He
planted a mighty seed. Ben planted one of those seeds that yields a
harvest known only to God. All week long, Noah glanced at Ben's
little poster as though it was something that was going to blossom in
some unexpected wonderful way. If the poster was the seed, Mannie's
report was somehow the soil. Silver-haired Noah began pondering the
same vision Ben had, in seeing his little poster next to Mannie's
fancy Nursing Home Report. It was like the poster was the path that
Noah's thinking would take through a garden of opportunity at the
nursing home.
Noah
made an appointment with the Fireplace Hearth Nursing Home's
activities director, April Castmon. In making the appointment, he
explained to April some ideas he wanted to get her reaction to. The
ideas were connected with an imaginary business a couple teen
friends, Ben and Sam were putting together. April set an agreeable
time and said she'd like to invite a young volunteer helper she had
been grooming for a part time position, to the discussion.
Noah
arrived to meet the warm-hearted April and both took seats in the
vacant activities room where the TV was muted. A great deal of action
was going on, in the glassed-in bird aviary in the far corner of the
room. Smokey, an overweight cat, sat in his ready mode watching the
birds with no friendly thoughts in mind. April took her cellphone
pager and summoned her volunteer aid to come to the activity room as
soon as she was able. April offered beverages and the discussion
began.
A
few moments later, a girl about 17 entered the group of two, wearing
a badge that said, “Hi! I'm Mannie Toth”. Mannie took a seat next
to April, as April said, “Noah, this is my helper that I can hardly
keep up with. Her name is Samantha Toth, but she prefers Mannie.”
Noah, replied with, “Mannie, I'm pleased to meet you. My name's
Noah Pierson, but I prefer 'Gramps'.”
Gramps
began describing the joy and opportunities of working with Ben and
Sam. Oh sure, they had their own unique ways of being different. Sam
had his badly scarred face and a pretty reserved way of connecting
with others. Ben, was slowly moving away from his orange-hair and
facial jewelry appearance. In warm tones, Gramps was explaining to
April and Mannie how the imaginary business idea was building unity
and spirit among them, beyond what he first thought possible.
Gramps
was getting good eye contact so he continued, by describing simply
their business product they'd been thinking about. Pointing at his
fingers he began listing the ideas and the positives of the ideas.
Gramps paused to take a sip of his ice water as April rose to her
feet and briskly walked toward a large magazine rack next to the
aviary. Smokey didn't seem distracted.
April
pulled out a softbound book and returned with it in hand.
April
began, “Noah, I mean Gramps, we have quite a few residents that
will go through one of these wordsearch books in less than a month.
They'll finish one and begin the next without hardly a breath.
Mannie and I try very hard to keep the resident's minds active, but
we want to do more than that. We'd like to engage them in doing
things that are more than just busy work. We'd like to have them
doing things they can say with pride, “I did that.” or “I made
that. And here's what it's used for.”
“Gramps,
we have two residents that were both ministers for many years. As
each fellow picks up his large print Bible, you can almost see it in
their eyes, they'd still love to find a way to get people excited
about God's word. And another thing. A little voice in me keeps
telling me there ought to be a way to make a contest using those
wordsearch puzzles. But the problem is that many of the residents
need a simpler version of the puzzles they can finish, and have pride
about it. Mannie here, gave me the idea of having a bulletin board
with some of the achievements of the residents and their picture
connected to it. Gramps this young lady sitting here with me has lots
of good ideas, but we just don't have the time to make many of them
happen.”
Moments
before the meeting broke up, Gramps handed April a couple wordsearch
puzzles with blank letters in most of the key word list, and gave a
duplicate to Mannie. He explained the right half of the page had
about 15 Bible verses that contained the key words. The verses had to
be searched through to find the missing letters in the key words.
Only then could the key words be searched for in the wordsearch
jumble. It was like a double puzzle, that required you to 'search the
scriptures' before you did anything else.
With
her shift over, Mannie (aka Samantha Toth) headed for home, trying to
remember where she'd heard that phrase before... “Search the
Scriptures”. Have you heard it before? Was it good advice? It
certainly is, if your life is full of questions missing answers like
the key word list, and if your life is a jumble like the wordsearch
puzzle.
What
do you do first? Se_rc_ the S_ri_tu_e_.
