Ailene is a charter member of one of our local churches. She has been a christian most of her life. She just turned 100 this past August. I want you to experience Ms. Aileen's life so you can see why God touched my heart to start a ministry to the aging here in Savannah, GA called Living Legacies Inc - a ministry dedicate to honoring the aging.
I met Aileen back in 2006. She was just 94 and living in one of our local retirement facilities. I was her pastor and I preached every Sunday at that facility. She was at every church service - to not see Aileen meant something was wrong! She tithed faithfully and always had a kind word after my sermon. Even when her health began to go down hill she was a role model for me and the other aging men and women. She wasn't one to complain about her problems. She'd rather praise the Lord than anything else in her life.
It was in 2010 that her arthritis began to get the best of her. I watched her as she began to grimace in pain. It took a lot for her to get out of her chair and to her walker to make her way back to her room. As time went on my wife and I had to assist her to get up from the chair and once she was up she was able to make it back to the elevator and up to her room. After a while we even had to go to her room to get her and then take her back again.
Aileen now 98 was losing her independence and needed to count on other people to do what she once did for herself. At 94 Aileen moved into the retirement home just after her husband passed away. The next four years she lived by herself tending to her own needs. At 98 years old she no longer could do the things she once did. Now she had to move to an assisted living facility. Luckily she transferred to one of the five extended care facilities that I minister to in Savannah through Living Legacies Inc. Aileen told me after the move, "this is going to be quite a transition but with the help of your ministry I believe I can make it".
It in fact was quite a transition. 98 years and she never had a room mate - had her husband and didn't need anyone. She lived alone in the quietness of her retirement home. Now she enters a place of business where a room by yourself is not an option. The care givers come in regularly day and night, phones ring and voices come over the intercom "Susan, you have a call on line two." "Nurses needed on the west wing - room 294." You would think after the business day ended then you would get some rest but the second shift arrived and the cleaning crew arrived and now the buffers begin to run up and down the halls. Quiet to chaos overnight it seemed. Noises and voices always in your mind. It's enough to drive any man crazy!
Aileen is now 100 years old and very depressed. She doesn't read her Bible because there is no silence or solitude anymore. I have to comfort her often when she says "I am embarrassed to say pastor, I just wish it would all come to an end." I just have to stop what I am doing at that point and remind her that things can always be worse. You can always find someone worse off than you are. I took Ms. Aileen around and showed her other residents who did not even know we entered the room. "Alzheimer's Ms. Aileen", I told her. Then we went back to her room.
I said Ms. Aileen you are 100 years old and you have your mind intact. You can think about your children, and your grandchildren, and even your great-grandchildren. You know them when they come into your room and you can enjoy their laughter, many people are unable to do that you know. That always sparks a conversation and I get to hear about her life when she was 17, how she came to know Jesus Christ, when she met her husband and how long they were married, what careers her children chose, the wives they married and the grandchildren she loves. Oh! How Ms Aileen loves talking about her family!! It brightened her mood and her day.
It's little things like this that help the aging. It is little things like this that makes a ministry great. It's about honoring the aging by giving them a chance to tell their story. It's about being there for them and with them. Seven years ago when I began pouring my life out as a sacrifice of service for the elderly's faith I learned a very important lesson. Every person has two basic needs to love and be loved. I thought I was there for them and it was about me pouring out my love on them. But I quickly learned that I am not just there to love them but I am also there to give them someone to love. I am just one man loving the aging and I have found that the aging community loves me. I have found through this ministry that you cannot out give God. The more you sow the more you reap. Two of the best things about Living Legacies ministry to the aging is I get to love the aging community and I get loved in return.
I've already received more than I deserve but I want to continue being there for the aging community as they enter our extended care facilities. Everyone needs money and with the economy in the shape that it is in I've been told I am crazy for starting a business. I just trust God and want to continue what God has prepared me to do over the last seven years. It is people like Ms. Aileen who get me up each day and give me meaning and purpose in this life. I really covet your prayers in this matter. Pray that God would provide the funds for me to continue what I do. It's not really about the money. It's about people like Aileen. It's about pleading for her and advocating for her. It's about using my strengths and abilities to help those who are losing theirs.It's about being God's eyes, feet, voice, hands and heart. We are the body of Christ and I wouldn't want Ms. Aileen to think God abandoned her because the Body of Christ abandoned her. So I continue to go - In His Name and For His Glory. Thanks for keeping Living Legacies Inc in your prayers.
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