Introducing our 2013 Summer Interns: Click here

Tarrant County Annual Benefit Dinner May 7 SEE PHOTOS

TARRANT COUNTY:

Fri-Sat, May 17, 18th
Creating A Healing Community Workshop
Southside Church of Christ

Left to Right ... Mike St.Clair, Bailey Burgess, Nathan Neil, Victoria Garza, Quincy DeQueenmani, George Fore, Hunter Clinton, Ben Benson.
Kneeling...David Martin

Alone In The Hospital
By David Martin, Director of Spiritual Care
Lifeline Tarrant County

Illness has its way of isolating us. We are away from family, friends and normal routines. The hum and beep of medical machinery remind us that we are ill. The metal bars on the bed are cold and unfeeling. Patients can feel hemmed in, as if imprisoned. We are thus “dis-membered.” Cut off from that we find most familiar, and under attack from disease, illness, or injury, a sadness and melancholy can descend.

This is where an attentive Lifeline volunteer makes a difference. Lifeline volunteers listen to the stories of their patients. They are story-hearers. In active listening, they “re-member” with the storytellers. This reconnection is essential in the healing process. The telling of a patient’s story in the hospital reminds the teller of their connection to the faith community, as well as the strength available through the prayers and good wishes of a broader network. Nurses and doctors sometimes hear these stories, but these caregivers are overwhelmed with duties, and usually cannot stay long.

The Lifeline volunteer, on the other hand, may stay as long as needed for the patient to “re-member” with them. In doing so, they reconnect with the community of Christ. How? Through listening, the pastoral care volunteer hears the spoken (and unspoken) cries of the heart, and offers prayer at some point in the visit. This is a unique gift trained volunteers bring to the seriously ill person. Lifeline volunteers bring a spiritual component to bear directly on the isolation of the patient. Ongoing loneliness can be hazardous to one’s spiritual and physical health.

“Spirituality’s long-standing connection to story and storytelling ensures that we will never be alone in the spiritual way of life. For whenever and wherever there is a storyteller, there will also be a storyhearer. In the communal act of telling and listening, listening and telling, the sense of belonging begins.”*

This is why our ministry is so important. We remind the sick that they are God’s child, even in the isolated hospital room. And, equally important, He resides with them in the midst of pain.

Galatians 6:2 – “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ."

*The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham.

Office address: 2701 West Berry Street, Suite 102-103, Fort Worth, Texas 76109
Phone: 713-817-9234
E-Mail address: DMartin@LifelineChaplaincy.org

Our volunteers

Patients are being visited in these Ft. Worth area hospitals:

Arlington Memorial CLICK
Baylor Grapevine CLICK
Baylor All-Saints Medical Center CLICK
Cook's Children CLICK
Harris HEB CLICK
Harris Methodist Hospital CLICK
Harris SW Fort Worth CLICK
John Peter-Smith (JPS Health Network) CLICK
Kindred Fort Worth CLICK
Mansfield Methodist CLICK
Medical Center of Arlington CLICK
Plaza Medical Center CLICK
Texas Health Alliance CLICK