Week 13 - Acts of Mercy Visiting Those Who are Sick

The following is the text from my bulletin insert. I am designing a series of weekly inserts to help me better explain the Wesleyan Way of Discipleship. You can download a pdf of this insert at the end of blog.

This week, you are encouraged to ask a church member the following:
Has anyone, other than the pastor, ever visited you in the hospital? What did that feel like to you?
 

    As a pastor, I am given the opportunity to share in people’s lives at some of the most difficult of times for them. One such moment is when someone is sick at home or sick and in the hospital.
    This ministry is a rewarding type of ministry and it is one that can be shared by both the clergy and the laity. There is something almost sacred about getting to share a prayer or a passage of scripture with someone that is sick. Your words, infused with the power of the Holy Spirit, can indeed lift up spirits and make things easier for the person that is sick.
    I would like to suggest that there are a number of ways in which the church, and its members, can be in ministry to and with those that are sick and/or in the hospital.
     Perhaps you could:

• Offer to drive someone to and from a doctor’s appointment.
• Offer to bring a meal into the house so that the person can spend time recovering and not cooking meals.
• Volunteer to help in the local hospital. Several of our members already engage in this ministry.
• Sit with family members in the waiting room as their loved one undergoes surgery.
• Pray with someone before he or she goes into surgery.
• Offer to pick up medicine from the pharmacy, do a quick errand, or take a bill to the post office.
• Become an organ donor. Your death could provide life to someone else.

  I also found the following suggestions on the US Council of Catholic Bishops web site:

• Give blood. Blood banks always need donors.
• Spend time volunteering at a nursing home – Get creative and make use of your talents (e.g. sing, read, paint, call Bingo, etc.)!
• Take time on a Saturday to stop and visit with an elderly neighbor.
• Offer to assist caregivers of chronically sick family members on a one-time or periodic basis. Give caregivers time off from their caregiving responsibilities so they can rest, complete personal chores, or enjoy a relaxing break.
• Next time you make a meal that can be easily frozen, make a double batch and give it to a family in your parish who has a sick loved one. 

Disiciple Life - Week 13 - Visit Those Who are Sick.pdf
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