Chaplain ends 8-year journey, achieves calling
U.S. Air Force Chaplain (Capt.) Kristi L. Hopp serves as a chaplain at the 182nd Airlift Wing in Peoria, Ill., pictured May 5, 2014. Hopp received ordination as a United Methodist Church minister June 6, 2014, after completing an 8-year process of education and evaluation. She first became interested in the military during a Veterans Affairs hospital internship. “The stressors that we all are under in the Guard and being deployed are different. And yeah, sometimes we come back wounded, but then that’s kind of what war does,” she said. “It might not always wound us on the outside, but it can wound us on the inside. And so, it’s a very rewarding ministry to be able to serve here.” (U.S. Air National Guard photo illustration by Staff Sgt. Lealan Buehrer/Released)