A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 NKJV

My new book, Walking with Lambs is a story about friends and how friendships shape our lives. This week the print version came out and filled with color photographs to put faces with the names of these special people who have walked with me through thirty-five years of nursing home ministry. Today’s verse reminds us that God has a friend for us who is closer than any brother here on earth. In the middle of the muddle of 21st century life, we sometimes need to stop and remind ourselves that He alone is our closest friend. He sticks with us through hard times and sickness, through aging and isolation. There are no doors that can keep Him out nor walls that He cannot pass through. That is the…

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” Isaiah 52:7 ESV

Any of us who has been involved in nursing home ministry over the last three years, has lived through some heartbreaking events and faced challenges that we never imagined before. This has often left us scrambling to find new ways to continue to reach people who are in those closed facilities. Just as a carpenter carries more than one tool in his toolbox, so we need all kinds of different ways to present the gospel. One tool which God just “happened” to put on my heart not long before the pandemic, is a newsletter. Beginning as “Pastor Pete’s Newsletter” I passed these out at one facility as a little something extra. When Covid closed the doors to all…