I am employed as a Chaplain for a Retirement Community with the average age of 88 years! While many look at Chaplains from a position of: Priest, Minister or rabbi, there is actually alot more to it than that.

While those in such positions is a focus upon the Leadership of the congregation, for Chaplains, it is more a focus upon the Pastoral Care. Most of us, use the term: "A Ministry of Presence", which is very the truth! Chaplains  need to learn how to become "All things to all people", but sadly, very few actually achieve this. Whether in the Dining Room, exercising, in meetings, Art Class, couseling someone or partaking in a prayer meeting, Bible Study or worshipping, it is extremely important for a Chaplain to be part of that persons life, where these activities are very much part of people's lives! While faith & its practises are important and clerical leaders in the spiritual field, but everyone has their own perspective from how to quantify this in each of our lives ,and it is the role of the Chaplain to nuture this whole concept.

My Son: Andrew Liam Stewart, who was born in Long Beach, California on February 2nd, 2005, was someone whom I never thought would be born.I did not get married until I was 38 when it happened! Two years later, my son came along! Up to this point, I did not see my life as married or even having children, even though I wanted both! My son changed my life beyond any recognition, yet that was in fact a new path I was treading, that became an adventure everyday and continues to be so.

My son ,from the moment he was born, showed signs of being a bit of a resemblence to me.Something I was and still am happy to hear! Early on my son became the clingy individual that he truly is. He was never the crying Baby throughout the night or the child that needed attention. This continued to be part of his life and everyone around him, until he was at least 1 year old! Then it all changed! Crying in church, screaming in church, demanding to be taken out! This became the routine.

A breakthrough came in the form, of the church we had been attending, was thoughtful enough to have provided "DayCare". This seemed to be the answer, but the first few weeks saw Andrew attempting his own: "Great Escape", during which he was caught attempting to push himself under the door, if he failed actually opening it!

But after numerous weeks, he settled down and this went from a problem to total fun! With each week, he developed into the child he is today.

He is now three years old, and will tell you what "HE" wants to do, eat, etc... He is showing himself to be intelligent, bright as well as enquisitive child who hopefully is destined for a bright future.He is very opinionated and will not accept anything that is not the correct answer!

History has always been my strong subject. From my earliest memory, I always loved it! Therefore, it became a natural interest to know my own "Heritage". As someone once said: "We all come from somewhere". As I began this trail, I found my family to be rooted in the County of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire, as well as the now non-existant one of Huntingdonshire. Throughout England’s History, I found my family involved; WWII, WWI, Boar War in South Africa,the Zulu War, the growth of Victorian England, along with the Crimean War,as was well the mass Mormon Immigration to Utah, in addition to Immigration to Australia for Gold, as well the Goldfields of the West in the US as well as in South Africa. I then began flowing through the 18th century and into the 17th century, finally realizing that over the centuries, that the majority of my family had not moved more than 25 miles in any direction over a period of 300 years.But the 17th century was where I found my real sense of Roots, as I landed in Scotland; now I felt it really began to get interesting. While my:Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt Grandfather left Scotland with the King in 1619, many of them decided to stay & where still there come the Jacobite Rebellion of 1716 & 1745. I continued my trail , it passed the area of St.Andrew’s westward to the Island of Arran, where my family enjoyed their life, after leaving Northern Ireland at the time of the Great Viking Emmigration from there to Scotland, having previous left theland of Denmark in the 5th Century.

But what  have I achieved from all this research? A list of Ancestors, places & historical dates?? No!! This has formulated who I am, who my family is & why I do the things I do, react the way I do & in someways form a whole Pychological profile of myself & genealogy. Many people see the US as a melting pot of people from all corners of the world, but it is more than that; it is a rich history of where we have come from. This is substance of richness of regardless of who we are, what we do or have done in our lives, still show the value that we have.

Many of us are not very different from our Ancestors; so whether you emigrated to the US like I did, your parents did or it goes back to the Pilgrim Fathers, there is a richness of culture and history that is totally priceless.