Transcript: Care Facility Visits

I am super excited about you, and your desire to minister to others, to be licensed or ordained, to learn the skills of ministry. Today, we're going to talk about visiting those who are sick or those who need encouragement at places like hospitals and care facilities. put your seat belt on. This is one of those presentations that has had a lot of content but will help you understand how to visit care facilities. First of all, I want to start with James 5:13. If anyone is in trouble, he should pray. If anyone is happy, let him sing songs of praise. If any one of you sick, you should call the elders of the church. elders are the leaders, the lightens officiants, or ordained officiants or ministers, to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up and if he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other so you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man and this is a minister, a leader. it could be someone not ordained. I want to be very clear about that. But in our context, we're a ministry of school and we licensed and ordained, trained ministers and officiants, the prayer of a righteous man or woman is powerful, and effective. I am super excited about what God is doing as we talk about what happens in the care facilities that we are called to minister in. just think about this, just contemplate people are alone to think about God in others. 

People are getting better, or they're facing their mortality. That those first two points people are alone. in some ways, my wife and I, we joke about that, you know, as we get older, we've realized that every humans, a headcase it what we mean by that is that people think and people think, and people are facing things in these care facilities. I think as ministers often we've underestimated that I will say I did when I was first in ministry. It was sort of like it was my job, to go to hospital, hospital visits. I did it and because I just enjoy work, but I can say that I think I underestimated at times what was going on. sometimes my prayers were underestimated when I would see it more like a thing on my schedule, and not powerful opportunity for what God was going to do. again, God did many, many things. I in some ways, I don't like to tell stories about them, other than and now is now, but experience has taught me that God is at work in care facilities. People are looking for God's help, and in need of prayer and anointing with oil to do an anointing prayer ceremony, which we're going to talk about in another presentation. People may need a spiritual warfare prayer; some people are attacked in care facilities by the evil one. People share a confession of faith. 

There are people that have burdens. Many times, those who are facing their mortality have a burden. I'm surprised at that. that they in a sense feel that they cannot die until they unburden their soul about something. there are times when I would not even be intentional about that. As a young minister, a young officiant I would go there and here's my Scripture passage and then all of a sudden, the person would look up to me and say, young man, knowing I was an ordained minister, knowing that I had clergy confidentiality privileges, all of a sudden, they would unburden their soul. the person, in many of these types of conversations, the person they would think about might even have been long gone. Something that happened in their family 50, 60, 70 years ago, something that they did, that they hid 30, 40, 50 years or two years ago. in that moment that the soul is preparing for, for glory, and the work of death has begun. it needs care facilities. 

Sometimes that's relevant, and people are interested to really unburden their souls. Therefore, people make a confession to God in their faith. They make a confession to unburden their soul to ask God to forgive or to forgive someone else. Those are similar things to confession of faith, and a confession to unburden someone's soul. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to lead, to officiate many people into a relationship with God. that's a form of confession, too, as we've talked about before, where I am a sinner, and this is a burden in my soul for this long time. But often, it's that confession of faith then comes with making amends. Again, we have such opportunity to serve and to lift people up. People may desire to be baptized, and you know that that presents itself its own set of problems. Do you do emergent? Do you do pouring and sprinkling? What if they're not going to be leaving the hospital? Of course, then maybe it would be sprinkling? Maybe they need to receive the Lord's Supper. 

what happens in care facilities is an amazing opportunity for you, as a leader, to go to these facilities as a licensed officiant, a licensed ordained officiant or minister. what we're going to talk about now is the actual visit, what do you do? The wording is very detailed. first, it's important to have the credentials for the visits and ceremonies. I would say at Christian Leaders Alliance, get your ordination ID. Have your letter of Good Standing in your glove compartment or another place of ask, you can produce it. I also recommend getting business cards that you can leave with the person or family or visiting or sometimes just to leave at the nurse's station. In care facilities, credentials are very important. They're very important for the nursing staff. I believe they're going to be continuing to be important. I believe that the credentials for clergy are going to increase in their importance. I remember waiting before HIPAA laws back in the 1980s, and 90s. You could go into a facility and just say, you’re clergy, and they would just give you the clergy pass, and there you go. But I've noticed today that the IDs are asked for and they are important and once they see that you are trained, and that you're helping the professional staff. Because there is soul care, you know, someone can go to a care facility, and the medical community has acknowledged that the care of the soul is extremely important. that's your calling in your ministry. get your credentials.

Let's talk about your appearance. when you think about appearance is how you present yourself when you go to a care facility. I always have noticed that that clergy and ministers who pay attention to their appearance, they are even more effective in ministering to people in care facilities. positive appearance, without cologne or perfume. There are some people that get an allergic reaction to smells, and to cologne or perfume. Make sure you have fresh breath. get your peppermints out. I remember my first internship with an accomplished minister in terms of visiting at care facilities. he said that getting peppermints was as important as bringing your Bible. 

Now again, the Bible was the most important thing to bring. But he wanted to really make that clear to me. Dress as a minister, that sort of ‘minister uniform.’ Now let's talk about that a little bit. I'm not saying that you have to have a clergy collar and all that. That certainly does help. we get asked all the time to develop some sort of clergy badge for Christian Leaders Alliance. maybe by the time you see this, we will have something. But there is that concept of, you know, wearing the clergy type of uniform. when you come into the care facility, you have your ID, and you have your clergy shirt or something that says that you are an ordained minister. the nurses have nurse outfits on, and the doctors have doctor outfits on. Now, in terms of a minister, you know, there's a trend sort of like in churches where ministers just kind of wear casual dress and all of that. That's a great trend. I participate in that. I know when I go to a hospital, I want to dress that clergy look. So, for whatever that means for you that's definitely something to keep in mind. Remember, when you dress as a minister or as an officiant, that this is an official act of ministry. the official is something that is very important. 

Remember that not only is this an official act of ministry, it communicates confidence to the staff that's taking care of the person you're visiting. remember that the clergy designation is helpful. you have access to the hospital or care facility chaplain if they have one. the chaplain is extremely helpful. the chaplain appreciates that you have a minister uniform on with a Minister ID, they will even in some hospitals, they will give you a hospital ID with a picture ID and so forth. If you go to the chaplain’s office, and what the chaplain will ask for is your ID. Many times, a chaplain will look up your ordination or your license. they can find it at Christian Leaders Alliance. you know, they're verifying your identity to know that you are an ordained minister.

now, let's shift gears here and talk about your ministry preparation for your visit. what I've learned in that I've learned over the years, and I've seen this practice, that there are certain essential checklist blanks to go over to prepare for ministry at care facilities. The first thing that I ask is that the Lord, I pray for having a listening and positive presence. 

Now, why is that first? It can be difficult to go into care facilities. You face things in care facilities that make you question God's will, sometimes; that's just the honest truth. you know, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe they're saved. But there is that that positive regard, that positive presence, where you're prayed up, and whatever situation you face there—and there are some surprising ones that may occur in some tragic situations—you sense the power of the Holy Spirit, and you are prayed up for this situation. One of the things that, over the years, I've done is role play a situation. I practice potentially difficult visits, like you would practice a speech. My wife will play the patient, and then I'm playing the minister. 

 then then I'll ask my wife to how would you feel if you were visited by me, and she would share like what, you know, I noticing you don't look me in the eyes, or you look me too strong on the eyes, or she'll, you know, say something about some of my people-smart acumen, bedside mannerisms. it all helps to really ask yourself if we are ready. again, you ultimately can't take too much time doing this, you just go for it. every time you go for a game more experienced? Part of that is when you asked for your wife's evaluation, or you asked for your family's evaluation, what we go over these types of questions. ask your family, ask your wife, your spouse, your husband, your family to critique the role play visit? Did you come off as caring and positive? Did you smile in a relaxed way? Did you listen? Did you do the visit with confidence? Did you read Scripture and pray? Sometimes it's so funny, we'll do the role play, I don't even get the Scripture because it's obvious that's what I'm going to do. Then my wife will say, oh, are you going to read Scripture with me today? I didn't take that serious in the role play. then go back and read Scripture and so forth. Because remember, the center piece is the word in prayer. to get comfortable with it, to learn about getting comfortable with opening the Bible, is interesting when you're actually on a hospital visit All of a sudden you can't remember where the book of Colossians is. it's like I know where Colossians is, this is in the New Testament, right? But in the situation, somebody will you know, interrupt you and often you forget where Colossians is. what I do in preparation, is take a little bookmarker and I'm going to do Psalm. Perhaps I will read a Psalm and I'm going to do something in Colossians, so I put bookmarks in different spots. Prepare at home. Now I will also ask someone and we're going to talk about that a little bit. If there's a passage they want to read, and then you're just going to have to know your Bible and get to it but it's all about confidence. I like to do ministry preparation. Your ministry preparations are important. Even if you don't have a hospital visit. Sometimes it's fun to play our role play like a game if you're with another ministry couple. how people do charades in trades are like role acting. If you know of another minister, a single minister, a ministry couple, and let's say you have a friend, Susan, who is going into ministry, and then he saw you and your husband at Susan and her husband, or let's say, Susan and Mary, Mary's a single gal, she's going to ministry. The three of you are serving the Lord and are called into ministry. Have each other over and do role playing. Then it's actually kind of interesting, because humor and learning go on together and vice versa. Your friend, George is going into ministry, and you are and you're all for in this together yet Christian Leaders Institute. Have fun, instead of playing charades have fun role playing, visiting care facilities now and do not feel guilty about it. Like, things can be kind of funny here and there. Because your if you know, what you're doing is you're using play, to learn. Play is really good. In terms of you know, it's interesting, and your insight, I learned that in golf, I like to golf, golf is play. But you know, as I golf with other good golfers, and they're playing and I'm playing, I'm learning a lot. Why don't we do that more in ministry? It’s pretty awesome, anyway. Learn, prepare, so now let's just pretend that we're ready to start visiting people, we're ready to go for it. Let's talk about the critical elements of that. What does that look like? The first thing is to get permission for the visit. Depending on your relationship with a family, get permission to visit. Now, sometimes you're close to the family, you know, this person, and all I have to do is just stop in when you can. Although more and more, you know, it used to be that you could just do that. But today, I would get permission. Even if I knew the family very well, I would give send a quick text over there. I also feel it's advisable to call the care facility so you are expected. More and more, this is becoming really crucial. Ask yourself if you're in a quality relationship of blessing with the person you want to visit. Again, don't overplay this, because you can overthink this. But if there is a definite conflict, you may want to go forward differently than if there is not a conflict. Usually this does not apply. I just have seen over the years that, very occasionally, someone is trying to recover. You know, there's a conflict, and again, how things happen: the devil mucks things up. You do not want to make the visit about reconciliation with you. You're there to minister to that person. Those are just considerations. The first thing you want to do is get permission to visit. 

Now let's talk about arriving at the care facility. Park in the clergymen parking if available. We have a clergy pass that comes with your ordination package. Go to the visitors’ desk and get out your clergy ID to show it. Again, just have it ready; a lot of times at care facilities, the reception desk is manned by volunteers. I remember that minister who taught me how to do hospital visits when I was in my 20s in my internship, and he was really good at it. We would get out of the car and he said he would say get your IDs out now. In some hospitals in Chicago in United States we actually had an ID that was made from the chaplain’s office and he would be like, get your ID out. Then other times we would have our ordination card that came from the Christian Reformed Denomination, you could just get your ID out. I would often say that, myself, well don't they know us by now we've been back, you know, we are a church of 1000 people, they should know us. I asked him, I said, well, don't they know us. He said, there are volunteers. They could be a first-time volunteer. They have a job description and their job description is to check ID. You don't want to put them in the position where you look like you're offended that they should know you, because they're trying to do their work and their volunteers, and serve the staff here, have your ID up, and come in and have your ID out. Even if they say you’re welcome back, just have it there, because they look better in their work, that they're following procedures, and more and more those with security, clearances, and all of that, going up. It's not only the relationship that you have with people at the care facilities, but that you always respect them. Their job is to check IDs, and you are respecting them. That's what firm would say is that when you come to the facility, you gain an amazing reputation. If you respect their procedures, even if you know they happen again and again, you want the volunteers to say Kern always shows his ID. Even though I know Kern, he shows his ID. Sometimes Kern, when said that people say, why do you always show me the ID? Kern said: that, is that what you're supposed to do: check IDs when people come in and what not, and the care facility personnel will say, Yes, well, I respect you. Then they joke about it, and it becomes one care facility we would visit, it will become a joke, because we get our IDs, and that person would show me your ID again, but it was a respect it was everybody has a role in care facilities, I always appreciated Kern’s attitude about that. 

Go to the visitor desk and get out your clergy ID card to show it. Or in many cases, if there's not a visitor desk, still have the ID ready. Then go to the restroom to wash your hands or if it is available use the hand sanitizer. Kern was so amazing at this. A lot of times, if a nurse in the staff sees you coming, they will notice that you wash your hands and it will get around that that clergy member washes their hands. That's very assuring before you enter the room, seek the nurse's station or reception station to report in. This is, again, respect. Don't just walk to the room in sometimes very long care patients and your you know where they are, still check in. This also has another implication: if family member comes, you're partnering with the care staff. They'll often say, hey, the Minister came to visit your mom or something like that. It's just really neat. Here's just something to know: do not ask for medical details. There are HIPAA laws: there's confidentiality and don't put nurses and care people and doctors is a position where they have to say I'm sorry, I can't tell you that situation. 

A lot of this is just showing respect and showing respect is to do those things and to make that part of your acumen. Now let's talk next about care facility visit etiquette. Here's some basic things to keep in mind. Short visits as rule of thumb. Now, there are exceptions to this. If somebody is feeling extremely needy a longer visit is needed. That is fine. But as a rule, short visits. Our rule of thumb is to try to keep your visits to 15 minutes, at most half hour. I would consider a half hour visit a long visit. Now somebody may say well you know, why don't you just sit there and sit with them. I would say, be very careful. If they're really a close family member, that's one thing. That's the role of the family. Your role is to come in and you have a ceremony to do. We're going to open the word God, we're going to pray, we get down to business with the Lord. What that does, it edifies the office, and it helps people get down to business. But you just sit there, and you know, some people go like, well, aren't you there to hold someone's hand? Yes, but your first thing is to minister to someone's heart and their soul. to keep that in mind; that keep your visits short. 

Leave the room if procedures need to be performed. All of a sudden the doctor shows up and is great that the doctor sees you in there, you know, I'm Dr. Barbara. Hello, Barbara. Hey, let me leave. Sometimes the parishioner will want you to stay in the room. Often I'll say, well, you know, Dr. Barbara is here, I'll just go out there and get a cup of coffee. I'll come back in. Oh, let's say in 20 minutes. Is that okay, Dr. Barbara? Dr. Barbara will say, oh, no, you can come back and five, I'm only going to be here for a little bit, or 10 minutes. Okay, great, then I'll come back at that time. The only time that I stick around is if somebody says, you know, right now I am really cloudy. I want to talk to Dr. Barbara, and I want pastor to hear this all, to remind me what was said, to write down for me. You know what is being said and Dr. Barbara is okay. Because, by the HIPAA laws, if someone gives you permission to hear something, fine. So then sometimes I will stay. But I'm still, even then, very circumspect, because if you stay in, you write things down. Then the family of, let's say, an elderly individual comes and they're talking to a doctor, and you're there, and you're hearing it one way, and the family hears it another way. Sometimes you can get involved in a meddling relationship when you did not intend to be part of a meddling relationship, because then maybe Grandma, or you know, the elderly individual will say, talk to the pastor. She heard it this way, talk to the pastor, he heard it this way, talk to the Minister. Those are just little things that I've learned over the years is. If possible, try to leave the room.

Be sickness free to the best of your knowledge. this is somewhat of an obvious one. But sometimes people, I think I'm getting over this cold, I'm feeling better today, I'm not going to worry about it. No, be sickness free. Consider wearing a cloth mask in certain situations. I believe in the post COVID world wearing a mask may be mandatory. I notice now dentists wear masks. When they're doing their official work, nurses, doctors wear masks. I believe this is going to be a thing for clergy. 

Christians Leader Alliance, I know that we're planning to get a mask with a little logo. Again, it just shows that official thing to a cloth mask we're working on. I believe that etiquette is going to be continuing and it may be something you want to consider when you go into a room now. If you're totally healthy and the person is recovering or it is not appropriate, it will be so obvious, but if somebody is feeling much stress, anyway, then wearing that cloth mask, in certain situations, would be very helpful. 

Talk with your volume lower when you're in a care facility, but remember, meet the hearing needs of your client. There are times when someone is not able to hear very well or they don't have their hearing aid with them, or it's not working. Yet, sometimes you have to look them right in the eye and speak. Once you get to know them, find out what is their good ear, many times they have one good ear, and one bad ear. It's very appropriate to talk louder to someone and then if you notice they're not hearing, ask, can you hear me? Is your better ear, or is your other ear better? Then walk over to the other side of the bed, or the other side of the person. 

Don't expect anyone to entertain you or make conversation with you. A lot of times people aren't feeling good, and they don't really want to talk very much. When they do talk, they want to say exactly what they want to say. If they want to unburden their soul, they just want to say it. Don't then say to them, why did you do this? Or ply them with a lot of questions about it. You're there to listen. Then ask, would you like me to pray, for that concern? Would you like me to help you say a prayer confession about that, since this really is troubling you? Many times, they'll say yes. Do not ask professional caregivers questions that they are not allowed to answer. Again, I go back to those HIPAA rules. I want to go back in the etiquette and make sure that we are reminded of those things.

Now let's talk about the actual visit itself. Here's a sort of step by step, visit checklist. First of all, I know you've been at the nurse's station now, and you're all checked in. Enter the road with a gentle smile. Be careful not to overdo this, because in a lot of ways, someone's there for a reason. You don’t want to disrupt things by being too enthusiastic. You don't need to oversell that God is the Lord of all and all things belong to him and all things are in his hands. 

Come in with a gentle confidence a gentle smile, give a greeting such as, my wife, Pam and I are praying for you, that you get through this situation right now, or that the surgery goes well. Or that each day, God is with you. One thing to be very careful about: Think about it before you get into the room. What would be an appropriate greeting? Here's the next thing. Don't tell them they look rough or flatter them as how well they look. You know like: You are not looking good today; this was really challenging for you; your eyes look puffy; I can see that the person who does hair has not showed up yet. Stay away from all of those things, stay away from that.

Then don't go the other way. You know: Hey, I'm here! Oh, wow, you know, you look great. Even though their hair is crazy, and they don't feel great. Be so careful that when you come in you give a professional Godly greeting. What I mean by professional is one that is confident, one that's gentle with a gentle smile. One that you know you're not making calling attention to their own appearance. Usually, but not always, they want to talk about their experience at the care facility. This is interesting too. You come in with your gentle smile. You give them their greeting and just pause a little bit, and they'll start talking. Some will start talking about their care. If something's not going well, you know, they'll start saying things like, you know, the nurse here is ignoring me, or remember, they're not feeling well, so maybe they're not at their best place right now. Or they'll talk about how well it's going. You listen. Now, if they are, in a sense, gossiping about the nurse or something like that, this is a good time to keep that gentle smile and say, you know, I am sure that she is doing the best she can. I know that you are loved by God. The point is, is to keep it positive, and don't get caught up. This has happened so often, where someone is having a bad day, and they start complaining about the nurse. Then the clergy get caught up in saying I'm going to go talk to that nurse. A minister goes out and says, you know, Betty here is complaining about her lack of service. But what has really happened is, Betty right now is in a miserable self-state. The nurse has been in there more than all the other nurses, has been more than the other patients and Betty is coming off complaining. You come out there only to make the nurse feel worse. Be very careful about that; you are by privilege of being an ordained or licensed officiant, you're on the staff to bring care. Don't get caught up in that drama. You don't need to go to the nurse's station at the end of the visit and say, Betty has been really complaining a lot about you. I just want to give you that feedback. No, pray for the nurses. Now, in the case of Betty, It's okay that Betty complains. But also, you're there to give her hope and pray for her and open the Word of God. Maybe your being there by praying open the Word of God sort of helps Betty to appreciate the nursing staff. Also be careful that you're not going to pick passages about do not gossip, and do not try to heal Betty of her complaining attitude. Let the Lord do that. Your work is to bring comfort and to bring the courage. Usually, not always, they want to talk about the people who visited them at their care or their care provider. Be careful to keep things positive. I can't stress that enough. This is a visit where you're keeping things positive. Now, you're there and you’ve had a few minutes of small talk and so forth. Now comes the visit ceremony. You are an officiant a licensed ordained officiant. You are a minister you are bringing into this room, this care facility, this meeting, and maybe this meeting is in Skype and sometimes you're visiting someone on their little smartphone. You're visiting them, whatever that meaning is, you are bringing in a ceremony is the official work of the Lord's ceremony for this person. What does that look like? Disclose that you are here for them. If they need a minister, if you are one on one, you can inform them that this is of confidential nature. Remember, we talked before about the clergy privilege. I have been surprised over the years how this has come into play. 

Then you open the Scripture. I ask them if there's a Scripture passage they want me to read. Do that. If they say no, comfortably open your Bible, or your phone app, as I suggested before about a having some tabs in there or some markers where you're going to turn. Read about five minutes of Scriptures seeking to help put relevant passages before them. This part, this first section of the ceremony, is really getting into opening the Word of God, and give that disclosure, especially if they don't really know you, or know how you roll, or know how to work with clergy. I believe it's important that you disclose that this is confidential, even though you can assume they know it. But then how do they know that? Over the years, I would be like, don't people know that? They don't know that. If I were do a role play with you a little bit, let's say you're the person laying down, and I'm saying, hey George I'm here to see you. What a privilege that I'm allowed as a clergy member to come here to have a one on one conversation and know that this visit is confidential. It's all part of the blessing to you in ministry to you. I'd like to open up with a Scripture reading. 

Is there any passage that you would like me to share? George might say, yeah, read Psalm 23. Good, read Psalm 23. After you read Psalm 23, then maybe flip over to another passage that you have prepared that may apply to their situation, and in all within a five-minute scenario. That's the first segment. Let's talk about the next segment of the visit. The next segment is the prayer or confession. Now, say things like, can I pray for you then? Is there anything you want to share, for me to pray about? this permission thing noticed, can I pray for you? Yes, Pastor. Oh, thank you so much. Is there anything you want to share for me to pray about? This is again, an interesting moment. Is there anything that you want to share. What I have found is that it might not be about the reason or the hospital is about something else. After they share, praise for their blessing. They're healing in clean details of what they asked for. They might ask you to pray for a burden that they're sharing, pray for that. But then also pray for their healing. Keep the prayer simple and short, and have the anointing oil ready, if they want you to anoint them. 

In another presentation, I'm going to talk about the anointing oil ceremony. But I'll say one thing about here is some people want to be anointed with oil, and some people do not. What I recommend is to have the anointing oil with you in every visit. what I do when I'm in these situations is, I just basically say, George, I have some anointing oil with me. Or we can just pray for you. A lot of times people will say all thank you, or people will just say, Oh, just pray for me is fine. After the visit, let's do a role play. Now to kind of clarify this even more, so, I would say I've read Scripture now; we'll go to the next thing. George, can I pray for you? Is there anything that you want to share for me to pray about? George says, Yes. I'm feeling really bad about the relationship with my brother. He's not visited me. Really, we have not been getting along for years. Okay, George, Let's pray. I'm going to pray for your healing and asked me to pray for that relationship the Lord opens the door. Then you pray, Lord, George has shared, that he's burdened about a relationship with his brother. I pray, Lord, that somehow, you open the door for healing in this relationship, and George is here, because he's recovering from surgery, and I pray, Lord, that You will bring him healing. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Now, that is a simple prayer ceremony. Now sometimes somebody is there and they want to be anointed with oil. A lot of times, and it's just another thing to notice, people want to be anointed with oil when family members are there. Now, if family members are there, this is not one on one, and the clergy privilege might not work like it does in the one on one. Notice that in one on one, you can ignore clergy privilege with oil. But also notice that when there's more people, family members, it feels more like appropriate or more of a thing to do the anointing oil. Now, again, these are all like things that you will notice through the work of the Holy Spirit, that some of you will just anointed with oil every time. That's beautiful. If that's your tradition, that's very appropriate. For other people anointing with oil, every time is not welcomed. 

Now you've read the Word of God, and you have prayed. Next, you're going to leave. What I find that's really helpful when you're going to leave is to let them know you're going to leave. What I find helpful is to keep in mind a few things to leave as devotional gift. What I remember about that first minister that I was with, he would leave a devotional gift. The devotional gift that he would leave with things like it was called someone cares, I remember that. All it was, was Bible passages that were written in large print. They were the good ones, in terms of the situations when somebody is struggling, God cares, cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you. I remember that was one of the passages. You can find these optional devotional gifts. By all means, leave that type of a gift. Some people say leave flowers and all that stuff. I've come to the opinion that you can let family bring flowers and everybody's bringing flowers, as a minister or officiant, bring a devotional gift. You're not going to bring a gift every time. I realize that. But leave a gift if you would like, I recommended devotional one, and leave your card. 

The card is very important, because sometimes when you visit people, they're only sort of with it. Their souls are connected through prayer. Ask them if there's anyone you want them to contact with a message from them. This is so neat to do that, and with a blessing. Here's a sample. Hey, George, I'm leaving now. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make you be with you now and always. Just a beautiful blessing is such a positive regard. To be able to do that, it's like a worship service. You come in there, you have your greeting. You share the Lord’s greeting with them. They respond by talking about their life a little bit and, you know, keeping it short. You respond by opening the Word of God, asking them if they have a passage. After the Word of God, you asked them to respond. Is there anything that you want prayed for? Or do you have, you know, anything you want to share that I can put in the prayer? There's that, you just pray that I get better or pray for my conflict situation. Or I feel bad about something, can you pray for me there, and then you pray for that, then you bring the Lord in the ceremony, even again. You've again got this, you know, connections, talking, listening, repeatedly going on. After the prayer, you're ready to leave. 

You ask if there's anything you can, do, and then you leave with a blessing, and the worship service has ended. It's beautiful. Now, I want to add one thing is that you could do communion. Bring the elements, especially if you ask permission first, or if that's expected, in your sort of traditions. What I like to have is, in my possession, I like to have a communion set. We've taught how to do communion earlier in this class. But there are little like portable communion sets, and is a beautiful thing to take them along, like a chaplain would do. You've been taught how to do communion, the Lord's Supper that is, and in that can be a beautiful piece of the visit. If you add communion, you do the Word of God section, and then after the Word of God, you open it up to Communion, and then do the prayer section. 

Is there anything I can pray for? Now, sometimes that can be mixed up where you do the Communion first and then the Bible passage, or you do the Bible passage, you do the prayer, then Communion, you know, I have found that the Bible passage Communion and then ending in prayer and, quote, benediction is a powerful ceremony in worship service to do. I give you guys blessing as you are called, to be an officiant to lead others in their walk with God. May God bless you and keep you as you are serving others as you serve the Lord.