June Ministry Spotlight: Nursing Home Ministry
On the fourth Sunday of each month, Mount Hope’s nursing home ministry travels to the Lexington Healthcare Center to minister to the residents. This team coordinates a worship time, and a lesson from scripture as well as a time to pray individually with those in attendance.

Leader George LeVeille has been overseeing the ministry for about five years. He recently took some time to talk further about this ministry that seeks to bring the transforming love of Jesus Christ to those in the long-term nursing home facility.

Q: Why did you get involved with leading the nursing home ministry?

George plays the keyboard Sundays at Mount Hope

A: My wife was in a nursing home and she had Alzheimer’s. Even before she was in there I would go in as a commercial gig to sing and play music. But I noticed there was another church from the area going on the second Sunday of each month. I could tell the residents liked it so much and I was thinking gosh there’s only one group coming in here once a month. I spoke with the director and they said by all means you can come in here. So I tried to enlist some people at Mount Hope. Through the years we’ve kept doing it. Q: What keeps you going in this ministry?

A: These people are in the end stages of life and that place is like God’s waiting room. These people are waiting to go home and we help them do something – we help them listen to the Bible stories and sing old hymns. Some of them have pretty good memories, but a lot of them don’t know their own names. When you put the word of God out there you just don’t know what affect it will have on people. We don’t worry too much about whether they seem to understand it or not; it’s the word of God and it’s up to us to put it out there.

Q: When and where does the nursing home ministry meet?

A: We meet at Lexington Healthcare Center and it’s the fourth Sunday of the month. Even if there’s a fifth Sunday in the month we go on the fourth Sunday.

We start at 2 p.m. and we go for about 40 to 45 minutes with the songs and a short simple message. We wrap it up with songs and we recite the Lord’s prayer and then pray for the residents.

Q: What are your volunteer needs?

A: I would like to work with the community groups to set up a rotating system where enough people can go to another nursing home, like the one in North Billerica. They wouldn’t have to do it all the time; it’s only one Sunday a month right now.

For myself, I don’t know how long my voice will hold up because I have Parkinson’s. But I’m going to do this as long as I can.

If anyone would like to learn more about the nursing home ministry's volunteer opportunities email George LeVeille HERE or call him at 781-272-4496.