What makes a beautiful home? It’s a question I have been exploring in recent contact with Presbyterian Women groups seeking to support our work, as I attempt to link in with their current theme. And it’s a question that God has placed in my heart since childhood.
I had the privilege of growing up in a foster family, and having that background, I have always known that a place does not need to consist of biologically related people to be called a home. Home-making is the greatest joy, and I’ll quote C.S. Lewis who says, “The homemaker’s job is the one for which all others exist.”
In that spirit, we have set out in Trinity House to first and foremost create a home. Indeed, we have been given a beautiful container for our home. It’s fresh and really very lovely. But that’s not what makes us a home. So, we’ve worked hard this year to really get to know each other, and to set up an environment in which we share and have fellowship. We’ve had some really great laughs and some equally heart-wrenching lows.
We’re making a new community in which residents and their relatives are settling into, and which I hope staff are beginning to realise is not like other homes. Folks often focus on the number 50 – 50 residents can be accommodated here. But not one of them is a number to us. All of the staff are encouraged to really get to know the residents, to dig deep and find out all of the special things about our residents, our new family.
And that’s not just care staff. From the front door, where Hilary our administrator will quickly find out where your allegiances lie in the Premier League, you are more than a number to us. Kitchen staff don’t just make your meals, but they’ll hold your hand and listen over a cup of tea. Domestic staff will clean our home, but they’ll also remember exactly where your ornaments sit and your photos belong. Donna is our activities co-ordinator, but she is also a prayer warrior, praying with and for you from the moment she even hears your name.
What is a beautiful home? It’s a Christ-glorifying, prayer-saturated place. It’s one the devil would delight in destroying – he hates beautiful homes. So please pray for us. Your prayerful support will be a blessing upon our home and help us to remain beautiful.
Please pray:
Pray for all our residents and their families.
Pray for our staff, in all of their daily work.
Pray that we would be a beautiful home, where God’s light and love would shine.
Jayne Bellingham is the Home manager at PCI's Trinity House in Garvagh.
This article first appeared in the December January edition of the Presbyterian Herald. To download the full edition, click here.