It is a certainty that, at some point after my visit, everyone I visit will die. Recently, I seem to be hastening their demise. Out of all the people I have visited during my placement, approximately 50% have died within a month of me visiting. In one of my recent trips to the hospital, there was one seriously ill lady that I spent some time with. Well she has survived my visit, but the lady from my home congregation who was in the next bed died the other day. This is the sort of statistical pattern that would normally see police involvement. ""So Mr Gerbil, are you really expecting me to believe that all these people just happened to die after you visited...?"
This has just been the sort of season where there has been a lot of people who really needed a visit from a Minister. People who need the sort of comfort that they look to a Minister to provide, and there just hasn't been much time to drop round to random members of the congregation and catch up with things. It has certainly shown that there is a need for congregations to be active in pastoral visiting, and not just by the minister or the elders. If anything, it's teh pastoral side of things that I will be taking most from in this placement.
I would just rather not be in a position where, when I knock on the door, the person that answers says "Oh no! It's the Minister! I didn't know I was that sick!" (Just before they expire at my feet...)
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