciated, that what they're doing is a good, good thing to do and a good job.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
So respect opens doors more than preaching. Is that still true?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Absolutely. Everybody wants to be respected. The driver wants to be respected, because there's a lot of times he feels, you know, that he's just at the bottom of the hill and everything has been rolling down on him—him or her, right? And they want to be respected. And when they come into a mobile chapel, we respect them. We treat them like, you know, somebody special. Why? Because Jesus loves them. He respects them, and so we respect them. And the love of Jesus, you know, flows through us, and we want to encourage them. We want them to feel inspected—respected.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Listen deeply before offering advice and Scripture. You mentioned in the last presentation that a lot of times people think they want to go into truck stop chaplaincy to preach at the local chapel, but you made the point that listening deeply and ministering is a bigger deal.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
It is. God's given us two ears and one mouth. And I think that's definite. For a chaplain, you can go out there and you can begin preaching and talking—and some do—to a driver, and maybe what you're saying is good, but the driver has had nobody to really open up to. Been talked to. And a lot of times when they come in, they'll come in with a facade. They want to talk politics or sports or something like that, rather than showing the real reason they came in. So when you listen with your physical ears, and when you listen with your heart—with the Holy Spirit—you hear what they're really saying. They want to be heard.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Wow, that's so powerful. Let's talk next about the weight of loneliness. So isolation can be heavy after weeks away from family. You mentioned that earlier. Every driver carries hidden stories and silent pain. God places the lonely in communities through caring chaplains, and I love that passage from Psalm 68:6: God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing. So the weight of loneliness—

Speaker 2 (Monte):
It's a pretty heavy weight. When they're out there going through traffic issues in the wintertime, they're chaining up, and then they're cold and everything like that, and the different issues. But the bottom line is, the buck stops with the driver. The driver is the captain of the ship. The driver is responsible for everything that goes on, ultimately. So they carry that weight, and they do it by themselves. You know, the Christian ones—hopefully—remember they're not alone. They remember Jesus is with them, but they're by themselves. So they carry that weight. And when they stop for the night at a truck stop, they're worn out sometimes. And so we want to be there to help them, to bear that burden with them, to lift it up.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Faith and fatigue. Fatigue weakens the body and faith alike. Rest is not laziness—it’s worship and trust. Invite drivers to find rest in Christ Himself. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you see that interconnection of faith and fatigue?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Yeah. A lot of times when a driver is really fatigued, you're looking for something to unwind with or to relieve that fatigue. And if you're not careful, that fatigue can lead to temptation. That can lead to doing things you may not really want to do, but because you're looking for something and you're tired and you're just doing it. And that's—that’s very important. He gives us rest. Jesus gives us rest. And the chaplain is there to help redistribute, I guess, if you will, the fatigue—to where it needs to be—the reliance on Jesus.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
And we're going to talk about this in this class as well as we go forward. This is sort of a new thing people have been talking about recently—mental and emotional health. Depression, anxiety, fear often travel unseen. A kind word or prayer can break isolation’s hold. Christ is near to the brokenhearted. Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart and saves those who have a crushed spirit. Have you seen the mental health crisis on the road?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Yeah, there are some drivers and others that we have run into. We run into homeless as well, and some of the issues they're going through are probably mental issues, you know, and we can try to help them. We can listen to them. We can tell them about Jesus and His love and how He can change, you know, the stories of the demon-filled people in the Bible and whatnot. And Jesus, of course, you know, there's nothing Jesus can't handle, and that's what we try to bring across.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Have you intersected with people who clearly had mental health issues that either were undiagnosed or they're on medications? And how does a chaplain—in a sense, this is also a ministry sciences type of thing—we're studying how, in a lot of ways, a truck driver is not going to see a therapist, but the closest representative of someone is going to be a truck stop chaplain. And we have to know our boundaries, that we're not therapists, but on the other hand, we may be the only connection to somebody healthy that they might come upon.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Again, it goes back to listening. Listening to their words, but listening beyond their words too—to what's going on in their heart—and to realize, at least to them, their struggles are real. You know, we might not think what they're going through is a big deal, but they might think what they're going through is a big deal, right? And so we need to approach it that way. We need to get where they are, basically.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Do you find that these mental health struggles—just, I know it's just from your observation—but do you find more of that happening today than, let's say, in the 1980s and 90s? I mean, because in the news, there's a lot of discussion about mental health and emotional health. Do you see that to be true?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Emotional health? Not so much mental with the drivers.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Okay, so it's emotional health. And what would be an example of that? Would it be like anger or depression?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Again, it goes back to the previous slide—fatigue. You know, when you're fatigued, your emotions don't function maybe like they should. You're more apt to go with anger or go with being upset or crying or, you know, whatever. And guys don't like to be seen when they're crying. So, but we're—I tell them all the time, you know—your tears are fine. You know, Jesus wept. You know, we wept. We weep. God gave us those tears for a reason.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
So what you're saying is, we don't shame emotion.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
We don't shame emotion one bit. Nope.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Okay, I mean, I think that's very powerful. We don't shame emotion—it is real—and God meets us where we are.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
God is emotional. We're made in His image. We have emotions. That’s okay.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Let's talk about the family and distance thing. Distance can strain marriages and parenting. Prayer and regular connection nurture families from afar. Faith bridges miles through love and remembrance. "I thank my God whenever I remember you, always in every request of mine on behalf of you, making my request with joy." So family ties—so here, let's talk about this. How big is the at-home family in connection to the trucker and the need for ministry?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
It's big, and it's hard. It's hard for the driver when they're on the road because they want to be there, they want to help the family, they want to do—but they're not there. So whether it's talking to your son or daughter—you know, respect your mom, behave, do the things, you know—you know, trying to be dad from a distance. Trying to be husband from a distance isn't easy, because you're not there. You don't see the daily things that go on, you know, within the family. And then when you get home, mom does it this way, the kids do it this way, this is the way they do it—and you're kind of the outsider, even when you're home. Even though you're dad, or even though you're mom, you're still the outsider. And it's hard. And you take that feeling of being the outsider and not understanding that and the burden it brings with you back on the road.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
I would imagine that this is a large piece of it—just listening and ministering and caring. Do you have—like, over the years—have you, especially when you have truck drivers who come in and come to your truck stop chapel on a regular basis, you start to get to know them as people, and do you even pay attention to—even if you've not met the spouse—like, "Hey, so how is Emily doing?" Do you—do you know? So you actually, in a sense, get a parish. One of the things we talk about here at Christian Leaders Alliance is that the word parish is an old word, but in the early Christian church, parish meant a sojourn. So you actually took these early Christian ministers—they would say, "Where’s your parish going to be?" "Bithynia." They would go up there, and they would create, and then eventually the Catholic Church created churches. They called them parishes. But in a sense, the oldest understanding of the word very much fits a truck stop chaplain. You're taking ministry, you know, to these places, but then you're taking ministry to these families, even if you've not even met Emily, so to speak. In a sense, she at home is in your parish, because Jason is here in your presence. Does that dynamic continue to work?

Speaker 2 (Monte):
It does. You know, just asking them how their family is doing—if we have a chance to get to know them, which is rare if they're from another state—we try to do that. One thing I want to be able to do is to go to hospital chaplains, and I don't know what the HIPAA and all that kind of stuff—yeah—if they have a truck driver in the hospital, if they would let us know, and we could come in. That way, we could be the liaison to their family. "Hi, I’m Chaplain Monty with Truck Stop Ministries. I’m here with your husband. You know, we’re visiting him." And, you know, so that they can know there’s somebody that cares about him.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
Well, and I know one thing—when you're ordained and you have your ordination card—it allows you to go into hospitals as a clergy member. And this is actually—it’s interesting, we talk about women ordination. One of the reasons that we really, like, empower women to be ordained as chaplains—even if the church or ministry doesn’t—is they get that ordination recognition with that card, with that ordination thing for like hospitals and visiting. And even chaplains are both sexes.

Speaker 2 (Monte):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (Henry):
It has—it, because it has that same type of thing. I've heard some stories with some—we’ve had students who went on to become truck stop chaplains. So I’ll share some of their stories, because I’ve talked to them. And—and one of the things they talk about is like, there’s accident scenes, and then with a clergy card, they’ve often been welcomed by the—you know—the EMS and the professionals too. There's a big accident, they need help of just calm, you know. Maybe we might talk about this later in the course, but it’s that type of thing you’re talking about here.

Speaker 2:
I had a truck driver walk out of the restaurant one night, and on his way back to the truck, he just drop down dead. Yep, just, you know, had a big heart attack, so I happened to be there. And of course, we don't try to get in. And, you know, we stay back and stay out of their way, but try to calm who we can. And, yep, you know, if we can assist in any way, or if we can help talking to the family, or whatever, we're there to do it, that's—

Speaker 1:
Right, very powerful. So let's talk about faith on the highway. Faith travels further than we imagine, and that's that whole concept of parish sojourn. Truckers can worship and pray anywhere. Chaplains bring church to the road, and in this case, we're just talking about two families.
So my word that goes forth out of my mouth, it will not return void, but it will accomplish to which I've—to what, which I please, and it will prosper to the things I said it to do.

Speaker 1:
Stories from the road. Every driver has a story. Every story can reveal God's grace. Testimonies can strengthen faith and disarm cynicism. Truck Stop chaplains become altars of transformation. Now you mentioned before stories and we read in Revelations. They overcame them because of the lamb's blood and because of the word of their testimony. So, testimony story.
So let's talk about chaplains and stories. How does that work? Do you get them talking? Do you even ask them what's your story?

Speaker 2:
I do, okay, because you know when you know their story, it's a better way to understand them. Okay, they're welcome to ask me my story, because something about my story may touch their lives, what they're going through. Just because we're chaplains doesn't mean, you know, we've walked on water for years. You know, like you said, we leak oil too.

Speaker 1:
But do you feel free to comfortably tell them a few of your own leaking oil stories, so that they know that you relate. How do you—how do you do that balance? Because on some levels in ministry, we'll want to be clearly in Christ, filled by grace. On one level, there's that dynamic of—you don't like—one of the chaplaincies I have is a—which is not close to truck driving chaplaincy, but in my country club. I'm an avid Abigail for, so my nickname is Rev. So a lot of times I have to—you know that—the vernacular sometimes when people miss a shot is pretty bad. I don't have that vernacular when I miss a shot and all that.
But the point I'm making is, you know, there is that—how do you relate? Because if you're—if you come off too holier-than-thou, then they don't want to talk to you about anything, right? You know, my dad, who is a truck driver, would say—you know, and I would go with on trips, and sometimes the language even around a young child. I was young, you know, in the cab with them, it was, again, there was my dad's leaking oil thing.
My dad, I saw, had sort of like—he would—he would have a vernacular that they could understand, but not a vernacular that crossed the line into dishonoring God. Like he said these words. You don't use this one's okay in this context, but never in anger. I mean, my dad had this whole—is that true? My dad onto something there?

Speaker 2:
I think so. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's categories for everything. I guess you could say—

Speaker 1:
Okay, so you can, like, you can say this word, but you know, like—I'll get a—I'll give you an example. My dad says, whatever. Do not use the word damn or GD, yeah, okay. In whatever you talk with people, there might be an occasional another word, but he had—says that word again. When I'm listening to him as a—he was ministering to truckers and all that—he had a clear ethic of language. Is that a thing?

Speaker 2:
It is.
You know, I wish I didn't—I wish I'd never learned a lot of the words that are still with me, correct? And sometimes when I'm stressed or mad, you know, they're there, right? But yet, there's a—there's a—and I'm not saying there's a time to use them, but there's a time when they come forth, and I fight using them, and then there's the time to not use them at all, right? But that's part of being human. I think that's part of the leak in oil, and that's a way to tell them, I go through the same struggles, right?

Speaker 1:
So, so even when you're ministering, if one of those words come out, that could be an opportunity of testimony.

Speaker 2:
It could.

Speaker 1:
So instead of feeling of shame about—yeah, I still think, well, there—but you know what? You know—

Speaker 2:
Yeah, a lot of times they'll use it and then they say, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's all right. I have that on the golf course all the time, sorry. Rev, you know. Then I say, oh, you know what? It's how you respond.

Speaker 2:
Exactly. Makes a huge difference.

Speaker 1:
That's it right there. It's how you respond. If you—if you shame them when they do it, you're going to shut them down.

Speaker 2:
Yes, yes, you know, I'll be transparent. There's a few people that—that, unless I use one of those sort of words, and again, I won't use Damn, right, but if I don't occasionally slip in a word in a best possible context, they won't talk to me at all.

Speaker 1:
Right, okay, so there is that God-glorifying fine line for ministry where you're not being the Indians, but you are still, in a sense, understanding you can relate to them. You can relate to them, you know. And when I say Indians, I'm not disrespectful to the American people, yeah, but you know. But again, even words like that, I think there's a good example—if you say a politically incorrect road word, oh, I don't mean that that way, you know. I meant, you know—because I would imagine you're in the crossroads of real people dealing with real issues—

Speaker 2:
Here, yeah, absolutely, yep.
And there it's—it's not perfection, no. I mean, even our presentation won't have that perfection. I'll say something—but real ministry is like that, right?

Speaker 1:
And you learn. In as you do it. You know that's the best teacher, because that's when you're coming across that crossroads. That's when you're there.

Speaker 1:
The chaplain's listening ear, very important. Listen. Build trust before belief. When we hear God's people's pain, we make space for God's voice. Silence can be the soil where faith grows.

Speaker 1:
The last slide here in this presentation, truckers carry goods, chaplains carry grace. Every mile matters, because God is already on the road ahead. Go with courage, compassion and a listening ear, praise God, until next time.

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