"I will start at the beginning. I felt the Lord leading me to go to a nursing home with our youth group for a long time. I did not really know what or who to talk to. I called the local nursing home (Jupiter Care Center). They told me a group came in every Saturday morning to do a short service. I contacted the leader of that group, of like faith (Christian), and set up a time to meet them at the nursing home.

I asked two of our youth parents who play guitar to come and lead the singing. I also asked parents to come as chaperones and drivers. We met at church Saturday morning at 8:00 AM to discuss what we were going to do. I had a short devotion on giving away your faith and putting your faith into action. We also asked each youth to make a salvation bracelet. These are very simple to make. I bought a roll of leather stripping and cut braclet length pieces and then threaded colored beads on to show the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first color is black to represent that all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. The second color is red to represent the blood Christ shed for our sins. The next color is white to represent our purity in God's eyes when we ask Jesus to cleanse us from our sins. The next color is bue to show believer's baptism. The next color is green to represent church attendance and Christian growth, and the final color is gold to represent the eternal life in heaven because of what Christ did for us.

We all made three bracelets to give away. The youth were told that they could not give them away without sharing what they represented. Next, we went to the nursing home. When we got there they told us to go to every room and bring as many patients as wanted to go to the service. We had about 40. The service was great. We gave a clear Gospel message and had a lot of good singing. Afterwards, our youth took the patients back to their rooms and shared with them. Several led the patients to faith in Christ. We are only to tell the Gospel. God is in charge of bringing in the harvest. It was a great day and all were blessed richly.

Since our youth group went to the nursing home, I have been back myself. One of the best things you can do for these patients is to read the Bible to them. I have a Bible Promise Book that I took with me. I read passages on hope, heaven, and areas that will give the patients peace in their time of trouble. No one wants to be in a nursing home facility if they had their choice. As the Lord says, " The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few."

Go For Jesus,

John D. Hendricks

Youth Director