1998 Presidents AwArd reciPient

CareLinks
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Caregiving in the Prophetic and Servant Traditions
t was a spring morning in 1985. The phone rang. Dr. Earl Shelp recognized the voice of his research assistant, Jay. After a quick greeting, Jay asked, Can you take me to Hermann Hospital? The campus doctor thinks that I have AIDS. This call led to the creation of the Care Team program of congregation-based volunteer caregiving. Many of us remember or have heard how fearful the public was as HIV/AIDS became epidemic following its description in 1981. At first, no one knew its cause. There were no effective treatments. Persons with the disease tended to be stigmatized and socially isolated, often deserted by family and friends. Some religious leaders trumpeted that the disease was Gods punishment on people who engaged in conduct that they condemned. Other religious voices in Houston interpreted the epidemic differently. Shelp and his colleague Dr. Ron Sunderland considered the intense needs of these people who were dying prematurely and quickly as a claim upon Gods people for compassion. Shelp immediately answered Jays call for help. Soon after, Sunderland joined in support and care for Jay. Shelp and Sunderland, professors and clergy in the Texas Medical Center, began learning about AIDS, meeting people with HIV/AIDS, assisting during their last days, and present as they died. Shelp and Sunderland understood that people with HIV/AIDS had a comparable claim upon Gods people as those described by Israels prophets and Jesus as the poor. The poor were people who were weak, defenseless, vulnerable, and marginalized in society (widows, orphans, aliens, and the sick, for example). They had almost no one to befriend and defend them. The prophets said that God is their ally and defender; and Israel, in imitation of God, was to stand with them as did God. Identifying with the prophetic tradition, Jesus embraced people whose situation excluded them from full participation in the social, religious, and legal institutions and taught that they were not beyond the scope of Gods love and human regard. AIDS Care Team Friends of Shelp and Sunderland were recruited to share the care so desperately needed by the people they met in the clinic. The team concept and method of shared caregiving began. At the same time, clergy friends were asked to allow them to recruit members of their congregations to be organized into a team to do what they were doing. Accordingly, the AIDS Care Team project began in 1986. It was the nations first compassionate, hands-on response to people touched by AIDS. It quickly became a model that faith communities across the nation emulated as it became known through books, articles, and speeches by Shelp and Sunderland, and coverage by national news media. Shelp, Sunderland, clergy, and laypeople that have been part of the AIDS Care Team project at any time from 1986 until now have answered a call to care and championed the cause of people with AIDS, the poor. Their lives have been changed in the process. Rosetta Thompson at Brentwood Baptist Church says she is glad she was younger when she started in 1989. People with AIDS needed so much and it took a lot of physical energy and emotional strength to serve them well. She has learned many lessons about life and faith through her ministry: I learned not to be judgmental about the disease or lifestyles. Loving
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Jay Jones

April 2012 Interfaith CarePartners Phone: 713.682.5995 Fax: 713.682.0639 E-mail: info@interfaithcarepartners.org Web Page: www.interfaithcarepartners.org

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people regardless of anything else is what is required. We are servants of the Lord first! Rosetta, a Registered Nurse now retired, knows illness and death. She is grateful for life-prolonging therapies, accepts that the public spotlight is off an epidemic that continues to spread, but, she says, people still are dying. There is less urgency, but not much less stigma. She and her team, in her words, give the best care we can and leave the rest to God. Like all others in the AIDS Care Team project, she gives life to prophetic and servant teachings.
Rosetta Thompson

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Bill and Nancy Rawl

Alzheimers Care Team Leading the AIDS Care Team project required more and more time as it grew. Shelp and Sunderland decided to commit full time to the future of the Care Team concept in 1988 when they resigned faculty appointments and founded the Foundation for Interfaith Research and Ministry (FIRM) that was renamed Interfaith CarePartners in 2000. By 1990, they were convinced that this method of congregation-based shared caregiving could benefit other individuals and families coping with comparable long-term debilitating or degenerative conditions. Moreover, they thought that it could fill a common gap in congregational long term care. The Care Team concept and practices were adapted to support families touched by dementia in 1992 with the Alzheimers Care Team project. Similarly to people with HIV/ AIDS, persons with dementia tend to become socially isolated, separated from friends and congregants, increasingly dependent on others for daily tasks, and family caregivers overwhelmed. Congregational support was mainly prayer and clergy visitation. There was no organized and coordinated robust embrace that brought joy to a person with dementia and respite breaks for family caregivers. Clergy and congregations slowly signed onto the new caregiving project. Once again, the Care Team concept spawned a pioneering project that filled a gap and secured a congregations relationship with members and families in the community. Bill Rawl has been on the team at

Memorial Drive United Methodist Church since 1993. Bills concern for people with dementia grew from the struggle of a work colleague and personal friend. When his wife, Nancy, became interested in the new ministry at their church, Bill joined too. Almost 20 years later, Bill says I cant imagine not being part of this project. It is a high priority for me. During his time with care partners, Bill develops close relationships with them. He attends several Alzheimers Care Team Gathering Place meetings monthly. Bill says, I look forward to seeing them and reliving their stories, even though I have heard some many times before. The training, education, and support from Interfaith CarePartners equip him, but he is energized by the relationships. He knows the teams are a valuable service without which life would be even more challenging for these families. Bill is grateful that his church sponsored an Alzheimers Care Team, that Nancy assumed a leadership role, and that he can be a practical expression of Gods love. He doubts that his awareness of Alzheimers would have led him to volunteer at a secular organization. But, when his church created this option, it became his calling. Second Family Care Team Our experience with dementia-affected families led us to appreciate the challenges of older adults in physical decline. Congregations sometimes become less present and active with these individuals during a period in life when they are most vulnerable unless there is an equipped and dedicated program to overcome the isolation that age and weakness can bring. For the third time, the Care Team concept was adapted to serve another special population. The Second Family Care Team project began in 1994 to befriend and defend aging and impaired persons who often are low income, widows, and vulnerable. Sound familiar? Remember the poor whose needs were championed by the prophets and Jesus? Jan Abbey was not thinking in these theological categories when she was sent by her pastor to a breakfast at which this expression of the Care Team concept would be introduced. Upon finishing the report to her pastor, he said, When will you start? I want you to put this program together in our church. He clearly knew that Jans gifts and passions were a perfect match for this type of Care Team. The new ministry was featured in an article

in The Baytown Sun. More than 60 requests for care came. Eighteen years later, the requests for care still exceed what Jan and her small team can meet. But, for those fortunate to be served, their lives are changed for the better until circumstances or death end their journeys together. Jan says, I discovered a passion I never knew I had and it has never died since. The team is a place to serve and to be who God has called me to be. Jan has persevered despite the deaths of many care partners who became family because, in her words, I grow to love them and just cant walk away, no matter what happens. Her faith has deepened and she has learned from her Jan Abbey care partners so much about life and living, as well as about how to die. She says that she could not have done this for so long without Interfaith CarePartners which has been her mentor, teacher, and resource. She values the structure and accountability built into the program. When asked what her team has meant to her, Jan says, Second Family has given me a purpose for each day to serve God and people. Kids Pals Care Team By 2000, another special population of prophetic concern was in sight. The stresses within families of a neurologically or physically impaired child were known to Shelp and Sunderland from their years of clinical teaching in the Texas Medical Center. The daily routines of these families are different. Studies show that marriages can be at risk and other adversities more likely unless they receive adequate support and breaks from the demands of caregiving. Shelp and Sunderland reasoned that members of congregations could be educated and equipped to be with these children so that parents and siblings could have some time to meet other needs. The Kids Pals Care Team project was their answer; again equipping congregations to embrace families whose situations can be overwhelming and isolating. Gayle Wiley at Brentwood Baptist Church understood the stresses these families

experience. She has a special needs child. One might think that she would be eager to be served by a Kids Pals Care Team. On the contrary, she was a willing draftee into the ministry in 2003. At first, the team stayed with a child at home while the family had a break. As important and helpful as this respite was, it was difficult for parents to entrust their child to the team. This barrier was overcome in 2006 with the help of the Kids Pals Care Team at St. Lukes United Methodist Church which had developed a Friday evening activity program for the children at the church. This format was more acceptable to the families served by Gayle and her team. At least 8 families regularly participate in the monthly program. The siblings of the special needs child are part of the program. The families now are enthusiastic about the program. They know their children will be safe, have a good time, and they have time for themselves when they choose not to stay and share in the joy of their children. Gayle says, I am thrilled to see what this means to the families. We connect. We become close. They trust me. I help in other ways, like sharing resources and listening to them. They are very thankful and that is all the affirmation I need. Like others in the Care Team program through the years, Gayle has found her calling. She says, the Kids Pals Care Team is what God made me to do. I can bring all of my experiences to the ministry. Being Faithful For some during these 25 years, a single type of team or particular population served by a team made the perfect match. For others like Ferne Winograd, each expression of the Care Team concept drew her in. Ferne has been a member of a Care Team at Congregation Beth Israel since 1992. What began as a summer of service with her daughter has become two decades of Care Team service. By summers end on the AIDS Care Team, Ferne says, I was hooked. Those first relationships were profound. Even now as she recalls Pablo, tears of gratitude and love flow as she remembers leaving his home feeling, in her words, this is Gayle Wiley
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Care Team Anniversaries

(April June 2012)
AIDS Care Team Brentwood Baptist [23] St. Cecilia Catholic [25] Alzheimers Care Team 1st Presbyterian, Pasadena [4] 1st United Methodist, Houston [19] Advent Lutheran [3] Brentwood Baptist [19] Epiphany of the Lord Catholic [7] Friendswood United Methodist [2] Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic [8] Klein United Methodist [6] Lakewood United Methodist [1] St. Cecilia Catholic [7] St. Rose of Lima Catholic [6] St. Theresa Catholic, Sugar Land [8] Woodlands United Methodist [5] Second Family Care Team Augustana Lutheran [17] Bellaire United Methodist [14] Cypress Trails United Methodist [3] Holy Comforter Lutheran [14] Houstons 1st Baptist [3] St. John the Evangelist Catholic [9] St. Mary United Methodist [4] St. Monica Catholic [10]

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Ferne Winograd in hat

exactly what I should be doing. This is Gods gift to me: the opportunity to do mitzvah, to do Gods commandments. This has made me stronger in my Judaism. When the Congregation started a Second Family Care Team in 1997, hooked Ferne became its first leader. And when an Alzheimers Care Team was formed in 2006, her experience with her father following a stroke and ensuing short term memory loss brought the need home to her. Ferne simply and eloquently says, When you touch someone else, they touch you. You have a stake in each others lives. This stake in each other is exactly what Israels prophets and Jesus called Gods people to affirm and honor through our care for one another, especially the care of those who are weak, vulnerable, voiceless, powerless, marginalized, or abandoned. This stake in the welfare and wellbeing of each other is discovered as experiences are shared and bonds are forged. We are grateful that the Care Team concept and its four expressions designed for distinct populations have been means by which members of congregations have experienced blessings, learned skills, and matured in their faith. We are grateful, as well, that care partners have invited us to

share their journeys during times of distress and weakness. We have discovered our need for each other and our interdependence throughout all the seasons of life. What if . . . In light of this history of innovation and representative stories of long term Care Team members, it is tempting to ask the unanswerable what if . . . question. It is probably better to let the voices and record speak for itself. Many have found personal and spiritual fulfillment as Care Team members. Thousands of care partner testimonies of better days and gratitude are implied in this account. Many of these voices now are silent in death, but alive in memories of team members who shared their journeys. We celebrate each voice and story. Prophetic and servant theologies ground and animate the Care Team concept through its four expressions. The program has been a shining example of what can be achieved when Gods people are given a structure within which to embrace the poor. Shortcomings in congregational caregiving seem to exist not because members do not care. Rather, they exist because they have not been taught how to care. The Care Team program is a laboratory in which we continue to learn how to care as commanded by our faiths. We pray that the beacon of hope and help that the Care Team program has been will continue to shine for as long as there are needs and opportunities to fulfill our prophetic and servant callings.

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