Day 4: The Nursing Home

Today was our second day back at the nursing home but our first day to actually go and talk to the residents. My mentor and I took one wing of the nursing home and started making our way up and down the halls knocking on doors and talking to several different people. It was a great experience for me to be able to watch her talk to the residents and see how she handled each situation. I have to say, nursing homes are a LOT busier than you would imagine. We probably talked to only a third of the residents in our wing as the rest were either eating, sleeping, or being tended to by the nurses there. We did have several people who, when we told them why we were there, refused to talk to us, but this wasn't as disheartening as I thought it would be. The majority of the people we talked to were open and willing to talk to us, wether they were physically able to speak or not.

One lady in particular really stood out to me, partially because she reminded me so much of my aunt who past away 6 years ago. Her door was closed but we decided to knock anyway and peek our heads in to see if she or her roommate were awake. She opened her eyes as soon as we looked in and we apologized for waking her up and told her we'd come back and talk to her later so she could rest, but instead she insisted we come in and talk to her then. So we go in and tell her we are there to ask some question about the emotional and spiritual care that they are receiving and she immediately says "oh yes I would love to answer some questions! I've been trying to get people to pray with me here but no one will listen to me." Surprised, we continue with a few of our questions and find out that she's desperately wanting to continue her relationship with God, but since her eyesight is really bad she's not able to read the bible, so instead she prays all the time. She said she watches the Christian network and shows on the tv, but she's craving something more. She continues to just pour into us how she's just feeling so distant from everything and struggling with not being able to read the bible or really do anything to grow her faith. We could just see it in her eyes how much she wanted to talk to us, and we asked her if we would be able to pray with her. She says yes, and so we pray. When we finish the prayer she is crying and telling us how much it meant to her that we would come and talk to her and how she had been praying for God to bring someone to her that she could talk to. We told her we would be coming back the next few days and she asked us to please stop by and visit with her again. I really hated to leave because you could just see her longing for someone to talk to about God and faith and just pray. I feel like talking to her was as much of a blessing for us as it was for her, and i'm looking forward to going back to talk to her a little more and hopefully set her up with a way to listen to scripture instead of having to try to read it.

Though not all of our interviews went as well as this one, they were all such good learning experiences. We met with people to immediately turned us away, others who were willing to answer the questions as quickly and simply as possible, and others who would share their faith with us, or who just started talking to us about their family or other random things just to be able to talk to someone. I realized that being rejected really isn't as terrifying or awkward as I thought. I did notice a lot of bitterness, loneliness, sadness, and other emotions while we were there. So many people just wanted someone to come and sit and talk with them, they didn't care what it was about.

Tomorrow will probably be my day to start leading some of the conversations with the residents, and while i'm not as nervous as I was, I still ask that you will pray for courage and peace for me to be able to really be able to minister to these people. To meet them where they are and show them the love of Christ, whether its through my actions or through sharing my faith. This post is probably going to be a lot shorter than the rest since i'm exhausted and there wasn't a lot of crazy, life-changing experiences today as there have been the past few days, but today was just the starting point in some hopefully life-changing experiences with the residents of the nursing home. Please pray that God will continue to go before us each day as we minister to the residents; that He will give us the words that they need to hear, and that we will be open to what He is teaching us too through this experience.

Also, please pray that God will give us the energy we need to be attentive throughout the day and to be able to get everything done that we need to do each day. Many of us are starting to feel exhausted and I've caught myself not paying attention or putting forth as much effort to learn or listen as I have been before. There's so much God has in store for us on this trip and I don't want to miss out on a single thing. We don't have any breaks in our schedule, so we are literally going non-stop from 7:30am to about 9:00-9:30 every night, so strength and rest are something we definitely need prayers for throughout the rest of this week. Our last full day of events is Friday and I pray we aren't completely burned out by then. This trip has still been so beneficial for me, and I have a lot of things to think about, read, and consider, so in a way it was nice to have a relatively calm day as far as spiritual lessons go so I could really let what I've already learned sink in. Thank you all for your support and your prayers as we go through this journey to learn more about God and how to share His love and promises those we will be serving in the medical field.


Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT) Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."