Member Care ministry with the Reids

Ok, on Saturday, while at the beach, I was visiting with Mary. She is a missionary with Christ for the City organization here in Managua. She heads up medical teams from the USA that come here to do medical work. As I was visiting her, she asked, "well, what do you and Glenn do?" I then mentioned we do Member Care. I then said "ok, here is an example. Back in November, Glenn drove down to Houston to meet up with CAM missionary Paul Reid from Nicaragua, who had medical appointments to discuss his parkinsen's disease. I think Glenn made arrangments for him to see the doctor and also had contacts for him to get a car to make it to each of those appointments. Anyhow, now that we are in Nicaragua, we're here to just see how the Reids are doing." I continued to mentioned that is just a small example of what we do - member care or pastoral care.

Mary exclaimed, "Hey, I'm a physical therapist and have done some study work in the area of Parkinsens and its effects on the individual and on the family". At that time, Glenn walked up and joined the conversation. Wow, we were so touched to see how, just making a conversation and talking about this one example, that the Lord lead us to Mary. Mary said she would be willing to work with Paul and offer any medical suggestions and information that would be helpful.

So, Glenn's brain starts to kick in. He is thinking, how am I going to get these 2 families together. On Sunday morning, we called both Mary and the Reids to see if they could join us for lunch. So, yesterday over some delicious Nicaragua food, we visited with both the Reids and Mary. Paul Reid retold his story of how the Parkinsen disease was detected and his pathway since that time. He told of his struggles and his difficulties he face daily. Paul described how at times it is challenging to walk and the way his feet moved. Mary suggested that he literally stop and start over in his "walk". Mary and Paul talked at length in his struggles.

I pray that this contact with Mary will be helpful to Paul in the days and weeks ahead. I think that this friendship will be very valuable in helping Paul through his Parkinsen's disease.

Wow, isn't it neat to see how people come across our lives?