This spring, Reformed Presbyterian congregations received a special appeal from the Reformed Presbyterian Home for funds to help with the COVID-19 crisis. Congregations and individuals responded quickly and generously, helping with both finances and morale.

Most everyone is aware of the high cost of operating senior care facilities like the RP Home. The expense for medical care and daily needs is high. Residents deserve nutritious and tasty meals; clean, comfortable surroundings; physical and emotional safety; social and cultural activities; and respectful, competent care. All of these matter, and there is a cost in providing them. In numbers, Bill Weir, treasurer of the Reformed Presbyterian Woman’s Association (RPWA) Board, explained that almost 66 percent of every operating dollar in long-term care pays for personnel costs. These costs are why the Home sends out regular appeals for contributions.

There is another area of need one might not think of initially when considering the important aspects of operating a facility like the Home. It is listed in the mission statement of the RPWA, the body that operates the Home: “Our goal is to provide an environment that will help each person we serve achieve his/her maximum level of physical, spiritual, mental, and social well-being.” In this statement, the spiritual well-being of those in the Home is a priority. It has also become more of a challenge than ever during this time under the limitations imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

So, your prayers are greatly needed. Please pray for the residents to be sustained not only physically but spiritually in the isolation and stresses resulting from the pandemic. Pray for the efforts that have been made to provide spiritual care for the residents and for guidance in providing more.

Until COVID-19 hit, three local RPCNA sessions graciously provided live worship services on the Lord’s Day: North Hills and Covenant Fellowship, both in Pittsburgh, and First RP of Beaver Falls. Pray that the residents who looked forward to worshiping each Lord’s Day will find comfort in the Lord and will be able to worship online.

This article, however, introduces a program for the residents on the third-floor nursing unit: the visitation ministry of the Spiritual Care Team. The program grew out of Mindy Cable’s concern for the spiritual needs of the residents. Mindy is the RP Home’s director of activities, and she has worked for the Home for over 37 years. She has a burden for the spiritual well-being of those who come to live in the Home. In her own words, “What is more important in the final years of life than knowing that you are right with the Lord?” This has motivated her to organize not only cultural and social activities for the residents, but also regular devotional times, Bible studies, and personal spiritual care.

The Formation

Three years ago, Mindy decided to ask individuals from the Home community to commit to a program of visitation with every resident in the nursing unit who wished to receive spiritual care. Very much supported by the RPWA Board, Mindy asked three retired pastors living in the Home or the Upper Room apartments—Rev. Ken Smith, Rev. Jim Carson (1929–2020), and Rev. Jim Wright—along with retired RP Home administrator Mr. Bill Weir, an active ruling elder at the North Hills RPC, to form the Spiritual Care Team. All of them willingly agreed to participate, though eventually Rev. Wright was unable to continue for health reasons. Until the coronavirus pandemic forced a pause, the Spiritual Care Team members visited the residents assigned to them at least once a week for prayer, conversation, and sharing Scripture. Not only the residents, but also their families and the third-floor staff, benefited from the visits.

My family experienced this care when my stepmother, Orlena Boyle, was in the nursing unit before her death. Jim Carson would often stop by. He would ask about Orlena, talk quietly to her, ask us how we were, and talk about what to expect. He would always pray before leaving. I particularly remember my feelings of disconnection between watching the busy nursing unit routines going on around us even as something momentous in our lives—the death of someone who had been so vital—was happening: life and death existing side by side. In that context, Jim Carson’s calm faith and life experience truly comforted.

It would be ideal—a desire expressed by each one interviewed for this article—to have a fulltime chaplain, someone with the gifts, training, vision, and calling to serve as pastor, counselor, and bringer of the gospel message to the Home community. But, without that, we see the Lord’s remarkable provision through the men on the Spiritual Care Team. Ken and Jim both had long, fruitful ministries as Reformed Presbyterian pastors. Hundreds of us can share stories of how they blessed our lives through their ministry. Bill Weir served at the RP Home for 38 years, first as assistant administrator, then chief administrator, and finally chief financial officer. It was a vocation for Bill, not just a job. In his last year at the Home, he felt a clear call from the Lord to continue serving as a volunteer after his retirement. So these three men, with years of service to the Lord in caring for people and sharing the gospel, have provided spiritual care to the third-floor residents.

Mindy Cable’s role in facilitating this has been crucial in sustaining the program. The nursing unit at the Home offers short-term, post-hospital rehabilitation and recovery care, meaning that many patients stay for only a few days or weeks. It is also where long-term residents of the Home, like my stepmother, are cared for as their time of death approaches. Whether for short-term or long-term care, upon admission to the Home people are asked about their religious affiliation and whether they would like to receive spiritual care visits. With the constant turnover of residents on the third floor, Mindy updates the lists of names assigned to the spiritual care team regularly and communicates that information to the team.

The Visits

Jim Carson shared some of his usual practices in visiting: To start conversations, Jim uses a method learned from fellow pastor Paul Faris. Relying on the Lord to guide his choice of Bible verses, he prints a set of them on colored 3x5 cards each week to give to the resident. After having the person read the verses, if able, Jim lets those verses lead to discussion, leaving the cards with the resident at the end. Some nurses ask for a set of the cards each week as well. He allows the resident to bring up concerns but uses questions like, “Do you have any special prayer requests?” or “May I be of help?” to facilitate the conversations. He is prepared to follow up on comments or questions on topics like pain, aging issues, or hospice care. In all of it, he asks the Lord to give him the answers he needs for each situation.

Bill Weir described the ministry opportunities he has experienced as follows: “Opportunities are wide and varied. There are times when I may recognize that an RPH resident clearly needs to hear the gospel, while at other times I recognize the resident clearly has a personal relationship with the Lord and they need just a listening ear or encouragement. There has also been the need to be at the bedside of a resident who is near death and pray with their family.”

A key strategy in Ken Smith’s lifelong ministry with people has been listening, a point also emphasized by Jim Carson and Bill Weir. Regarding his part in the visitation ministry, Ken wrote: “One learns early that in ministry one must win the hearing. One can always learn if one listens. And ministry means ‘people’ and ‘listening.’ For one thing, persons are often longing for someone to listen. Everyone has a story; so a critical part of ministry is simply listening and learning how to ask questions. And anyone acquainted with ministry knows it’s through questions that one learns how to minister.”

Ken described how he and his wife, Floy, up until her death in 2018, viewed the ministry given to them by the Lord as simply people. As the Lord brought people into their lives, those relationships became ministry opportunities. They moved into the Home because it was the best place for them to live at that point in their lives; they were not seeking ministry. But, because there were people there, ministry opportunities opened up through getting to know people over the dinner table and interacting with staff. Both Ken and Floy had opportunities to counsel people who sought their help. From this perspective, the spiritual care ministry with the third-floor residents is simply a continuation of a lifetime of abiding in Christ.

Similarly for Jim Carson, moving into the Upper Room apartments was a decision based on finding a suitable place to live, not for doing volunteer work. But when the opportunity came to join the spiritual care team, he was glad to respond to the call.

The Residents

A half century ago, when my grandmother resided at the Home, most residents were Reformed Presbyterians. The overall culture of the Home reflected the family and church culture that my grandmother knew. In such a community of shared beliefs and values, spiritual needs were met in ways similar to the support in a family or local church.

Today, however, the Home has a different profile. The changes began with the advent of a larger skilled-nursing program. Our need for skilled nursing and therapy at the RP Home; the associated economic and financial dynamics; the resulting larger, more diverse clientele; and new ministry opportunities to serve those needing short-term rehab have resulted in clinical and cultural changes. Ken Smith described the current profile in the following words: “The spiritual needs in such an institution are normal. Some people, staff or residents, have no idea of the gospel. Others have some background in spiritual things. Others are blessed saints who have known Jesus for years.”

There are even those who are hostile to spiritual truth, as Ken describes: “I’ve courted one hostile resident for a long time. While I have not seen him since this epidemic began, we are now speaking cordially. I have even prayed with him. He has had a churched background, [but] he knows little or nothing of faith in Jesus. But my tack with him has been just to become friends. That is happening.”

Though nostalgia for bygone days can be tempting to us who remember the past, in God’s sovereign plans, changes come. Certainly, the Reformed Presbyterian Home needs financial support, but if the goal of maximum spiritual well-being for each person is to be reached, your prayers are needed. We know that spiritual well-being can only be attained in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Please pray that the Home is a place where such transformation is ongoing, to the glory of God.

Patricia Boyle is a member of the fund development committee of the board of directors of the Reformed Presbyterian Woman’s Association, which oversees the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Pittsburgh, Pa.