Calvary Blog
God's Waiting Room
"We bring church to the nursing home."
---Paul Applegate.
Applegate is a light-hearted guy working hard on his job, as a dad, and as the director of Calvary's Convalescent Ministry. Saturdays and Sundays any week of the year, Applegate and his crew are ministering the gospel and loving those living in convalescent homes around the county.
Volunteers bring their children to expose them to a real world of marginalized people outside of their normal world of friends, television, and video games. In Convalescent Ministry, it's normal for someone to put on a puppet show. Clown outfits and balloons are regular props. Face painting livens up residents and volunteers alike. A barber shop quartet has been known to come out and sing for the residents. "We bring as many activities as the church can funnel our way into the nursing homes."
The centerpiece of ministry is a short time of worship, a Bible study, and volunteers going room to room ministering and praying for those that can't - or are unwilling to - come to church. "Going room-to-room is really a great ministry," said Applegate.
"Convalescent homes are 'God's Waiting Room'."
---Paul Applegate.
Applegate grins like a little boy with a great big secret as he talks about the rewards of ministry. "Before people come to serve in Convalescent Ministry, I tell them, 'you probably think you're going to be the one doing the blessing'. At the end of a day of serving I ask, 'Who is the one who truly received the blessing?' Every hand goes up!" Applegate continues, "It's funny. In God's economy we go out to do the blessing but we're the ones who are blessed."
The people living in the nursing homes Applegate's teams minister in don't have anyone visiting them, loving them, or listening to them as a regular part of their day. The stuff we keep in storage often gets visited more than relatives in nursing homes. Smiles on residents' faces and tears in their eyes are contagious. Residents hold tightly to volunteers' hands; they plead with them to come back. "There's no other feeling of truly being used of God than that," Applegate said.
Here's how you can get involved:
Visit the Volunteer Center in the main corridor at the Main Campus after service
Email or call 954-315-7535
Call Paul Applegate on his cell: 954-478-9037