UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook patient care technician Eleanor Charp did not expect to see Philip Garcia, physical therapist at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook, at her first Spiritual Ambassador training in March 2026. When the group started to discuss what supporting love, joy, peace and healing looks like in the work environment, Charp said, “I wanted everybody to know he is a child of God. I had to tell the story of the care [Philip] gives.”
Garcia had been Charp’s mother’s physical therapist when she was hospitalized with dementia toward the end of her life. Garcia did more than just address her mother’s physical needs. He also recognized and empathized with her emotional and spiritual needs and provided compassion and support at a time when her mother was ill and struggling physically and cognitively.
“I don’t just make the patient walk or exercise,” Garcia said. “I make sure they are well taken care of from point A to point B. Being an ambassador is a bridge. It enriches and empowers me to do more than mobility.”
While Garcia guided Charp’s mother through physical therapy, he also sat and talked with her.
“It’s just his heart. He’s sincere, patient and calm,” Charp said. “I think that’s what it is. He’s the calm in the middle of the storm.
“When you have a parent with dementia and you’re their caregiver, one little second of some peace or joy means everything. So just time that he gave that I could have peace and know that she’s okay, she’s in good hands, it meant everything.”
The genuine care he provided meant so much, in fact, that it inspired Charp to become a Spiritual Ambassador as well.
Embracing Prayer as a Path to Healing and Hope
The Spiritual Ambassadors Program at AdventHealth launched 20 years ago. Today, more than 200 ambassadors across the Great Lakes Region serve remotely, at outpatient clinics, hospital settings and in the administrative offices providing an extra layer of whole-person care to peers, patients and families.
“Our organization not only says we provide whole-person care but also supplies and equips people who want to be that extra empathetic listening person or shoulder to cry on. It’s not about witnessing so much as about ‘with’-nessing — listening, providing a safe space, being with each other,” said Heather Hoffman, regional director of clinical mission integration at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth.
Spiritual ambassadors receive training on how to connect with others on a relational level. If a peer or patient needs extra support, a spiritual ambassador is empowered to initiate a conversation, which sometimes leads to prayer. Not all spiritual ambassadors are Christian, Hoffman said, but they are all united in their call to show up for others in an authentic, empathetic way.
“Anybody, regardless of their faith tradition, can get behind the concepts of fostering love, joy and peace,” said Hoffman. “Plenty find their own way to connect on that spiritual level and to bring hope, meaning and purpose in people’s lives.”
Peter Marino learned about the Spiritual Ambassador Program when he started as the UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook urology team’s practice manager about a year ago. A devout Catholic, Marino was drawn to AdventHealth’s mission and becoming a spiritual ambassador has given him an opportunity to bring faith back to his entire office. Under his leadership, his team now starts each morning with a reflection or quote about God.
“We offer each other up in prayer. If we need to stop and pray for somebody, we do it,” Marino said. “It gives each of us an opportunity to sit and reflect not only on our coworkers but also to know that God is working through each and every one of us.”
Marino views the Spiritual Ambassador Program not only as a benefit to his team but also to their patients, many of whom welcome the invitation to share their vulnerability and experience.
“In That Moment, We Cannot Pass”
Cecilia Cruz, a certified medical assistant in one of the primary care offices at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook, has personally experienced medical trauma and understands what it’s like to be on the brink of death. In those life-or-death moments, care for the spirit is as necessary, if not more, as care for the body and the mind, she said. Cruz has worked with patients who have lost children, spouses and best friends. When a peer was going through something traumatic, Cruz pulled everyone together around them to pray.
Being a spiritual ambassador feels like part of her calling. “Having faith in those moments is really critical,” she said. “A lot of patients feel drained and scared. Having the opportunity to meet them there pulls all of us together to realize we’re not alone. We can step through any experience with time and we are stepping through it with someone else, not by ourselves.”
Cruz, Marino, Garcia, Charp and Hoffman are grateful to work for an organization that invests in a program like the Spiritual Ambassadors because it assures people in need that there is always another place to turn for hope.
“Some people are asking for hope,” Cruz said. “Some are asking just to have someone there to listen to them. Some are asking to help pull depression from them. But every prayer truly feels uplifting and powerful.”
Each prayer is also a reminder that no matter what a person is going through, they can get through it — and they are not alone. Charp will forever be grateful for the gift of compassionate presence that Garcia provided for her mother. Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ can truly be as simple as being there and listening, she said.
“Our patients, and even some of our peers, are often lonely,” said Garcia. “They need somebody to talk to. They need our time. In that moment, we cannot pass. Just be there. Be a voice for them.”
UChicago Medicine AdventHealth