Being Light to the Elderly
The International Student Ministry visited two nursing homes in February, and many of our Berkeley graduate students participated. We sang “Your Love Is Deep” and “Amazing Grace”, performed beautiful musical pieces, and talked and laughed with the grandpas and grandmas. It was a great time for both our group and the elderly. Their smiles, nodding, clapping along to our songs and music, friendly faces, and joyful laughs still linger in my mind today.
Having been a volunteer at another nursing home in Oakland for half a year, I’ve learned about their lives. Each one of these dear grandpas and grandmas has their own unique story, and they are so eager to tell it. Many of them, especially immigrants, experienced hardships for most of their lives. I’ve learned about loneliness and dying. All of the elderly suffer one kind of illness or another, and many of them are confined to either their wheelchair or their bed. Many of them feel depressed because they feel they are useless and unloved. In fact, I’ve seen a bed being cleared because a grandpa passed away a week before.
It’s often depressing as I got to know some of the grandpas’ and grandmas’ stories, and their conditions and depression sometimes make me feel discouraged. Amazingly, in every nursing home that I’ve visited, I always encountered Christian grandpas or grandmas, and they are the ones who are the most joyful, often smiling and laughing. Their faith often inspires and encourages me as they are also facing illnesses and death. One 97-year-old Chinese grandma always tells me how God has blessed her life and others, and she’s always smiling and praising God. At her old age, she goes around in the nursing home and tells people about Jesus. I’ve learned from her that Jesus’ light has already been shining in her nursing home. Jesus is calling us to share with the elderly more of His love, to put smiles onto their faces, and to let them feel our caring touch. I want to tell them that no matter what kind of state they are in, they are not useless and abandoned, but they are precious sons and daughters of God.