Caring for the Caring

Jay Licata facilitates a small group at Ventura Missionary Church. One of the members of this group works at St. John's Hospital in Oxnard and has often shared with the group about the tremendous pressure the healthcare workers have been under during the Coronavirus pandemic. The hospital staff has been showing up for work day after day, and month after month despite the ongoing fatigue and stress they face. Most of them have been working 12-16 hour shifts, five-six days a week due to COVID-19. Some of them have had COVID themselves. They love on their patients and show compassion for each one. They laugh when their patients get to go home, and they cry when their patients don't survive the disease. They have not become numb to the fact that they are dealing with people - someone's mom, or aunt, or wife, or grandfather, or brother, or friend.

The small group decided that they wanted to do something to show these men and women that God sees them, and God loves them. So, they hand-delivered a meal to the healthcare workers and also delivered additional food to bless the hospital itself. The staff was so excited and very appreciative of the meal.
 
The group was grateful for the opportunity to care for those who are so selflessly caring for others. It is a privilege to extend God's love as 1 Peter 4:10 describes, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." The smiles behind the masks on the nurses faces sparkled right through their eyes - evidence that God's love and grace and provision are meant to be shared!