Have you noticed that hospital stays are getting shorter? Patients are being sent home sooner and sooner, often after very serious surgeries and illnesses!
Whatever the reasons for this change, it shifts the burden of care to the people at home. Family members with no nursing training, the adult child who lives three states away, or the friends or neighbors of a single person who have jobs, families and responsibilities of their own. Even when the church prays for the patient, we sometimes fail to notice the caregiver. It often doesn’t occur to the vigilant, round-the-clock caregivers to ask for help until they are desperate. As a result, caregivers are some of the most at-risk people among us!
While the church may not be able to relieve every burden our caregivers have, we can make sure we do not fail in our most basic responsibilities: to notice and to care! One way we do that is through our annual Caregiver Respite Luncheon, which will be on Friday, April 10, in the Fellowship Hall.
When guests arrive, they will find a variety of “comfort stations” waiting for them: chair massages, hand massages, a gentle chair yoga session with a mindfulness instructor, comfort animals, educational sessions on others-care and self-care, the companionship of friends in similar situations and—maybe best of all—a meal they don’t have to make!
To make this possible, we need your help with building the guest list. Maybe YOU are the person who has slipped into this role and needs a little “me time,” or maybe you are concerned for a friend who needs some TLC from their church family.
In either case, please provide us with the names of church member caregivers by calling Jalyn at extension 103 or emailing jalyn.rutledge@firstbaptistgreenville.com. If the caregiver’s name comes to you when you don’t have that info handy, just call the front desk or leave a message for me!
I’ll give you a hint about your nominee: it’s a person you already know!
—Kyle Matthews, Minister of Pastoral Care