Nursing Home Ministry

Thursday Morning Sunshine

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As I mentioned last week three of us in nursing home ministry have been producing a weekly devotional which we call The Sunshine Newsletter. Our writers are Pastor Janice Burnett, who is a chaplain and oversees the outreach into several nursing homes in Western New York as well as my friend Rob Keller who is a professional graphic designer as well as a writer of devotionals. Our free publication goes into about 9 different long term care facilities in Florida and New York. Each Thursday I will be posting a revised version of the Newsletter for my readers. We purposely are not copyrighting the material so as to make it freely available to as many people as possible. If you know anyone in the long term care community including, staff members, family, residents or volunteers, please feel free to either contact me for future issues of you may copy and share our weekly issues. Though our writing is tailored to those whose world is regulated by long term care, you may be surprised how the content touches you. After all, the unexpected invades each of our lives more often than we like and lets us know that we are far less in control of our world than we may believe!

Through a Father’s Eyes by Rob Keller

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 ESV

As a father and as an artist, I was thrilled when my son said, “I want to learn how to draw.” Immediately, I took him to an art supply store where I bought him a sketch pad, drawing pencils, an eraser, and a book that teaches basic drawing skills. After completing the first exercise, he was very disappointed with the results and never picked up a drawing pencil again. When we talked about it, he told me how much he still wanted to learn how to draw, but didn’t. Digging a little deeper, I discovered that anything less than a masterpiece was unacceptable to him. I tried to help him understand that it would take time and a lot of practice to develop his skills. Despite all my efforts to encourage him, that sketchbook just sat on the shelf gathering dust. It still makes me sad to think about my son’s short-lived art career. It’s not his lack of drawing skill that upsets me, it’s the fact that he was so hard on himself. He wouldn’t give himself room to let loose, have fun, experiment, and grow. Because I was His Dad, when I looked at those first few sketches, they were beautiful to me. I just wish he could have seen them that way!

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Have you ever earnestly committed yourselves to grow in some area of your walk with God? If you are like me, you were frustrated and disappointed by your inability to consistently get it right. Our heavenly Father sees our struggles. He is pleased with our desire to be more like Jesus, but he wants us to remember that it is a lifelong process. He is graciously working in our lives, and delighted to watch our slow steady transformation. We may only notice our failures, but He is sitting right by our side, gently guiding us to become the men and women he destined us to be. Don’t give up! because God has never given up on you. Some days you just need to see things through our Father’s eyes.

Jesus Cares About You! By Pastor Janice Burnett

A wedding took place at Cana in Galilee…This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed…He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. John 2:1,11 NIV

Photo by Min An on Pexels.com

What is your favorite thing about a wedding? Is it the bride walking down the aisle or the cute flower girl or maybe even the little boy who is the ring bearer? Maybe you are a Hallmark channel fan and just love the romantic story of the couple, or a lover of parties and simply enjoy the reception with delicious food and drink with everyone. What isn’t there to love about wedding? Jesus did and He even went to one with His disciples and His mom. It seemed that Jesus hadn’t planned to reveal that He was the Son of God or performing a miracle – but when the wine ran out His mother came and asked for help. Who doesn’t want to do a favor for their mom? But Jesus did this not only because of His mother but because He cared about all the people at the wedding. If you read the whole chapter, you would see that to show His care, He turned water into wine! He cared about the bride, the groom, the parents of the bridal couple – the hosts of the wedding – the servants serving the wine and every one of the guests! He loved them so much that He blessed them with delicious wine to drink at this wedding when it ran out – He cared enough to fix their problem and what He gave was the best wine of all!

When Jesus is in your life, He cares about you to give you the very best. Here is my story…I knew it was time to sell my house and move closer to where I now live. I listed my house and it sold in one day (and this was long before the current housing boom) – and I hadn’t even started looking for a new place. Long story short, God had saved the PERFECT place in the PERFECT location for me – it had been empty and for sale for three months! Jesus cares about what we care about. What are some things that are important to you? Bring them to Jesus – He cares about people and He cares about you!

Friends of Jesus

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

This morning I am introducing a new Thursday feature to the Praise2worship blog called the Sunshine Newsletter. As some of my followers know I have had the privilege to be involved in nursing home ministry for about thirty years. About three years ago I began printing out a devotional newsletter for the residents to give them something to read between weekly visits. When Covid-19 shut down all the communities I visited, I began to include a bit more in the newsletter and was able to get it to the residents by sending it to the activities directors of the various facilities. Fast forwarding a year – two wonderful friends, Pastor Janice Burnett and Rob Keller came on board and helped with the writing and editing of Sunshine Newsletter replete with new formatting and images. Sadly I have not yet found a way to directly upload our format to WordPress but you will be seeing the content of our publication along with the best photos I can find each Thursday. What you may find surprising in a Nursing Home Devotional newsletter is that, while now and then there is some news or a brief mention of nursing homes, its focus is rather to encourage the residents. They face many of the same issues we all do, so after receiving permission to use their material I present to you today a recent installment. Have a blessed day all!

I Call You Friends by Pastor Janice Burnett

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 NIV

Did you ever have a job where you didn’t know much about the business? Perhaps it was your very first job as a gas station attendant or a waitress. If you were pumping gas, you might have known just enough about which gas to put into the car or the truck, then take the money and make sure it got into the cash register. It might have been the same if you were working in a restaurant – you waited on the customer, served them the food, took their money and handed it over to the cashier. Maybe over time you stayed working there long enough to know more about how the business was run. In fact, you might have ended up managing or even owning it! But, that didn’t happen overnight did it?

One of my first jobs was behind the counter at a snack bar at a W.T. Grants Department Store – remember them? I knew just enough to do my job, but I didn’t know my manager’s responsibilities, and I certainly didn’t know anything about running the entire store! Jesus knew something about this and talked about it and our relationship to Him in John Chapter 15 when he called us “Friends” – Wow! When you think about a relationship with Jesus, do YOU usually think of HIM as a friend? Many times in our lives, we have been rightly taught to respect and obey Him. I want to do that, don’t you? But Jesus is telling His disciples – and us – that He calls us friends. We are not just servants who get ordered around and from whom He keeps secrets. As a parent how many times did you reassure your child or grandchild of your love even though you told them what to do? Did you only say it once? No! You repeated it time after time just like Jesus! He tells us to remain in His love and so love each other, and then He calls us friends! He is so loving, patient and kind! Just as the song says, “Oh – What A Friend we Have in Jesus” Have you made friends with Jesus by opening your heart to Him? It is never too late to begin that friendship. He is waiting to hear from you today!

Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com
Circle of His Friends 
by Peter Caligiuri

No need to knock on Jesus’ door
It’s open all the time
But He will always knock on ours
When He is passing by

He looks in through our windowpane
To see the empty spot
That at our kitchen table sits
With our dinner fresh and hot

Won’t you ask for Him to enter in
And forgive your sins and more?
 We join the circle of His friends
Once He’s come in our door!

When Joseph Scriven wrote the words of his now famous hymn, they were actually a poem he sent to comfort his mother who was very sick and missing him terribly back in Ireland. Several years previously, Scriven had lost the love of his life just week’s before they were to be married and in his time of grief he dedicated his life to God and there found great joy and peace. Hearing word of his mother’s ill health he sent these words of the hope he had found. Today they are still sung on job sites by brick layers and in corn fields by farmers. People lying in hospital rooms as well as standing in the largest cathedrals have been encouraged to know that no matter how important others think we are or how much money we have in the bank, there is nothing we could ever have that compare to the riches and power of a life lived as one of the friends of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!    
Joseph Scriven 1855

Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God – Teresa of Avila

Lift Up Those Hands!

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Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! Psalm 134:2

So I will bless you as long as I live. in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:4

Songs about lifting hands are some of my favorites to sing for my friends at the nursing home. These choruses not only lift our moods by singing God’s word, but they give us a personal physical way to be involved with the worship. After we had sung one of these today, I paused and asked the question, “Why do we lift up our hands?” It is amazing that even in the memory care unit where I was today just how engaged my friends can be.

When my dad was still alive one of his principle duties as the head usher was to quietly take attendance at church. But back in our grammar school days that task was not completed quite so subtly. I remember that when the teacher called my name, I eagerly flung my hand up in the air to say, “I’m here!” In that same way God is taking attendance of His people. When we come to worship, God is delighted when we lift our hands up straight and high and call out, “I’m here Jesus!”

Then we recalled another reason for lifting up our hands and that is for the police. When the squad car comes flying up to our house and the officers jump out with their guns drawn shouting, “Show us your hands!” we better quickly obey. They want to see evidence that we are surrendering to their authority. Of course God is not pulling up to our curb in His heavenly squad car, nonetheless, to come into His sanctuary with anything less than full surrender is to miss the greatest blessings that He has in store. “Lord I don’t understand everything that is going on in my life and I don’t like much of what I do, but I trust you. I am lifting up my hands in surrender. Whether you show me what is going on or not I am deciding to give you all my praise.

Photo by Rosemary Ketchum on Pexels.com

There are probably many other reasons we should lift up hands, but one that is most meaningful to me is from when our boys were small. After a long hard day at work, I would trudge up the stairs to our little apartment, hoping for a shower, supper and rest. But just before I opened the door, I could hear our kids shouting, “Daddy’s home!” Then as it swung wide, two little sets of hands reached up to me as they excitedly called, “Pick me up daddy! Pick me up!” When we come into God’s house, whether we are only two years old like our children or nearing ninety like my nursing home friends, we should never miss the chance to lift up our hands and shout “Pick me up Daddy!” At the cross God reached down to everyone who lifts up their hands. Then He lovingly stooped low to pick us up and hold us close to Him!