Since February 2008 I have been going to Mission Convalescent Hospital once a week. It was interesting how this adventure started. We had a training weekend for ISP and one of the tasks was to engage in a local ministry. Our team decided to make Valentine's Day cards and take them across the street from our school. We met some of the occupants of this hospital.
It was a scary experience at first. We walked in and most of the patients were so sick, they were confined to a bed or to sleep for most of their day. It smelled horrible... Not knowing what to do, we decided to split up in partners and went to meet people to give our cards to. I met a lady named Violet. She was so proud of the fact that she was 98 years old. We made many new friends. But after we got back, the Lord laid it on my heart that this shouldn't be a one time deal. I shared with my team and a few of us committed to going back.
Over the summer, it was extremely difficult because I was the only one who lived close enough to continue our ministry. But praise be to God, I made some great friendships with these older people. One of my first friends was Sybil. She was 93 years old and loved when I would come, but I had no idea this was the case because she only answered my questions with a few words. I asked if she was a believer and we began to talk about God. In July 2008, my friend Sybil went home to be with the Lord.
Charles was another one of my friends. He loved to talk to Nick and I about prayer and the Lord. This was a difficult task because he had a tube in his throat. We would try so hard to hear what he would say and offer some sort of encouragement. He went home to the presence of the Lord in September 2008. It was an amazing celebration because on earth he had only one leg and was attached to an oxygen tank. But now, we clung to the promise of scripture that he would be whole and pure praising the Father with people from every nation!
This is Violet! I met her on our first visit and then did not see her for a while. Finally at the beginning of this last semester, after I had lost Charles and Sybil, the Lord provided me (and Rachael and Nick) a great friend in Violet. We have some amazing memories with her, but my favorite is when we would read her scripture. Her favorite passage was Psalm 23. I was amazed when I started reading, that she could recite it along with me. This is a picture of Nick reading to her (in her good ear, that still wasn't very good). This was a beautiful picture of James 1:27. it says "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." Violet was a widow and she loved the Lord. Toward the end of her life, she was in a lot of pain and we did the best we could to comfort her with the beautiful promises in the Bible. On January 1, 2009, at the age of 99 she passed away. She left us with sweet memories of what it looks like to cling to Christ, love deeply and live well. I am still friends with her daughter (who is 60-something). Nick was asked to speak at her funeral and 6 of us attended and spoke as well. God did some really cool things through this experience.
Now as I do ministry there with some of my greatest friends, we had become a bit discouraged. All the Christians we knew there had passed away. So we prayed for some new friends. Doris, Skip, John, Nancy and Valentina are still there and it is usually the highlight of my week to visit them. Pray for these people, that their hearts might be captured by God.
