Christian HomeCare Services, Inc. (CHCS, Inc.) is a living example of churches coming together to care for the needs of their community. When faced with the growing needs of aging congregants and greying communities, four founding churches identified the needs of the older adults in their midst and determined to take action.
Christian HomeCare Services offers an array of assistance from transportation, help in the home and assistance with understanding and obtaining available benefits – many of which are supported by dedicated volunteers from CHCS, Inc.’s 16 partner churches and throughout the service area. These volunteers – many of them caring church members with their own struggles – are the drivers, planners, and friends that make this ministry possible.
Pat is just one example of the dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers that comprise the CHCS, Inc. volunteer team.
Pat began volunteering at Christian HomeCare Services, Inc. in December of 2008, as someone who drives seniors to much needed medical appointments. An immobilizing procedure a few years ago prevented Pat from being able to drive, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to help out. In her time off from driving, Pat made phone invitations to potential donors from her home. As soon as she was able, she returned to her role as a volunteer driver.
In her largest capacity, Pat helps seniors get to medical appointments. She picks the CareReceiver up at their home, uses her own vehicle to drive them to their appointment, stays with them, runs any additional errands with them, and safely delivers them back home. By doing this, Pat is helping alleviate some of the anxiety put on CareReceivers and their families trying to figure out how to get “mom” to the doctor, while forging meaningful relationships. One CareReceiver says, “I know Pat’s a volunteer, but she has become so much more. By truly loving what she is doing, she is able to not make me feel like a client or a patient, but as a friend.”
According to Jennifer Barbour, CHCS, Inc. Inc’s Community Outreach Director, “Pat has become an integral part of the CHCS, Inc. family. Since she started working with us, there’s not a single program she hasn’t had a hand in.”
Pat truly embodies the verse “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” – Acts 20:35
Pat and Christian HomeCare Services, Inc. display the unique blessings that open up when churches and individuals come together to care for those in their midst.
When we step out in faith to care for one another, grace abounds!
