Mission field found in nursing homes
Visiting the elderly can make "a huge difference"
By
Debra Fieguth
ChristianWeek staff
VANCOUVER–People who live out their last years in nursing homes usually have their physical needs taken care of, but who is going to look after their spiritual needs?
Many seniors who grew up with a form of cultural Christianity "have never been taught about having that relationship with Jesus as a real friend," says Holly Bear Tanksley, a chaplain to three Vancouver nursing homes.
 |
Bear Tanksley, who works through Anchor Family Services, holds church services, including "a lot of memorials," visits the elderly one-on-one, brings them Bibles and is a friend to those who have been estranged from their families or don’t have families. |
| DEBRA
FIEGUTH PHOTO Helping seniors in need: Chaplain Holly Bear Tanksley maintains a vital ministry to residents of Vancouver nursing homes. |
When she does a spiritual care survey with residents she finds out where they are at. When she asked one woman whether her spiritual needs were being met, the woman said yes, but added that she hadn’t been a good Christian. Bear Tanksley was able to share with her that being "a good Christian" is through faith, "not by what we do.
"At this point they can’t do," Bear Tanksley explains. "There’s a great deal of need for assurance."
A former missionary to East Africa with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Bear Tanksley is in some ways a missionary to the elderly, as well as their families. "Most of their families are totally unchurched."
Bear Tanksley, one of 21 young Christian leaders to graduate from the first Canadian Arrow Leadership training program, says the qualities needed in ministering to the elderly are respect, compassion for people who aren’t as quick as they used to be, the ability to listen while the elderly talk through their lives, and knowledge of Scriptures to give reassurance.
Becoming a friend to someone in a nursing home is a way a volunteer can make "a huge difference in a person’s life," Bear Tanksley says.
And, she adds, people need to get rid of their stereotypes that the elderly are muddled and living in the past. One 99-year-old woman was not only able to describe Vancouver in its early days, but was aware of the city’s changes right up to the present.
