ASSIGNMENT #1

A month ago now I finished a series of classes to train as a hospice volunteer.  Hospice is considered end of life care, made available when it is estimated that a person has 6 months or less of life.  Instead of providing measures to prolong life such as a hospital would do, hospice provides a peaceful setting, and pain medication to keep a patient comfortable until their life’s end.  Hospice is a great source of support to family members as well.

My experience of being with my mom through the last five weeks of her life and through her own hospice care was so positive and blessed that I wanted to be able to do that for others. 

Because I am a Christian, I really wanted to be able to be an instrument of the:

“God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 

2 Corinthians 1:3b-5

A hesitation I had of working with the hospice program of a local hospital is that of having to be sensitive to all religious backgrounds.  I do have a respect for the belief systems of others, but because I’m a Christian I’m much more prepared to give the kind of comfort which will resonate with and give comfort to believers in Christ. 

In addition to my mom, I also visited with Hilda, whom I wrote about in another blog.  With each of these believing women, I was free to read from the Bible and to sing hymns and encourage them with the hope of heaven.  That’s the kind of experience I longed to bring to my hospice volunteering.  So, I’ve kept in the back of my mind that idea that if I find I don’t know how to give comfort apart from the faith in which I stand, then I might eventually offer my services in a local Christian nursing home.

Today I visited my first patient.  When I met yesterday with the hospice volunteer coordinator she assigned this lady to me with this comment:  “I saw an open Bible on her dresser, so you might want to read it to her and pray.”  I was overjoyed! 

I walked into the room to find the patient quietly sleeping.  I gently spoke to tell her who I was and that I was there to visit and then, for the next 40 minutes I read God’s Word.  I read from the Psalms of David, from the words of Jesus in the gospels, and from the promises of the New Heaven and the New Earth from the book of Revelation.  Aside from a slowing of her respiration, there was no response from the patient.

I’m sure not all of my hospice experiences will be like this, but this was certainly a blessed way to begin.