McElwain’s ministry touches others with love

The sweet presence of the Holy Spirit is clearly evident in you,” prayed Patsy Arnold. Holding the 95-year-old hand of a bedridden woman, Patsy ministered with a word of prayer and a loving touch.
   
The Loving Touch Ministry of McElwain Baptist Church, Birmingham, reaches more than 150 people a month. Being used as God’s hands and feet, volunteers share God’s love with people. Across a span of 28 years, more than 21,000 contacts have been made.
   
“My mother died in 1973 after suffering eight years from Alzheimer’s disease. I saw what a difference visits make,” said Arnold. “They would snap her back into reality for a short time.”
   
Begun in 1973 as a WMU mission action group, Loving Touch has blossomed into a churchwide effort. Arnold has led the ministry from its inception. Twenty-eight years ago, six women faithfully visited a handful of shut-ins. Now, more than 70 dedicated McElwain members visit people of all ages who face challenging times.
   
“When we started, our emphasis was to choose people to visit outside of the church family,” said Arnold. “Our emphasis was reaching out to people who didn’t have a church home.”
   
Loving Touch Ministry continues to seek those without church homes. The ministry focuses on showing the love of God to those who lack a core group of Christians who already visit them.
   
Integral to the ministry, one Bible passage encourages McElwain members to use their lives to serve others. “Since you have been chosen by God who has given you this new kind of life, and because of His deep love and concern for you, you should practice tenderhearted mercy and kindness to others. Don’t worry about making a good impression on them but be ready to suffer quietly and patiently,” reads Colossians 3:12–13.
   
Guided by those verses, the faithful ministers bring with them on each visit a leaflet containing Scripture, a gift and a listening ear. The leaflet often features a short story, biography or poem. Gifts range from edible treats to beautiful plants. Arnold has written more than 70 poems for the leaflets. The poems may entail cute descriptions of gifts, inspirational words of wisdom or memories from her life. Regardless of the content, God’s love and mercy remain a constant theme. God’s offering of love through friendship is the intention of the ministry, and the gifts are reminders of that offering.
   
“We show love where needed,”  explained Arnold. “We may see someone at the doctor’s office, the pharmacy or even in their yard.” Roxie McFarland is now ministered to because Arnold first noticed a wheelchair ramp being built in her front yard. McFarland, born in 1906, lies in her home afterwithstanding kidney failure. “I’m gonna treasure this,” she remarked, as Arnold handed her a mother-in-law-tongue plant. 
   
In honor of Mother’s Day, those visited received the plants and were reminded of the story of Naomi and Ruth. “Can you remember a mother-in-law from the Bible?” asked Arnold, smiling.
   
Before leaving, Arnold sang the spiritual, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow” as McFarland closed her eyes and hummed along. The visit ended with a prayer and a promise of return.
   
Arnold, who also teaches piano every afternoon, organizes the visits and assigns contacts to volunteers. For 25 years, she wrote the leaflets, bought the gifts and packaged the gift bags. She now heads a committee, and duties are designated.
   
“Every summer we meet and plan a theme for each month,” Arnold explained. Rachel Meads and Mary Buchanon are the committee members, and Bill Buchanon writes and types all of the ministry’s publications. No one formally meets during the month, and volunteers are simply reminded of their commitment to visit that week during the Sunday morning worship service. “Our ministers are so faithful. They pick up their gifts when they can, and they visit faithfully,” Arnold proudly said.
   
Arnold attended Mississippi College, Clinton, where she majored in religious education. She remembers feeling called to serve in the ministry at a young age. “Even when I was a teenager, I taught people who were homebound,” she recalled.
   
Homebound persons visited through the Loving Touch ministry are thankful for Arnold’s answer to the call.
   
“This church has meant the world to me,” said Mary Sisk, sighing. The monthly visits are a time of fellowship and sharing for Sisk. Her Loving Touch minister, Linda Moss, listens as Sisk talks about her second honeymoon to California that she shared with her husband between his first cerebral hemorrhage in 1995 and the paralyzing massive stroke in 1996. Suffering from paralysis in everything but his right hand coupled with severe brain damage, her husband, Robert, is an invalid.
   
“I look at it this way,” said Mary. “He’s not fully the man I married, but he is still my husband. He still deserves dignity.”
   
Gathered around her husband’s bed, Arnold, Moss and Sisk pray and sing. “This is the love of my life. He is a joy from the Lord,” Mary said as she straightened her husband’s legs.
   
One of Arnold’s poems entitled “Unshakable” exemplifies a continuing message sent out from her ministry. Uplifting and encouraging those who are down, the ministers of Loving Touch convey the significance of God’s grace each time they visit a home. The following stanzas from Patsy’s poem simply share the good news of the Lord — the hope, the love and the grace that God extends to all: “So when you’re dismayed by the outlook bleak/Should you think of giving up? Never./Our problems though great will eventually end/But the joy to come will last forever.”
   
Those active in the Loving Touch Ministry feel their involvement is a blessing rather than a burden. Shirley and Herbert Moore ministered to a vibrant artist who sadly passed away last year. Using acrylic, watercolors and pastel crayons, Peggy Mauldin created beautiful stationery. Adding touches of pressed flowers, sliced mushrooms and clipped figures, Mauldin imaginatively designed unique art.
   
The talent, though abundant enough to stand alone, was enhanced by the fact that Mauldin was almost blind. Mrs. Moore was uplifted by Mauldin’s beautiful example of contentment. “God supplies all our needs and regardless of age, we have been shown by Mauldin how you can still be used at the tender age of 96,” commented Mrs. Moore.
   
God’s leadership accompanied by Arnold’s willingness to serve  has led to a ministry that seems to have enveloped a church, with almost 25 percent of those who attend Sunday School involved. Arnold believes Loving Touch has been successful because it is in God’s will. “The thing that I marvel about most of all is that you can tell the Lord wants the work to be done,” she whispered.