Dear Friends of Nursing Home Ministry:
We honor you for your heart to encourage, support, and empower ministry to those who are suffering under the many maladies and sicknesses and handicaps that afflict the long-term care population. In fact, we know that many of you are giving of your time and talents and resources in direct Christian nursing home ministry to the care center arena. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
How rewarding it is to meditate on the priceless gift of justification by faith that our Heavenly Father has poured out on those whose faith is set in His Son, Jesus Christ! In thinking of God’s saving Grace our thoughts are drawn to the immensely important role the Master has given nursing home ministers. Elderly and infirm Christians living in care centers across the world face a challenge to their faith beyond what many could have anticipated and the depths of which we can only imagine! The Christian community is called by God to participate with Him in being the critical encouragement needed in their spiritual lives!
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:10
Loneliness may be the biggest challenge to the perseverance of the fellow members of our family of the Christian faith who live in care facilities! And our Father considers our ministry to His children living in these settings as pure and undefiled religion! Do not let anyone discourage you in the important role you play as a nursing home minister! God has seen fit to place you in the priceless ministry of helping our suffering brothers and sisters in long-term care. Many of them face the imminent travail of passing from this realm of tribulation into His marvelous Kingdom of eternal light. The Christian volunteer, chaplain, or staff member has the privilege of being a source of strength for them in their crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land! Read the Word of God to them. Sing hymns of our Christian faith with them. Pray with them. Hold their hand. Brush the hair from their brow and wipe the tears from their cheeks. Love them. The soul of every elderly saint is precious in God’s sight. He watches over them with love and care. Be His conduit of compassion and kindness.
“A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5
Having participated in LTC ministry for decades, we have witnessed God’s gracious miracle of life unfold while we watched in solemn awe the passing of elderly saints. How sobering yet how precious is the labor of our Christian nursing home friends on the verge of leaving this world as the Father beckons them home to Heaven! Oh the riches of His priceless grace at work before our eyes! God bless you all as you share in His calling of this sacred task! Can you hear Him saying, “Suffer my little children to come unto Me!”?
Love in Christ,
Jerry and Dar Johnson