'Tis the Season

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but...... Why do people and organizations flock to the nursing homes during the Christmas season, and neglect them the rest of the year? Why don't youth groups go "caroling" up and down the hallways all year round, instead of just during December? Why don't church chorales go sing in July? Why is it so hard for people to go to nursing homes? Are they fearful of getting old, handicapped, senile? Are they reminded that they too will grow old and die someday? When our church started a nursing home ministry about 34 years ago, we had to wait to get a Sunday afternoon anywhere. We eventually got Sunday afternoon at four different facilities. There were so many churches doing the ministry that we had to wait to get those days. Now, some nursing homes in our town have maybe one or two churches coming. Yes, it is a hard ministry, and, yes, people don't shout AMEN and reaffirm the preaching, but they are listening, and they might be lost, and they need people to care that they are one step from eternity. My verse is Jer. 8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." A friend of mine has a Bible study at a N.H. She has been praying for this one elderly lady for two years. A week or so ago that lady accepted Christ, at the age of 97! God is good.