Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:1 Peter 1:8 KJV
This is one of my favorite forgotten hymns, and the story that lies behind it, starts on the day that Thomas didn’t come to church. When Jesus first showed Himself to His disciples after the resurrection Thomas was missing. So don’t miss church this Sunday because you never know when Jesus just might show up! But the next time the disciples met for prayer, Thomas made sure he was there, and Bingo! – Jesus comes. First, He shows Himself to Thomas and tells Him that He is blessed. But then Jesus adds an amazing promise for those of us who have never seen Him. He says that we can be even more blessed than the Apostles! Imagine that! How can that be? Peter gives us the answer many years later in his letter, when he writes that our unseeing faith, will open the door for our heart to be filled with a joy that is unspeakable and full of God’s glory. There are some days I could sure use that joy. Things aren’t always looking bright in our family, but the sunrise of God’s glory is just breaking over the horizon, if I can simply believe without seeing and trust Him for all that He has in store.
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2 ESV
I am grateful that this afternoon, we will have not one, but two new volunteers helping at our meeting in Sunshine Village. We originally began holding this outdoors, during the covid-19 situation, but the residents enjoyed it so much that we continue to meet once a month. Having these two precious ladies who have been eagerly helping out at various meetings over the last few months, I began reviewing what advice I could pass to help them when the going gets tough. Whether you are involved in nursing home ministry or not, you just might find that Paul’s words to Timothy could be a message for you as well.
“Preach the word” In nursing home ministry, we aren’t simply called to hold hands, push wheelchairs and encourage people to smile. Though we should be doing all of those things, the primary purpose of our calling is to share the message of the gospel. We have to remind ourselves that every doorway we are invited into, is God’s opportunity to reach someone with the hope of Jesus Christ. It is His calling, not the church, not our friends, not our family or the administration of the facility that will give us grace to go on through thick and thin. Be prepared for tears along with laughter, misunderstandings along with folks saying thank you, and making the most of our small place in a schedule filled with treatments, reports and weariness, that keeps our visits short.
“Be ready in season and out of season.” Jumping into nursing home ministry is different than volunteering at Sunday school, singing on the worship team or going on a mission trip. Those are all vital and often demanding places of service; but you will discover that in nursing home outreach you are going it alone most of the time. We cannot show videos at church of the faces of the people we serve. There won’t be smiling children performing Christmas pageants, while adoring parents watch. There will be no brief moment in the spotlight, as we close the service with a well-loved new song. Being prepared in and out of season, means being content that God has called us to serve, no matter who else knows.
“With Complete Patience” Might mean, putting aside disappointment, when nothing goes according to plan. Patience is smiling when you find out that half the people left to go to a movie and most of the other half will be late because they are finishing up at the ice cream social. Patience is realizing that someone you were looking forward to seeing is in the hospital, had a family member take them out for lunch or is still sleeping because the overworked staff didn’t have time to get them ready. Patience is begging for people to come sing Christmas carols, printing out the song sheets and making sure we get on the schedule months in advance. It is coming regularly till you are part of the furniture at the facility, making friends with people who might only live for a short time and then pouring it all out to God in prayer, when things don’t work out the way you hoped.
Yes, nursing home ministry is not rainbows and puppy dogs. You will never be a social media influencer, a local celebrity or a rock star. But if God has called and you say yes, then buckle your seat belts, because He has a depth of His love in Christ to show you and a peace that goes way beyond your understanding to give you. The small weariness, the few tears and the light difficulties that we share will be nothing compared to all that God has in store, and of which the old song tells us, “The half has never yet been told!”
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Yesterday I shared a little about preparing a Christmas outreach into Senior Living communities in your own town. Today I’ll be presenting some practical suggestions that you can use, or re-configure to fit your own situation. Most importantly is that we try to find ways to carry the love of Christ into facilities that are just beginning to open again. Why shouldn’t Christians be the first ones in the door willing to bringing tidings of comfort and joy. this Christmas?
We need to think about how the same old goals of nursing home ministry can be done in brand new ways. When Sunday services in a nice comfortable chapel at a retirement village where I used to visit were cancelled, one of the residents went to the administration and received permission for us to meet outside at a little park area around a fountain. Someone ran a long extension cord out of a nearby building to power the microphone and while others brought beach chairs to supplement the few park benches, we had available. We printed out flyers to advertise our little gathering and prayed it wouldn’t rain. It was both amazing and wonderful how being outside allowed other residents of the village to see that they had somewhere they could go for fellowship, singing and prayer. Some people wore masks, everyone socially distanced and no one became infected by it. Most of all we discovered that the difficulties encouraged us to work together with everyone and that together we could bring the hope of Christ to our community. One woman did the organizing and scheduling; while two retired pastors took turns moderating our meetings, and I only needed lead the songs.
Eventually we were granted the use of a recreational building where we had air conditioning during our hot Florida summer but the lessons we learned at the fountain were precious and will remain with me forever. We are a family and every family has to work together to find unique solutions in different situations. At another facility, the recreation director eagerly invited us to come sing Christmas carols.
Our Florida solution was to do the caroling around the swimming-pool! Residents from the assisted living building overlooking the pool area could hear the music and as we went on our small group grew in numbers considerably. At the end of our time after we prayed, we turned around to leave and were surprised by one of the staff people with a food-cart serving everyone hot chocolate and ice cream! It reminded me of the scene at the burning bush when God called Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelite people go. As you can imagine Moses was less than thrilled about how that was going to play out and God asked him a simple question,” What is in your hand?” and Moses answered, “A staff.” (See Exodus 3:2). In that same way, as we stand in front of our own burning bush, wishing we could pass through those flames to answer our own call to serve and God is asking each of us; “What is in your hand?” What opportunities do you have? Who can you ask to help? What abilities and talents has God given you? The answer may be something as insignificant as the stick in Moses’ hand, but God is not as concerned about what we have, but in how able He is to use anything and anyone that is given to Him in order to share the love of Christ with others.
These are the Sunshine newsletters that we distribute free of charge in several facilities
praise2worshipdotnet 
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