Tag Archives: St. Agnes’ House

The Diocesan Covenant – St. Agnes’ House (sermon) March 1, 2015

Posted on by

Sermon – March 1, 2015

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, Somerset, KY

Second Sunday in Lent Year B

“I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”  Genesis 17:7

Please be seated.

Good Morning, people of St. Patrick’s.  It is so good to see you in person.  Prior to this, I had only seen you through a green business check that arrived every month at St. Agnes’ House… a check dutifully given for $75.00, enough to support 1 large room and a small room for 1 night at St. Agnes’ House.  Feeling grateful for your consistent donation, I’d smile as I recorded your donation in my donor spreadsheet and print out our thank you note.  I wondered about you and who you are.  Now I get the chance to find out.

That consistency…that faithfulness is a hallmark of the ministry of St. Agnes’ House.  More than 40 years ago, a young couple became distressed when they saw people sleeping in the waiting room of UK hospital.  These people often came from Eastern Kentucky and they were getting cancer radiation treatments.  They’d need to be at the hospital every week day for about 6 weeks.  They had no place and no money to pay for a place to stay.  Can you imagine feeling so poorly and then needing to rest in the hospital waiting room?

This young couple told others at St. John’s Versailles, and groups started praying for a solution – some way for people to have a place to stay while receiving treatment.  By 1975, St. Agnes’ House was born.  The Diocese embraced the ministry, providing administrative and nonprofit tax number support.  Parishes offered prayers, money, and in-kind donations.  The Sisters from the Society of St. Margaret agreed to come and live at the house and manage it.

The first house was on Woodland Avenue, but by 1977, the University of Kentucky provided a rent-free ($1.00) longterm lease at 635 Maxwelton Court, closer to UK hospital.  Money was raised to put an addition onto this house, so rooms could be used for lodging.  An additional building with 7 rooms, kitchen, living room, and bathrooms was also built.  Currently, there are 9 rooms available for lodging – 5 single rooms and 4 double rooms.

In essence, in 1975, 40 years ago, we as a Diocese… a Diocese now in about 36 ministry sites or locations… made a covenant with people in medical crisis, needing to travel long distances to get the health care they needed, making the difference between life and death…between hope and despair…between a death with dignity and loved ones and a death all alone.

Now covenants are very special.  They can be different from contracts, especially if they are unconditional.  That’s the kind God makes with us – unconditional covenants.  The covenants detail obligations and promises between the parties.  And unconditional covenants like the ones God makes with us, say that God will fulfill God’s obligations and promises, regardless of what we do… regardless, God will fulfill the covenant.

What an amazing thing.  We can truly trust God’s covenants…God’s promises.

And that’s what over 4,000 families have been able to do because of your help and your support of St. Agnes’ House.  They’ve been able to trust in the covenant we made with them back in 1975… that they’d have a place to go during a medical crisis.  They’ve had a place to stay while their mother or father or young baby is getting the best health care possible.  And families have been able to be close to their loved one if there is nothing more to be done and death comes.

I’m talking about people like Marcy, mid 50s, tall with long dark hair.  Marcy’s brother had a heart operation.  There were complications and he was brought to UK hospital.  Marcy promised her brother, she’d be there with him.  We didn’t see Marcy much, because she’d get up so very early in the morning to go be with her brother at the hospital and she’d arrive back at the house late in the evening.  She was able to take the UK hospital shuttle back and forth any time she needed it.

Marcy wrote to us months after her stay and here’s what she said:

 Where do I begin??

 It’s been months now and I can hardly find the words to express how thankful I am that I got to go to St. Agnes’ House.

 My brother spent 55 days in ICU after open-heart surgery due to septic shock. I, having had open-heart myself two years before, was getting worn down fast staying in the chairs every night at U.K., but I promised I would be there for him and we would go home together. We thought it would be 2 weeks tops.

 I got my room here after that initial two weeks and met the nicest most helpful caring staff, who sincerely care for you and your loved one who is in the hospital. I was then able to shuttle back and forth and wash my clothes; eat real food; sleep when I could; and be there every day for him. Rebecca, Reynold and Mary are wonderful people.

 Anyone who can donate to St. Agnes house, please do. It’s really even more than you can imagine.

 I did get to bring Michael home and he’s across the field from Mom laid to rest. I have done all he asked me to do. I don’t know if I could have made it without your help.

 On a personal note, my 92 year old Mother has Michael’s prayer shawl that was a gift Rebecca offered when she saw my despair and it was on him the last days.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 So many years ago, God made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah that they would be “ancestors of a multitude of nations.”  That God would always be with them and with their descendants.  God has kept God’s covenant and we are the proof.  And as Marcy and so many others can testify, we have followed God’s example by providing and supporting the ministry of St. Agnes’ House.

Amen

Going Where God Calls (Sermon) January 25, 2015

Posted on by

Sermon – January 25, 2015

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

The Third Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Jonah 3:1-3a

Please be seated.

When I was a child, I perfected the art of whining and complaining.  I truly tried the patience of my parents.  So, I know I’m good at it.  So, I apologize for the whining you’ll hear me do in this sermon today.

I find it hard to be Executive Director of St. Agnes’ House.  I really don’t like, almost hate, raising money.  And while we ended in the year in much better shape than I ever imagined, it’s a new year and we have to start all over again raising the $107,000 budget.  Yes, we have a good start with grants of $21,500, but the one grant for $7,500 ends this year, so we’ll have to replace that amount.  The fundraising consultant says we can raise the same amount of money and even more with only two mailings a year, but I’m nervous about that.  We mailed to people four times a year last year, but that angered some of my colleagues.

I also don’t like being responsible for buildings.  There’s always something in need of repair or painting at St. Agnes’ House.  There are a couple of windows that are pulling out of the window frames.  Are the frames rotten or has the caulking just dried out?  Of course these windows are about the hardest to reach.  And it’s a small job, so who can we get to do it?

Seems like it’s just very hard to keep the place open and running well.

In our Old Testament Lesson today we hear a portion of the story of Jonah.  We have a great wall hanging of this story in the Godly Play Room.  The Book of Jonah is not a true story in its facts.  Rather, it is a story designed to communicate to us important understandings about God.

Earlier in the story, God had called Jonah to go to Nineveh and deliver a message to the people there.  Nineveh was the last place Jonah wanted to go.  Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria and the Assyrians did not believe in the God of the Israelites.  The Assyrians were also mean and cruel.  They were a huge empire and known at that time for conquering everyone they could and demanding taxes or tribute from them.  Nineveh was one of the largest cities at that time with possibly 150,000 people.

We certainly understand Jonah, don’t we?  Most of us would not relish the task God has asked Jonah to do.  From Jonah’s self-centered point of view, he did not think he really wanted to do what God asked.  We know Jonah ended up in the belly of a whale for three days, so guess God convinced Jonah that delivering God’s message to the people of Nineveh was a lot better than the belly of the whale.  But I don’t think Jonah was all that thrilled with God’s call to him.

Aren’t we all like Jonah?  We get caught up in our own personal view of things.  What God asks us to do starts to feel burdensome and personally, we don’t want to do it.  Think about those mornings when coming to church on a Sunday just feels so hard to do and we’re not sure we’ll get anything out of it personally.

Now, certainly, there is a balance to all of this.  We do need to take care of ourselves and think about ourselves to a certain extent.  But when God calls, we also need to think about others.  God needed a message to get to the Ninevites, even though the people of Nineveh did not believe in God!  God, like Jonah, didn’t really like the Ninevites all that much.  God wanted to destroy them.  But God chose Jonah to carry that message to the people and to give them a chance to change their ways.

And God chooses us.  God hears our complaints and whining, I dare say.  Luckily, I don’t know anyone who’s ended up in the belly of a whale, but from our story, we also know that God keeps calling us.  God tells us we are of value.  God tells us that our community needs us and needs our presence.  Maybe we don’t feel like going, but the community needs us to go.  In Jonah’s case, the Ninevites paid heed to what Jonah said and changed their ways.

The same is true of St. Agnes’ House.  After all of my self-centered whining, then, I meet the guests.  Recently and older woman who was pretty scared to be in Lexington by herself, but wanted to be by the side of her middle-aged son who needed a heart transplant reserved a room.  She “slept” in the hospital for over two months.  Finally, she was willing to venture out and check out St. Agnes’ House.  She wasn’t sure she was going to sleep there at night, but she needed a place to go each day away from the hospital.  She needed a place that was quiet where she could take a nap, or read a book or knit.  Her room at St. Agnes’ House was perfect, she told me.

As she registered and toured the house, we talked about her situation and she confided that she thought her son was dying.  She was grateful for a lap quilt that had been made and donated to the house.  It was the perfect thing for sitting in a chair in the afternoon.  She thought she might return the quilt when she left, but I told her it was hers to take if she wanted.  She kept thanking me and told me she felt so much better that day.  I didn’t see her much after that, until one day, we passed each other in our vehicles.  We stopped and she told me her son had died and she was coming to check out.  She told me how much she appreciated her room at the House and she said she was going to keep the quilt.

That’s why we go when God calls.  God really doesn’t want to hear our self-centered whining.  God has chosen us and our community needs us or at least needs to hear the message God has asked us to bring to the community.

May we, like Jonah, set out to go where God calls us.  In doing so, we may bring life and salvation.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relieving Suffering (Sermon) June 1, 2014, St. Philip’s, Harrodsburg

Posted on by

Sermon – June 1, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Harrodsburg
Seventh Sunday of Easter

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings…. 1 Peter 4:12-13

Please be seated.

At the beginning of the year, finding a room at St. Agnes’ House was difficult.  You see, Ronald McDonald House had closed for a major renovation.  Many people who would otherwise have stayed there, were coming to St. Agnes’ House, especially couples with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or NICU.  Many times, these couples needed to stay 2-3 months, so the now-typical St. Agnes’ House lodger – coming for surgery and staying a few days to a week – had a hard time finding a place to stay.

We had a waiting list and when rooms opened up, we’d begin calling people on the list.  Believe me, it was so hard to know people were sleeping in their cars and in the waiting rooms of hospitals.

One of our lodgers, I’ll call her Mary, was staying at St. Agnes’ House because her brother was in the ICU, with a number of health issues.  Mary was a tall woman, in her 50’s with long, long deep black hair with some gray streaks.  Mary’s brother’s prognosis was not very good.  Mary so appreciated St. Agnes’ House.  She had her own room where she could get a good night’s sleep.  She didn’t have to sleep in the waiting room.  She could get away from the ICU hospital section for a break – some coffee and tea and Starbucks cakes donations.  She could speak to others if she wanted.  She knew we were praying for her brother and for the family during this time.  The shuttle from UK came to pick her up and take her back and forth from St. Agnes’ House to the hospital.

Mary was so grateful, that she’d take St. Agnes’ House brochures to the ICU waiting room and when she saw people who looked tired… people who were there day after day after day, just like her, she’d talk to them and tell them to call St. Agnes’ House and see if they could find lodging.

One of the people Mary saw day after day was Laura.  Laura is a short, thin woman in her late 50s.  She has short, brown hair.  Whenever you see Laura, you see the determination on her face and in the way she carries herself.  Laura’s daughter was in the ICU.  The daughter, in her late 30s, had gotten swine flu, which attacked and destroyed the daughter’s lungs.   The hope was that the daughter’s lungs would eventually heal, but the outcome was not known.  Laura had been at the hospital with her daughter since January.  It was almost March when we were able to offer Laura a place to stay at St. Agnes’ House.

Laura is still at St. Agnes’ House today!  Recently it appeared that one of her daughter’s lungs was recovering slightly, but only slightly, and the other lung is completely destroyed.  Her daughter is anxious and depressed.  She’s frightened to move sometimes, because breathing is so difficult.  Day after day, Laura is with her daughter.  Sometimes she stays at night and I’ll see her coming back to the house in the morning to get a few hours of sleep and a shower and a break.  Sometimes she goes during the day.  She’s rarely been back to her home.  Sometimes I see her doing her laundry in our laundry room available to the guests.

Sometimes there is time to talk…to ask about how her daughter is doing…to ask about her family.  Because of course, there are the family dynamics that accompany a difficult time like this.  I always marvel at how Laura is there day after day for so many days with no end in sight and when I mention it to her, she says she couldn’t be anywhere else.

That’s what we hear all of the time at St. Agnes’ House.  No matter the obstacles, people want and need to be with their families.  There are cars in the parking lots of St. Agnes’ House that you cannot believe are on the road.  Some have no cars.  Parking in the garage every day becomes expensive, so our parking lot and the willingness of UK shuttle service to come to the house is a blessing.  Being able to stay, means not driving back and forth from home each day.  It means not having to find the money for even the most modest hotel stay.  Being able to stay means having a break from the reality of the hospital…it means finding a place that is a home away from home.

Mary’s brother eventually died, but Mary was there every day with him, providing the comfort of a loving big sister.  At her brother’s funeral, Mary talked about St. Agnes’ House and how important it was.  Soon after the funeral, Mary sent a donation to the ministry.  Laura is still at the house…still going to the hospital day after day, being there for her daughter.  Holding out the hope for healing that her daughter needs.

In this passage from 1 Peter today, we hear about suffering.  Now the early Christians were facing the suffering of persecution for their beliefs, which many of us in this place do not know.  Yet, listen to what the writer of I Peter says, “you are sharing Christ’s suffering.”  Christ suffered.  God came down from heaven to live and breathe and suffer as we do.  God knows.  Christ knows.

The other thing this letter tells us and reminds us of…is that Christ did not suffer alone.  Yes, many of the disciples and followers went into hiding when the trial and persecution of Christ was occurring, yet some stood at the foot of the cross, watching, witnessing, being there.  Others came for Jesus’ body and lovingly cared for it.  And the community of followers were together with each other, providing comfort and solace.  Even this letter lets us know of the community of Christ that was providing support during this time of trial.  Christ did not suffer alone.  The community of the followers of Christ did not suffer alone.

Forty years ago, some visionary Episcopalians in the Diocese of Lexington, saw the suffering of people who needed to come to Lexington for necessary and life-saving medical care.  Somehow they raised the money to fix up, add on, and build a place to relieve that suffering.  And for those 40 years, through many changes in healthcare, many changes in the church, you, the people of the Diocese of Lexington, have given generously and consistently with your dollars, your time, your donations of sheets and towels, toilet paper and paper towels and prayers to relieve that suffering.  In doing so, you have been Christ to the world.

Amen