As we all know, the pandemic has significantly reduced everyone’s ability to go out and visit friends and family. This has affected the comfort dog mission as well. However, I have been able to make a few visits during the month.
We were all saddened that one of the first visits was to the funeral visitation for Rich Martin of Lutheran Church Charities. He was the senior person for the comfort dog mission. He made many trips to the locations where disasters had occurred. He was very dedicated to bringing the Gospel
message to people everywhere. His dog, Ruthie, and all the rest of us will miss him.
On a happier note, I again visited a senior couple in Libertyville. We have visited these folks on a number of occasions. The husband is very happy
to see and pet me. We visited them two times during the month.
In recent years, we been visiting high schools, colleges, and businesses for “de-stress” purposes. We comfort dogs have the ability to help people relax. This time we visited Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake. We were there with another dog. During several hours, I was able to visit with a large group of students, which made them very happy.
Then I went to Wheeling to visit an event sponsored by the Wheeling Police Department. The event was called “Shop with a Cop.” The police department was gathering items to be used as Christmas gifts for needy families. Officers and people had a great time petting me.
We had another event planned. It will be a forerunner of future events. In this case, we had set up a Zoom meeting for me to visit with staff and veterans at the VA Hospital in North Chicago. I was ready to go, standing in front of a computer screen, but the VA staff didn’t call. Apparently, several staff were ill (not COVID-19) and were not able to make the Zoom connection. We expect a Zoom event will happen several times in the upcoming months.
We thank the Lord for providing all these opportunities to reach out to people with the Good News about Jesus, especially during Christmastime.
Be in touch, Peace!