Chaplaincy Program

The Lake County Sheriff's Department is committed to providing assistance to its employees and their families in time of need. Additionally, Departmental Chaplains can sometimes be of assistance to the public when dealing with the Department in sensitive situations.

Some of the areas where a Departmental Chaplain can be of assistance are as follows:

• Assist Departmental members when there is an accident involving serious injury or death, and when there is a need to provide comfort and counsel to injured persons and their families.
• After family notification, will respond to the hospital when a Department member has been seriously injured or killed.
• Provide advice, counsel and spiritual support to Department personnel and their families, upon request.
• Attend and participate, when requested, in funerals of active or retired members of the Department.
• Assist Department officials in making notification to family members of Department personnel suffering serious injury or death.
• Visit sick family members of Department personnel who are confined to a hospital.
• Assist in making referrals for qualified and specialized professional counseling where circumstances indicate or are requested.
• Counsel with youth and their families upon request.
• Comfort and console victims and relatives in the case of crime, accidents and disaster.
• Participate in Department and community events by giving invocations, addresses and benedictions where and when appropriate.
• In cases of homicide, suicide, accident or natural causes, make death notifications as requested by the Department.

Cindy is the Pastor of the Community United Methodist Church in Middletown. She received her B.A. from CSU Sacramento and her Master of Divinity from Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. She began her ministry as a Law Enforcement Chaplain in New Jersey, working with the Borough of Peapack-Gladstone. She was part of the original group of Chaplains for the Sheriff’s Department, a program that began in 1997. While in New Jersey, Cindy served as a Theological Consultant to the State of New Jersey, Women’s Division, collaborating on a project to educate and train the religious community in healthy, helpful and appropriate responses to victims and families involved in Domestic Violence. Cindy has special training in Critical Incident Response and is a founding member of the first county-wide Critical Incident Response Team. She worked to develop a department trained team of stress educators and responders.

She is married to Denis, also a United Methodist pastor and together they have served the churches in Lower Lake, Clearlake and Middletown during their 11 years in this county.

Robert Sola retired as a Lieutenant from the Daly City Police Dept. after thirty years as a peace officer. He is currently the Administrative Assistant at Queen of the Rosary Catholic Church in Lucerne and has been Chaplain for North San Mateo County police agencies for more than thirty two years. He studied Franciscan Spirituality and theology, has a degree in Criminology from City College of San Francisco and has completed several courses with POST and ICPC as well as courses from USF, SF State and UC Long Beach pertaining to conflict resolution, with emphasis on post traumatic stress.

Father Ted is the Priest of the St. Marys Immaculate Catholic Church in Lakeport. He attended St. Peters Chanel High School Seminary in San Rafael, Ca., St. Patrick College Seminary in Mt. View (where he earned his BA degree) and Pontificio Collegio San Beda in Rome Italy where he earned a Master of Divinity in 1984. Also in 1984, Father Ted was assigned to St. Mary of the Angels in Ukiah where he served until beginning service at St. Marys in Lakeport. Additionally, Father Ted worked as a police officer between 1970 and 1975 for the Rock Hill Police Department in South Carolina. He also served in the Army Military Police Corp. between 1967-1970, including duty in Vietnam.

Mike Suski is Senior Pastor of Lakeport Christian Center in Lakeport. He studied at Warsaw Theological Seminary in Warsaw, Poland. Mike completed his B.A. at Continental Theological Seminary in Brussels, Belgium. He continued on and received his M.A. at Wesleyan Evangelical Seminary (George Fox University) in Portland, Oregon.

Mike was licensed in 1976, ordained in 1980 and has pastored in New Britain, CT; Philadelphia, PA; and Yreka, CA. His portfolio includes ministry to multicultural and minority groups. Mike sat on the Board of Directors (Presbytery) of the Northern California-Nevada Council of the Assemblies of God for the past 5 years. He lead the Ministerial Association, organizing several inter-faith programs in Siskiyou County over the last 11 years, and served on several civic committees. He was a personal pastor and counselor to Officers from all Law Enforcement Departments.

Terry Cara is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Middletown. He has pastured churches throughout California for the past 31 years, with 14 years spent in Lake County. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Army Reserve Chaplain. He received his B.A. degree in Religion at California Baptist College and his Master of Divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Terry has also received training in Suicide Prevention, Family Advocacy for Prevention of Spouse and Child Abuse and Domestic Violence.

David is the Pastor of the Lutheran Churches in Clearlake and Lucerne. He received his BA from Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana and his Masters of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Lewis. He was ordained and installed as Assistant Pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Rochester Minnesota in 1974. He was installed as the Pastor of the first Lutheran Church in Lucerne and St. John's Lutheran Church of Clearlake in 1978. Pastor Rose also served as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Lake County Sheriff's Office between 1982 and 1991. He has also been active in the American Cancer Society since 1984, holding the office of President of the Lake-Mendocino unity from 1989-1992.

Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth is the Pastor at United Christian Parish in Lakeport, CA. In her seventh year here, she has also served churches in Coggon, IA Charlottesville, VA and Berkeley, CA.

Pastor Shannon is an active member of the Lake County community, serving as a Chaplain for the Lake County Sheriff's Dept.; a trainer for Enhancing Collaboration: Faith 2 End Domestic Violence workshops and is a leader in Lake County for the AIDS Baby Quilt Project. She is a co-coordinator for M.O.P.S. (Mothers Of Infants and Preschoolers) and is an active part of Every 15 Minutes, a drunk driving prevention program for youth.

In 2005 she was the recipient of the Sutter Lakeside Community Service "Woman of Achievement" award.

She has been married to Michael Auth for 15 years and they have two fabulous children; Gabriel and Zachary. She enjoys Christian rock music, train rides with her family and telling the story of God's grace in our world.