I have more than one “passion”. One is connected to my pasttime involving Celtic and folk music & performing same. Overall, I believe my passion is to be a “Jesus” person to others. I want to follow Jesus’s example of relating to others. A past training I’ve had has been instrumental in this. It’s called Stephen Ministry, and it began for me back in the 70′s. A Lutheran pastor and psychologist, Kenneth Haugk, was concerned that pastors could not always keep up with their congregants in times of stress or crisis. He developed the Stephen Series to train lay persons as “peer counselors”. I and others in my former church, took the training and were commissioned as “Stephen Ministers”. Afterwards we accepted assignments given by Pastor to meet with a person who requested one of us to meet on a regular basis. Our training included developing active listening skills and avoidance of trying to “fix” the other person with unsolicited advice, etc. Our purpose was mainly to “hang with” the person, listen actively, respond appropriately without judgement, and to be a “friend” during a difficult time. Later, I also was priviliged to take a Stephen Leadership course which was held at then N. TX State Univ. in Denton (now Univ. of N. TX). Presently, I am not active as a Stephen Minister or Leader as my present church is not in the program. However, those of us who become Stephen Ministers tend to have the same view that “once a Stephen Minister always a Stephen Minister.” The skills learned carry over and we try to use them in our regular lives. I still occasionally come across people who either became Stephen Ministers through their church or know about the program.