Family

New Book on Care Ministry

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

“I gained a whole new appreciation for what new beginnings meant when my wife and I chose to retire last year. Our lives had radically changed direction the year before when Nancy had survived major cancer surgery; which was followed by six chemotherapy treatments over nine months. Then as summer rolled around while she was getting her strength back, things seemed to come into place for us to move to Florida.

At first we eagerly raced ahead towards what seemed an exciting though uncertain future. Driving away from chilly, rainy Pennsylvania, we both felt like shouting, “Wahoo we’re going to Florida! No more ice! No more snow!

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No more dark colorless months of barren and cold landscapes!!” But somewhere in the middle of making new friends, finding new doctors and settling into a new church we realized that the challenge of beginning again was much bigger than we thought it would be.

For me, one vital part of starting over for me was to begin to volunteer in a nursing home ministry…” (From New Beginnings in Care Ministry)

New Beginings

It’s been quite a while since I released anything new on Nursing Home Ministry. The book “New Beginnings in Care Ministry” is a reflection of my coming to see a wider view of Long Term Care ministry in my own ministry restart. Care ministry looks beyond simply the traditional nursing home setting into the lives and needs of special needs children, residents in special needs assisted living as well as those in memory care. If your life has been touched by long term care, through a family member, your job or as a volunteer this collection of stories and insights with lots of photos are just for you. It is my prayer they will both be a practical as well as a spiritual be a blessing in your own personal journey. This is available in both softcover and E-book formats through Amazon.

New Beginnings in Care Ministry

Thanks Dad!

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

At a press conference when he was still the mayor of New York , Rudy Giuliani was asked how hard it was being both the mayor and a father. His reply began ” Being mayor is easy…”

I am so thankful to God for my Dad and I am still amazed at how easy he made being a father seem!

There is a verse in the Bible that says to teach our children God’s word while we are doing just the ordinary things of life. That is how my Dad lived. Whether he was washing the shop floor, taking us out to eat or sitting next to us in church he was patient, thoughtful and kind. He never yelled at me, called me names or made me feel small even when I deserved it. I learned more about God and how to be a father by watching Dad drive through New York at rush hour than I got from 1,000 sermons. Thanks Dad for all the wonderful memories. I’ll see you just a little later. Happy Father’s Day!

The Prodigal Father

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Prodigal- spending resources wastefully or recklessly.

This Father’s Day I can really identify with the father in the prodigal son story. It is not that I have been always loving with our own two sons but rather I would have loved it if they could have just gotten along for more than 10 minutes!

The younger son in the story Jesus tells is selfish, manipulative and foolish. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all how his father feels and he doesn’t even take the time to say goodbye to his brother.

But somewhere in the distant city where he falls below even the bottom of the barrel he wakes up. Suddenly he gets just how much he has failed and he returns home a broken young man.

On the other side of the county the older and more obedient brother is toiling away in his father’s fields. As the afternoon comes to a close he hears the sound of music and dancing from some sort of outdoor celebration. As he gets closer one of the men who works with him on the farm brings him news of his brother’s return and the restoration his father had given him.

Wow! Talk about mad! If it had been possible there would have been steam coming out of his nostrils! He could not believe that his Dad had been so foolish to give the younger brother the money in the first place. Now with this wretched failure crawling home he definitely has no idea why his Dad would celebrate. “Celebrate!” he probably muttered. “I’d like to wring his neck!”

What the good son along with most of the rest of us can’t understand is the prodigal wastefulness of our father. Our Heavenly Father’s heart is just so off the wall that we can scarcely imagine what he is thinking of.

But the father in the story had more in mind than just giving his robe his ring and his shoes to his son. Most of all in the middle of the feasting and joy the prodigal father longed that through his over-the-top forgiveness he would see the healing and restoration of everyone in his family.

Whether you are a father or not today remember that all of us have a heavenly Father who like the prodigal father longs to recklessly give us his heart and see a full restoration between us as well as all the rest of His family!