The Community Services Department of the Richland Park Seventh-day Adventist Church has extended compassion to the patients and residents at the Mental Health Centre and the Lewis Punnett Home.{{more}}

Members of the Department on Sunday, November 28, donated food items, fruits, clothing, toiletries and literature to these institutions.

The spiritual needs of the patients were also catered to with a special message from the church.

Tian Mc Nicholls, Master Guide and a Registered Nurse, delivered a sermon to the patients at the Mental Health Centre, where he worked as an intern while attending nursing school. Mc Nicholls captioned his message “The greatest lover”, which reminded them of a God who loves and died to ensure their salvation despite their various conditions.

Consequently, the visit to these institutions afforded Terse Moore the opportunity to reunite with her two daughters, Cinderella, a patient at the Mental Health Centre, and the other, Valerie, a patient at the Lewis Punnett Home.

Community services members sang songs to a very responsive audience at both institutions whilst patients at the Mental Health Centre voluntarily gave testimonies and rendered special songs.

Denise Robinson, a visually impaired patient at the Mental Health Centre, brought tears to the eyes of some during her soulful rendition of “Amazing Grace”. Other patients beautifully sang “The Old Rugged Cross”, “When Peace Like A River,” and “If that isn’t love.”

It was remarkable that the patients ministered to their own and the staff at the Mental Health Centre.

Claudette Johnny of the Mental Health Centre and Nursing Assistant, Yvonne Wright of the Lewis Punnett Home both expressed appreciation for the items donated and for the yearly visits.

The Department’s members are of the view that the yearly trips to the Mental Health Centre and the Lewis Punnett Home are not merely an avenue to donate items to the less fortunate.

Conversely, many persons in the group who journeyed to these institutions over the years have forged genuine friendships.

At the Lewis Punnett Home members divided themselves into small groups to cover the male and female wards. George Bess had the same request as he did last year, when he asked that Psalm chapter 27 be read to him.

This is an exercise that the Department has been undertaking for the past 25 years.(HN)