Eternity

How Nursing Home Volunteers can respond in the Corona Crisis

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I was sick and you visited me…Matthew 25

Being in the grip of public health emergency it is important to know how we as volunteers can help. Our first order of business is not to panic. Our precious friends in long term care already are dealing with serious personal medical situations as well as depression and loneliness. We need to find out what we can do to lift their load.

Secondly we need to face the Corona virus not as some mysterious plague but as another in a yearly cycle of serious diseases. Use common sense. Follow the directives of the facilities you are visiting. I go 3-4 times a week into different homes to sing. Each time I shower and change first then still use the hand sanitizer at the door as I sign in. I use another sanitizer between wards and then again on the way out the door. Once home I wash with warm soap and water. If all this sounds like a lot of trouble remember that sickness can be whole a lot more trouble than soap!

Last of all we need to not only pray but also be creative and upbeat. Keep in touch by text with staff or other volunteers who are out sick. A phone call or even a card can do as much as any medicine in the face of discouragement. We are serving on the front lines of both a medical as well as a spiritual battle. We must keep our heads about us and trust the Lord. He has sent us to bring a message of hope and life and this is the time to buckle up and be ready for anything. He has promised to be with us and He just might want to use you to remind someone else of that today!

An Hour That Begins With Forever

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Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” John 11:21-22 ESV

Sometimes it seem that life gets tangled up and more complicated than we ever imagined. A fog of difficulties and disappointments rolls in around us and make us wonder if where Jesus is.

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But Martha; who sometimes gets a bad rap because of her busyness, gives us the perfect example for our own pots and pans lifestyle. She believed that even though her brother lay in the grave and nothing was working out as she had hope even in the fog bank of her life that Jesus still knew the way. Martha still believed that as long as Jesus was there that “Even now” there was still hope. She believed in something she couldn’t see or understand.

When Jesus answered her He said something He had never told anyone; “I Am the Resurrection and the Life!” Jesus wanted her to know that she didn’t need to wait for some far off day in eternity. Instead  in His presence is an eternal now.

 

An Hour That Begins With Forever

 When a fog rolls in from the sea

On those mornings just dripping and gray

Remember Jesus said He will guide us

For forever and that means today

So call folks, to come sit at His table

Where forever Jesus sits and He waits

When an hour that begins with forever

Comes by and a brand new day breaks

An Hour That Begins With Forever  Peter Caligiuri 2020

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Growing Older With Jesus

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I am grateful to my friend Robert Keller for his guest post today. Recently as he was recovering from a medical incident he spent three weeks in a long term care setting. That experience put him in the same kind of situation I see every week as I visit in facilities around our community. It is easy to forget that residents in long term care are no different than any of us on the outside. But God remembers! Here is my good friend’s perspective on growing older and learning to lean more and more on the Lord.

Robert Keller

 

As we grow older, we become painfully aware of our increasing physical limitations.  Although outwardly there is a slow decline which results in restricted activity, inwardly the Spirit of God is carrying on an amazing process of revitalization and transformation that results in an ever-increasing freedom unlike anything we experienced in our youth.

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It gets harder and harder to make out what friends are saying to us in a noisy restaurant, but our hearts hear the Shepherd’s voice more clearly than ever. We find that our legs cannot carry us as far or as fast as they used to, yet our walk with the Lord is strong and steady and it leaves us energized instead of exhausted. Our minds are now slow to process new information, but through the Holy Spirit, we are gaining a progressively deeper understanding of the truths found in God’s word. We do not see as well as we once did, but spiritually, our eyes have grown keener and we clearly see the hand of God moving in marvelous ways. Life in this world may become increasingly difficult as our bodies wear out, yet our hearts are filled with peace, hope and joy because

As we focus on the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Cor 3:18)