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Remembering the Forgotten

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

This past Wednesday was my last service at Allied Nursing Home after 23 years as volunteer chaplain. I was deeply moved by the expression of love and thoughtfulness of so many. I want to thank each of you who have liked, loved or commented on this special moment. While I deeply appreciate all the good wishes I would most of all love to see others step up to get involved in some way, because these years have been all about remembering the residents who are often forgotten by others. To help anyone who is interested in getting involved , I am running a free book promotion over labor day week-end of all my books dealing with nursing home ministry. Here are the links to two of them. Reflections is a daily reader devoted to residents, family members, staff or anyone else touched by the challenges of long term care.

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Reflections of Hope

There are also 4 other books that concentrate on training and inspiring volunteers, but I will just post the link to the most comprehensive of these:

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Nursing Home Ministry -The Heart of Jesus Christ

Thankful for the Years

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“ Lord , make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Psalms 39:4 NKJV

For 23 years it has been my great privilege to lead the chapel services at Allied. What began as a visit to a friend blossomed into meetings in three different wards every week. Each group was unique in its needs, pace and personality. The Alzheimer’s day room was usually packed, lively and yes unpredictable! But they loved music and often sang along, tapped their feet or at least smiled. Today they each made farewell cards I will treasure always. The respiratory ward was just a small meeting yet it was like meeting with family and I often shared my most personal feelings there. The general population was the place where God taught me how to share His word honestly and simply in 12 minutes! I have measured those years in my mind 1000 times and I wouldn’t want to have missed a single day. I have learned that 1 day in God’s house is more valuable than 1000 anywhere else on earth!

Farther Along

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“In God we trust” stated a sign printed over the lunch counter where I often stopped for coffee. Just under that phrase in smaller print it said, “All others pay cash!” As a young man I decided to trust God for my salvation and I felt confident that I now understood how God wanted me to handle life’s problems. But I was puzzled that many people at my church seemed to act as if they didn’t seem to share my calm assurance.

After getting married and becoming a father it began to dawn on me that lots of things were a just little more complicated than I had realized. Today, I am entering my senior years with many inabilities I can only overcome with the help of others and I am learning that only God knows most of the answers. The good news has been that rather than feeling that this is a personal failure it has been a relief because to realize that I don’t need to figure it all out. God is okay with me simply trusting Him! I hope that my simple rendering of this song, “Farther Along” will bring some hope, comfort and a smile to someone else who is also holding tightly to God’s hand through the changing seasons of their life. Blessings…

 

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8:24-26