Old Folks Home Visit

Yesterday, 10th August 2014, I experienced my first ever visit to a home. Can you believe it? In 18 years of my life I've never done this before. 

Homeless. 

I actually wouldn't consider them homeless because they are living in a home and not living on the streets. Nonetheless, it still saddens me to see people being left in homes that are not theirs. If you know what I mean. Seeing some of the people in the old folks home yesterday, I observed that some of them are not very old. Don't you think it's pretty sad that the not-so-old people being put in an old folks home? Some of them I reckon could live another 10 to 20 years. Being in an old folks home for 10 to 20 years is a pretty long time don't you think?

One of the questions that were asked to the kids and youths who visited the old folks home before we left were

"Why do we visit the old folks home?"

To be honest, I've never thought about it. I ask myself why. Sometimes, as a church, we do things out of obligations. We often give cliche answers when questioned. Eg: "Because Jesus loves the less fortunate." or "Because we want to show them God's love." Yes. The answers are true but how often to we really mean what we say? Do we really love the less fortunate like how Jesus loves them or do we love the less fortunate because don't want to look like a "bad christian"? Are we really going there to show them God's love or are we just going there for the sake of going there? 

My own experience

I'm not sure if you ever noticed but some of this people living in the old folks home are actually lonely and some of them have very low self-esteem. One of the uncles that I was helping during craft time broke my heart a little when I was talking to him. Though the craft was easy, I could see that he perceives himself as useless because of the pessimism that he shows. He kept saying "I did it wrongly. It can't be successful." and it saddens me a lot as I tried to encourage him as we were doing. I kept telling him that he was doing an amazing job and he kept smiling and laughing. He then went on to tell me that he has been staying the in the home for quite some time now and he doesn't have any friends. All he does there is watch tv.

Come to think of it now, my heart breaks. He kept asking me where do I live and due to communication barriers. I don't know if he understood. I think that he keeps asking the same question over and over again is because he longs for a companion. Someone he could often talk to. Someone that actually cares for him. 

One thing that I regret the most about yesterday is not really connecting with the old people due to the craft issues and communication barriers. I would say that I wasn't mentally prepared to do what I was supposed to do. I did not give my all and that really sucks. I hope that next year would be better.

For more pictures and videos of the song we sang, please visit Wesley Klang Sunday School facebook page