Sing the songs, pray with the people, leave in tears....

At our church ever 3rd Monday of each and every month is Nursing Home Ministry night. I’ll be honest – it’s the one place I never thought I would be able to handle going – I had an aunt who was in a nursing home for 5 years before she passed away so it’s very hard for me to go in one. So when we started this nursing home ministry – I was one of the 1st ones to go – and I’ve missed only a couple times due to sickness. Last night was that night, and I have to write about it this morning because as always I was so touched by God while we were there. We always gather in their dining hall and sing to the residents that come. My dad didn’t get to make it last night because we had a couple people in the hospital so I was to lead the worship service.

While this was a wonderful experience last night, the reason I share this is because of what happened during the prayer time with the residents. I walked over to a small, frail, little woman sitting in a wheel chair and asked if I could pray with her – she said yes but before she let me pray she told me why she even came that night – our “matriarch” of our church Sis Mary Ellen (who is 85+ years young) had remembered seeing this woman when she was visiting her brother and sent her a card asking her to come to this service – she just knew she would be blessed if she did – the woman – who never shared her name – told me she enjoyed the service – and that she thought about not coming because she was sick – then she told me – “I’ve been sick for a while, and I’m tired, I just really want to go home to be with Jesus” – and that’s how she asked me to pray. So this is why I write about the nursing home today – while we sang some great songs and laughed with the residents – I wept when I saw this woman’s desire for Heaven. She’s ready to go – so my prayer for her was “Lord grant her the desire of her heart”. There are days when this life gets to me and I wonder sometimes why I try to do the things I do – then I go to the Nursing Home last night and if a precious sister in my church can send a card to a woman she doesn’t know in a nursing home where her brother is and that woman comes to our service and has such a desire to go home with Jesus that she asks us to pray that way – then I can say – this is why I do what I do – it’s worth it – though it breaks my heart to think of someone passing away – it gives me great joy to see how strong her desire for Heaven is.

I can only imagine that when she does get the answer to her prayer and it’s her time to go that her 1st steps will be just like the song out of the church hymnal says “When we all get to Heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be, when we all see Jesus we sing and shout the victory” – she was confined to that wheelchair last night but she won’t be when she gets up there.



The inner thoughts keep on screaming!