Easter message shared with nursing home residents
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Marsha Rivers shared the Easter message this afternoon with about 20 residents of The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Facility, the former Orleans County Nursing Home.
Rivers has been a volunteer chaplain at the nursing home for about 10 years. She leads Sunday afternoon services twice a month, while other local pastors and church leaders organize the other services on Sundays.
Rivers of Albion is a pastor of congregational care at Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia. She led a sunrise service at the Batavia church at 6:45 this morning.
At The Villages, she sings many traditional hymns with the residents, reads Scriptures and offers a message. Today the service included singing, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” “He Lives,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and the “Doxology.”
“Someday if I’m ever in the nursing home I hope someone will come and read Scriptures and sing hymns for me on Sundays,” she said. “I always come away uplifted by the people.”
There were several “Easter Rocks” in the nursing home. The Albion Rocks group also left painted rocks with messages for residents during Christmas and Valentine’s Day.