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Home League program developed for Alzheimer’s unit.
by Captain Julie Feist –
A speaking engagement during the holiday season led to an entirely new way to conduct our Home League program in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.—and also to meet a unique need.
I was invited to speak about Salvation Army programs at a local assisted living facility; after the talk a woman resident shared with me that she had a dear friend, and dedicated volunteer, who loved the Home League. She had moved out of her home of 20 years into an assisted living complex and very much missed the Home League and its four-fold purpose. She had recently been transferred to the Alzheimer’s unit.
Our women’s ministries group has always felt a special calling to spend time with women in residential facilities who are experiencing early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and they rose to the challenge. I was able to modify our Home League program by integrating some very basic Sunday school lessons with easy-to-do crafts—big parts for frail hands. We sing some children’s Bible songs and, more than anything else, we share the love of Jesus. Sometimes, our visits are remembered—oftentimes they are not. What we have discovered is that although we set out to minister and bless these women (and sometimes the men who attend), we are the ones who receive the blessings!