Sometimes looking through old photo albums makes people cry. Today, looking through old files on my computer made me cry.
In 2020, when the entire world closed and everyone was shut away inside their homes, I was desperate to find a way to connect with the nursing home residents in my mother-in-law’s facility where we’d been serving with our church for two years. I wanted them to know they weren’t forgotten. I wanted to continue offering hope, encouragement, friendship, and spiritual support from the outside. I couldn’t call them—they didn’t have phones. I couldn’t stand outside their windows—they couldn’t see me from their beds. What good would that do, anyway? Someone suggested that the residents could watch our church services online; they didn’t have tablets or smart phones and they certainly could not operate their televisions by themselves.
Most people did not understand how isolated nursing home residents were long before the virus.
Paper. It had to be paper.
So I created Faith and Funnies in July 2020. A little newsletter designed to make residents smile and to offer hope through Bible verses and devotionals. I emailed the PDF to the activity director, she printed them, and distributed them to residents. Two pages front and back of comics, jokes, trivia, and devotionals. It wasn’t much, but it was something. I sent them every other week and prayed it would keep up their spirits and give them something to look forward to. Soon, I was sending them to other nursing homes too.
Six years later I have over 150 issues of Faith and Funnies. I’m working on compiling them into a master library on my laptop instead of random files spread between two computers.
When I looked at that very first Faith and Funnies, I had to laugh—it’s not very polished. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at working in Canva and designing document layouts. I now write my own content, and I’ve moved away from things that were potential copyright concerns. And though the design and content have evolved over time, the heart behind those newsletters has not changed. Every issue is created with nursing home residents in mind. Each story I write, every Bible verse I share, every joke and every pun—they’re all included so that every resident who receives a copy feels a little more connected to themselves, to the world, and to God.
I’m copying files and moving them and realizing that these aren’t just files, they are records of God’s faithfulness over the years. God was there in those lonely nursing home rooms even when I couldn’t be. God was there stirring up the hearts of people to volunteer and minister to a mostly forgotten group. God was sparking service, compassion, and determination in me and in others around the country as we worked together to bring about change in nursing homes and obeyed scripture’s call to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. (Prov. 31:8-9)
So I cried when I looked at that very first Faith and Funnies—for all the residents that we couldn’t pray with or sing with in their final days and for the knowledge that God used mere pieces of paper to help residents feel remembered and loved during that time. I cried thinking how our precious friend Tanya was so proud to tell people that her friend—me—made Faith and Funnies, and how she encouraged me to start writing more of my own content. And I cried because I certainly never imagined I’d still be making them and we’d still be ministering to nursing home residents six years later. Much in our world has changed in those six years, but God’s love and faithfulness has not and will never change.