All in a Day's Work

 It is July of 2018. After years, about six, I have pulled my blog back up. There's entry I need to write and so I need to make my way around the blog again. But I found this entry below - it was a draft from Scott's seminary years, and had not been published. So here it is.

I have not yet commented on Scott's 11-week intense chaplain internship at all, really. But as this summer winds down for him at a local nursing home, today's work must be told.

Background: CPE. Clinical Pastoral Education is an intensive experience where students work as chaplains, while delving into their own personal issues, which affect their ministry. This year, 15 slots for CPE were offered, five of which were at a local, Lutheran Home. This home offers a variety of levels of care. It's actually a neat idea, as there are regular homes on the campus, which a family could purchase and live there totally independently, but as their care needs changed, they would move out of the home, and into a different facility on the grounds. The student chaplains offer Wednesday services, four Sunday services, visitation -- parallel to their own work of papers, group work (basically, group therapy), individuals, verbatims (where they write up a specific visitation word for word, and then present it in group time or individually with the supervisor.

This level of involvement for 11 weeks is actually quite the contrast to the way The Mimi describes it: "how hard can it be? You're just walking around visiting people."

Although Scott has told many, many CPE stories, confidentially of course (not to reveal names or incriminating identifiers), today's was a flat out hoot.

Today was a Sunday in which Scott was giving the sermon for four services: 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, and 2:30 pm. The final service, at 2:30 pm, was a bit more brief and informal, as it was for the Memory Unit (dementia, Alzheimers)........Scott has slipped up a few times and totally by accident called it the Mental Unit.

As they gather for the service, Scott notices a man with a long, white, flowing robe, but it buttons up the front. It/he are indeed unusual. Scott asks if he is a regular, but no, he's new. Which could truly mean anything.

One of the residents usually plays the piano, but today, she was nowhere to be found, so someone went off to find her, and she agreed to play. She asked that he not give her anything complicated to play, but Scott said they'd sing "Jesus Loves Me," "Amazing Grace," and the Doxology. One of Scott's fellow chaplains asked if they should run through the music, and the pianist/resident agreed, so when she started playing Jesus Loves Me, everyone joined in, and she played all verses. Oh well, so much for using that during the service.

The service starts, and out of the corner of Scott's eye, he sees some kind of action going on, but he plows through........(the pianist and one of the other residents do not get along, and at some point as the pianist was about to play, the resident approaches her and she stops and kind of yells at her to "get out of there, go back to your room." Again, a fellow chaplain is able to escort the encroaching resident, and she then sits through the rest of the service). Whew.

When it came time for "Jesus Loves Me," Scott skips it, since everyone had already sung it, and he senses it needs to be sung again.....and I'm unclear here, if they do or don't. Mostly because I know the end of the story, which tickled me so much, I forgot some of the beginning.

Well, it's time for the Doxology, which the pianist knew, and started to play....and then, the music of the doxology somehow transforms into "O Come All Ye Faithful" and all of the residents start singing that! Loud and strong, "O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye O come ye to Bethlehem."

What a riot!