I know for me
growing up, I always thought the people in nursing homes, or old people in
grocery stores were scary and mean.
That’s not true.
Old people are precious.
So, stinking
precious.
The wrinkles on
their faces show beauty of many years of hard work.
They have amazing
stories from their childhood, no matter where they are from.
A wise man in a
nursing home in Nicaragua once told me, “Live
your life to the fullest, because once you get old and gray like me all you can
do is share the stories.”
In Nicaragua, I
visited a nursing home where I loved on and got to know the stories of the
residents.
In Romania, I was
able to share the gospel with the elderly right from their homes.
In Bulgaria, I am
praying for, sharing with, and loving on the elderly of the country.
God has been
softening my heart towards the elderly since Nicaragua.
My face lights up
so much when I see the precious grandma’s of each country.
Some walk very slow
and are all hunched over, they are the best. So. Stinkin’.Precious.
Some run up to you
and shower you with kisses and hugs, they are rather awesome too.
Some will just keep
talking to me and talking to me even though I don’t understand a word they are
saying.
Even after persistently saying, I don’t understand
your language, I only speak English, they just keep on talking my ear off.
It’s beautiful.
The lives that they
have lived are beautiful.
The stories that
they share are beautiful.
Last month, one of
the ten words in Romanian that I knew was “fermosa” (meaning beautiful) and I
would tell the grandma’s that they were beautiful. Instantly they would shake
their heads and say, no you are beautiful, but I kept on encouraging them that
they were the ones that were beautiful.
A couple of days
ago, our team went with our ministry contact to visit a family from the church.
The first person I
noticed upon entering into the house was a man sitting in a room alone. I’m not
going to lie, I was totally scared of him. He didn’t have any facial
expressions or say anything at all. He also had a weird lazy eye, and his eyes
were bloodshot.
We were greeted
with a table that had many snacks, juice, and coffee.
I was so blessed by
the family.
We sat and we
talked for a while about the family’s lives and how they were doing.
We encouraged them
and spoke life into their family.
Then we prayed for
them.
After we were
finished praying, they asked us to go into the other room to pray for the old
man.
I was scared.
That same old man
that I had seen, we were going to go pray for him.
As our team
gathered around Paco, the old man, I felt God telling me to go and sit next to
him.
I hesitated for a
while, but soon decided to sit down next to him.
As soon as I sat
down, I could feel God’s presence.
We found out that
Paco has had several strokes and he could not use his right hand.
Also, he was not
able to speak.
We started to pray
for him and instantly tears started flowing from my face.
I couldn’t stop
crying the whole prayer.
He would weep
during certain parts of the prayer.
My heart was
broken.
This man that I had
thought was scary is really just another one of God’s children.
He was precious,
just like all the grandma’s I have fallen in love with.
He’s God’s son.
Why was it that I
was scared of him? I don’t know, but praise be to God that I left that place
weeping.
God softened my
heart.
The elderly are so
precious.
If anyone on my
team thought that I loved old people before, they better watch out now because
I love them even more.
So, now it’s your
turn.
Go love on some old
people today.
Go share with them
your story.
Go ask them about
their story.
Go pray with them.
Go play games with
them.
I can guarantee you
it will be a lot easier than it is for us on the race because we need a
translator. You have freedom to speak, so go do it.
Maybe you will find
a cute old couple like this one…
They will bless
your heart, I’m sure of it.
