The Rev. Junious Jones walks the hallways of Durham Regional Hospital, catering to patients' needs that can't be served by doctors and nurses alone.

"This is a hospital. You don't run into people shopping," Jones said. "You run into people going through stressful moments. I give them strength in stressful times when they think they have nobody to talk to."

Jones, a volunteer chaplain at the hospital since 1996, prays with the patients if they want or merely listens and talks to them if they need a sympathetic ear. Jones, pastor of Haw River Baptist Church in Chatham County, usually reaches five to six patients in his shifts at the hospital. Sometimes, he talks to the relatives of the patients and lifts their spirits.

"I gauge what spiritual needs they have," said Jones, 58.

Of the 15 volunteer chaplains at Durham Regional, Jones is the only one who works four days a week, said the hospital's pastoral services director, Nancy Ruth Gentry Best. The rest work one day a month.

Jones has been working two to four hours a day Mondays through Thursdays since January, when he retired from the Durham Public Schools system. He volunteered once a week before that.

"He listens to the people," Best said. "He doesn't force his beliefs on them. I will trust Junious with any situation that would come up in this hospital."

Last week, Jones held the wrist of Annie Wilkinson, 90, in both hands and prayed, thanking God for helping her. He wished her well and left.

"There is no measure of what it means to the patient," Wilkinson said, her head propped up in the hospital bed, while her husband sat on the couch in the room.

Jones sometimes sees patients on life support. Others are paralyzed or unconscious. He tries to comfort family members who are faced with the possibility of death.

"At times, you never hear from the patient again, but you know you were there when they needed you," Jones said.

'I just love people'

He recalls an experience about four years ago when he was called late one night to a patient's room.

When he got there, the patient had died. Her husband and daughter were standing by the side of the bed. The husband told Jones that he was not a religious person and didn't want him there, but the daughter asked him to speak. Jones managed to comfort them.

Two weeks later, the husband sent Jones a $100 check for his church.

"He was the last one I would expect to send me a check," Jones said.

A Durham native, Jones graduated from N.C. Central University and spent 22 years doing internal auditing for GTE. He worked as a transportation supervisor for Durham Public Schools from 1996 before retiring last year.

He took classes at the Bible Training Institute in Cleveland, Tenn., and Duke University Divinity School before becoming pastor at Haw River Baptist Church in 1996.

"I just love people," Jones said. "It's fulfilling to be here. It's fulfillment and nourishment beyond explanation."