Dear family and friends,

“Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not [emphasis added] minister if you are in communion with God and live in community.” Henri Nouwen

It has been a while since I last wrote. With COVID restrictions there isn’t much news to write about. Things haven’t really changed a whole lot over the past few months. We continue to sanitize everything that comes into our Latham Center building. We are allowing visitors, but there are lots of procedures that we follow. It is by appointment only, and then the meeting place is sanitized before the next scheduled visitation. Since the beginning of COVID-19, I now have inventory forms to fill out. This includes toilet paper, paper towels, Lysol disinfecting spray, hand sanitizer (gel and foam), etc. It is one more thing to add to my other responsibilities. Once I take inventory, I order the needed supplies and then restock when they arrive in the building.

We are still extremely limited as to where we can go and what we can do when leaving the property. The whole idea is that we are doing absolutely all we can to protect our elderly residents. Just last week we celebrated Keith’s 97th birthday. Our youngest resident in the Assisted Living Facility (ALF) is 89 and the oldest is 98 years old. Our residents in the independent side of the building range in age from 82 to 94 years old. It is about half and half as to those in their 80’s and those in their 90’s. In other words, our folks are not spring chickens. I saw a tee shirt of one of our residents that said, “I may not be a spring chicken, but I’m still kickin’”. I had to smile at that!

Brad and I did get away for a few days last month and traveled up to Maryland. Even though we wore masks and practiced social distancing, we were able to connect with quite a few folks. This included spending time with Brad’s parents and 2 brothers, my sister, 3 churches, and some other dear friends. Since I needed to return to work in the Latham Center upon our return, I was super careful so as not expose myself to any COVID germs. I am so thankful for my friends Carol and Joyce (staff members) as well as Cindy (volunteer) who covered for me while I was away. Soon our snowbird volunteers will be arriving. I am looking forward to having some extra help in the housekeeping department. We are still praying for 2 staff ladies who are willing to work part time (20 hours per week) with housekeeping.

We regularly have fire drills, tornado drills and elopement drills in our facility. Above is a photo of an early morning fire drill. You can see that folks are wearing masks and social distancing. The yellow caution tape is so that folks don’t go too far way. Elopement (as opposed to the way most of us think of it!) is legally defined as “a patient who is incapable of adequately protecting himself, and who departs the health care facility unsupervised and undetected.” The nurse on duty oversees following the proper procedures and let staff members know how they can assist in the search for the missing individual. As a licensed long term care facility, we are required to practice these different drills so that if a situation comes up, everyone will know what to do.

Please pray:

  • Staff for The Homes of Ethnos360 (Director, maintenance, mechanic, cooks, housekeeping, grounds, information technology)
  • Wisdom, patience, endurance, love, and concern as we meet the needs of retired missionaries
  • Brad as he continues to work with the new accounting software program
  • That our communion and fellowship with God will be sweet

By His grace,

Wanda (and Brad) Hull

Serving at The Homes of Ethnos360 in Sanford, Florida