Off to Channel God’s Glory in the Air Force

On September 20, 2023, alumna Tiffany Winfree celebrated her commissioning into the U.S. Air Force as an officer in a special ceremony held at the Regent University Fountain. Winfree graduated with her Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in 2018, and she’s worked as a hospice chaplain in the Virginia Beach, Virginia, area for the past few years.

Today, Winfree is taking the next big step in the plan God has for her by entering the Air Force, where she’ll be offering personalized pastoral care and spiritual guidance to our nation’s airmen and airwomen. Her commissioning had been a long time coming, but it was the Lord who ultimately made the decision for her to enter the chaplaincy’s ranks.

“There was never a desire within me to go into the military to become a chaplain,” Winfree admitted. But in 2011, she felt called by the Lord to enter into ministry, and the call to become a chaplain in the military was further confirmed after she met a mysterious stranger at a local park while praying about her future.

“A man approached me and said to me, ‘I want you to know that God hears you when you pray.’ The man explained that he was just at church and that he was led to the park that day. He said he’s a military chaplain. That moment really changed the trajectory of my life,” Winfree recalled.

Although Winfree attempted to apply for the candidate program in 2016 and was initially disqualified, she stayed on the path God outlined for her and persevered, completing her M.Div. degree and gaining valuable work experience as a hospice chaplain.

Winfree first enrolled at Regent while working as a prayer counselor nearby at CBN, and she attended as both an undergraduate and a graduate.

“God would tell me, ‘I want you to learn everything you can about encouragement because you’re going to encourage my people.’ One day, God told me I was going to preach the Word of God all over the world,” Winfree said.

As a student, she got the opportunity to do just that, engaging in missionary work in major cities across the country. “I felt very blessed to have those opportunities. At one time, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to go to university, so to even step foot on the campus was amazing,” she added.

To this day, Winfree still keeps in touch with Dr. Mark Jumper, Director of Chaplaincy & Military Affairs, and she has fond memories of her time at Regent.

“I have experienced nothing less than a world-class education here at Regent. Every class, from the collection of books to the curriculum, is top-notch. I love Regent. I’d be a student for life,” she laughed.

Winfree secured an internship at a hospice while studying at Regent, which jump-started her career in hospice chaplaincy. Since working in that role, Winfree has visited nursing facilities and patient homes, acting as a vessel to the Spirit of the Lord for people during their last days in the earthly realm.

The position was challenging, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and having her own grandmother in hospice care, but it also helped her grow both professionally and in her faith.

Winfree had this to say of her time working in hospice: “God needed me to confront death, to confront what families go through leading up to that. It is very meaningful. We go to a lot of nursing homes, and it comes down to just being there for patients. Sometimes patients don’t have families. It involves a lot of prayer and scripture readings. But it isn’t always sad, and sometimes you can really lift up their spirits and encourage them.”

She also quoted Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you,” as being a source of inspiration for her patients, including those who may have drifted from their faith.

While Winfree did much good as a hospice chaplain, she is excited about the unique opportunity that God has created for her in the military, where she’ll be providing mentorship and counseling to a very different group of individuals while still acting as a beacon of light. She went on to describe how there can sometimes be a stigma around mental health services in the military and how chaplaincy can function as a safer alternative for soldiers. 

For now, Winfree plans to just bask in the glory and bliss of her brand-new title, Lieutenant.

“It’s like reaching a breakthrough; you’ve been having faith for so long and you’ve been pushing yourself to a destination for so long, and then it’s finally here. When I got the phone call that I was accepted into the Air Force Chaplain Corps, it was just amazing,” she concluded. 

To learn more about Regent’s chaplaincy program, visit https://www.regent.edu/program/mdiv-chaplain-ministry/.