Like other families whose members travel for miles to celebrate the season together, this one gathered from far-flung places to share Christmas dinner. But unlike other families, many attending The Baptist Foundation of Alabama annual Christmas party had never met one another face to face.
For the third year the Foundation hosted a Christmas luncheon for its elderly clients Dec. 18 at Capitol Heights Baptist Church in Montgomery. The Foundation also hosted a satellite Christmas luncheon in Rainbow City for the first time earlier in the month.
The Montgomery luncheon was attended by more than 100, including 45 clients, their caregivers, representatives of various assisted-living facilities where they reside and people who transported them to the luncheon. The Rainbow City luncheon was attended by 12 people and was held in the private dining room of the Regency Point facility.
Clients receive invitations to the annual event, according to Tom Randall, vice president for ministry, and Foundation staffers pick up those who live in the area. Transportation is arranged for the others.
While the event is catered, Foundation staff — who don aprons, bow ties, and some Santa hats — serve. Their goal is to celebrate Christmas as family because that’s what the Foundation tries to be to its clients.
“These clients have a very personal relationship with the Foundation because they’ve entrusted us their resources, their finances, their care,” Randall said, noting that attendance at the Christmas luncheon has increased yearly since its inception.
The Foundation, however, adopts a year-round familial responsibility for its elderly clients with no close relatives. “We do everything just as a son or daughter would do for a member of their family.”
In addition to helping them manage their finances, the Foundation actively handles a myriad of tasks for elderly clients, including arranging health care and picking up prescriptions. “This ministry to our senior clients is tangent to the primary purpose of the Foundation,” Randall explained, “which allows them to reinvest in Christian ministry beyond their lifetime.”
Clients of the Foundation and board of directors came from across the state to the luncheon. One director even drove from Tennessee. The oldest client in attendance was 92. Randall said elderly clients benefit from getting acquainted with people who share similar life circumstances. “It’s a source of encouragement to them to see another aging person up and around, out and going.”
Randall said Foundation staffers also are encouraged from seeing their clients. “Another benefit of this gathering is it gives the staff an opportunity to put a face with a name, particularly for someone who works at the building.”
Barry Bledsoe, Foundation president, welcomed those attending the luncheon, noting that, “One of the favorite things we do is our elder care ministry.”
Henry Lyon, retired leader of the deacon and family ministry office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, addressed the crowd. He related humorous anecdotes from his pastoral experience before pointing out that God gave mankind the gift of Himself in the person of Jesus. “We’re about to celebrate that great gift, but as we celebrate let us remember while we’re here upon this earth as long as we know what we’re doing mentally, we can be His hands.”
96-year-old example
Lyon mentioned his own mother as an example of someone who demonstrates this.
At age 96 and in assisted living, he said she still calls every member of her church on their birthday and prays with them. “As long as you know what you’re doing and can use a telephone you can be a blessing to others.”
For those who can’t use a phone, Lyon reminded them to smile or touch. Now age 68 himself, he told them, “I’m watching all you folks to know how to live from now on. So teach me well.”
Eighty-two-year-old Margaret Newman was one of the Foundation clients in attendance. In a wheelchair and living in a retirement home, she drove with a caregiver from Anniston just to attend the luncheon. “It was fun,” she said. “It was real nice. I enjoyed it.”
For Irene Ross, 88, it also was an opportunity to catch up with her former pastor and his wife, Sarah Jane. Ross is a member of First Baptist Church, Selma, where Lyon served as pastor for many years.
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