Thursday, December 1, 2011

=19 Testing the Waters

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_.