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Christian Concourse Newsletter of the Month May 2008 Dear Brothers and Sisters, We greet you in the precious name of Jesus Christ. As a supporter of this ministry, we know you are interested in our efforts to recruit volunteers for nursing home ministry. We can say, the main ingredient in our work in this arena is patience. It is our message to the Christian community that “optional” and “volunteer” are not synonymous if the Lord has impressed you with a burden to minister in care facilities. The intention is not to be harsh; the Lord is not harsh. Helping widows and orphans is a matter of the heart – a product of our loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course, God may have another equally important field in which He would have you labor, but we must not leave this one out in our outreach programs in the Church. And there are many ways to serve in this mission field. Certainly, supporting our efforts in Christian Concourse is an expression of your burden to see the needs met. The basic reason nursing homes need volunteers is often overlooked: the staff, no matter how dedicated and hard-working, cannot possibly meet all the compassion needs of all the residents of their facility all the time. They need help – especially the activity departments. Though they can count pills, test for germs and log hours playing bingo, government oversight and regulation will never generate or deliver Christian love – it is the responsibility of the Church to do it and we must do it as volunteers!!! There are pills for all sorts of physical and emotional maladies, but we know that only the love of Christ can give true hope, true peace and true joy. It is our job to bring that love to the hurting souls in our local care centers. Therefore, Christian volunteerism plays a vital role in meeting the basic emotional and spiritual needs of care facility residents. It is our goal to help the Body of Christ see the need and meet it. The Christian Community can make a difference by being involved in the many wholesome activities already identified by activity directors as viable and necessary for their residents. Of course, this usually includes “church services” and other forms of Christian ministry. But the list is quite long of the types of activities that need volunteers. The following table names just a few:
So, you can see that there are many enjoyable, good things that a volunteer can do at a care facility to be a true blessing to the residents and help the activity director too. For individuals, youth groups, Sunday school classes, and home-schoolers some (if not all) of these ideas would be beneficial to resident and volunteer alike. If you could use more information, see our website (below) for a free copy of our Handbook for Nursing Home Ministry…or call us: we’d love to hear from you! And any way you could help us get the word out would be deeply appreciated. We thank each of you who support this work. With you, we pray and trust God that He will give your investment in His work great increase! God bless, Jerry and Dar Johnson
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