The last two months have had CHANGE written all over them. After 30 years as a pastor in the Adventist church I've gone on to what some joke about as an Encore Career. I now work with Tabitha Health Care Services here in Lincoln as a Hospice Chaplain or Spiritual Care Coordinator.
My pastoral skills are a bit more focused on Elder Care although the families that love and care for those elders are often of all ages. So some things stay the same, Caring for people and their spirit. Other things have dramatically changed, working in health care.
I'm sure I'll have more to say about that as the days fly by. For now, let's just say I'm thrilled to be working with truly incredible people. The nurses amaze me every day, their care is across the spectrum, spiritual, emotional, financial, as well as physical. These women make me stand in awe as they serve their many and varied patients each week. They comfort and offer hope, a wellspring of joy and courage each day.
The Social Workers solve problems and make good things happen, they work tirelessly for their clients in order to see that they have the best housing, care and support that they can provide. They have taught me a great deal about Christian love and service. They help families come together at a tough time and corral all the resources and energy that a family has to share and focus it on creating joyful and lasting memories for the client and family. The Social Workers create miracles every week.
Our administrators are really cool and pro ministry. They remind me of a Lieutenant I had in the army. I was a Warrant Officer, not prone to command by rank or nature, but an officer still. And the Lieu was in command of some ten of us in his unit. We all were somewhat challenging to herd in the right direction and we all knew he took a lot of heat for it. The company commander wanted more and better out of all of us. But the Lieu never let it roll down on us, whatever the bottom line was, I think we came to understand it more because of who the Lieu was instead of how he could have over managed us. Our Admins spend a good deal of time caring for us as well as caring for our mission. This is a good sign, an unbelievably good sign I would say. In fact, the more they care for their staff, the more we want them to look good and the team to succeed. It's a fun and deeply satisfying thing to watch in operation, it is TEAM. We may never know the limits and constraints they deal with. But I'm praying for them every day, there is a lot on their shoulders.
There are people who help you to grieve and listen to your aches and longings, people to give you a bath, to hold your hand or do your toe nails, call in the volunteers who work magic themselves. People who help us to stay on track and look over our shoulder at the right time and others who coach us through some really hard spots.
All in all, it is Teamwork and I'm delighted to see that is still exists and very happy to be a part of it.
So that's what's been happening with me in a nutshell. My wife and I have made the decision to stay in Lincoln and we couldn't be more happy about it. And I would add, what a great woman she is. The greatest gift a man could receive, God gave to me almost 4 decades ago. She is more than a Proverbs 31 woman, she's a slice of heaven.
So that's a quick catchup on us. Back to work then.