S10 E215 - The Spiritual Next Step

In this episode of Next Steps 4 Seniors: Conversations on Aging, host Wendy Jones sits down with Kristy Kirschmann and Roz Burns to discuss the vital work of the Next Steps for Seniors Foundation. While the business helps families with the logistics of senior living transitions, the foundation focuses on the most critical piece: spiritual care.

Listen in to hear moving stories about how simple acts—like gifting a cozy blanket or singing a hymn—can bring immense comfort, peace, and spiritual connection to seniors facing difficult transitions.

Key Takeaways:

• The Three Pillars of Care: Assisting physically, supporting financially, and sharing spiritually.
• The Blanket Ministry: How a simple gift opens the door to meaningful conversations about faith and eternity.
• Transcending Decline: A touching testimony proving that spiritual connection and the love for Christ remain, even when memory and words fade.
• Your Presence Matters: A passionate call to action to visit, call, and spend time with the seniors in your life.

Connect with Us: Questions about navigating next steps with an elderly loved one? 📞 Call us at: 248-651-5010

Please share this episode with anyone who might be lonely and needs encouragement today!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Next Steps for Seniors with your host, Wendy Jones. Each week, Wendy brings resources and information to help guide you through those next steps with elderly parents and loved ones. If you have questions or topic suggestions, you can call us at 248-651-5010.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Welcome to Next Steps for Seniors Conversations on Aging. I am so incredibly blessed to be here today with Kirsty Kirschman and Ross Burns, both amazing women. And God really, I believe, brought these women into my life to walk alongside this ministry of Next Steps for Seniors Foundation. And what's interesting is when the business started, Next Steps for Seniors LLC, we help people and families move into the next step, right? Into an assisted living or independent living or whatever we can do to help support them where they are. But really, after we started doing this and helping people and moving them into communities, God really spoke to my heart. And it's really the next step spiritually that is even more important where we're going to spend eternity. And no pun on words, next steps, but we really need to be thinking about this. And I strongly believe that's why God put on my heart to start this next steps for Seniors Foundation. And Ros Burns was brought into my life to help with this ministry. So I would love, Roz, if you would just explain to the listeners a little bit about what the spiritual component, what we do, you know, our pillars are to assist physically, support financially, and share spiritually.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Absolutely, Wendy. Share spiritually, what a gift we have to go out to seniors and share with them the word of the Lord. We have a process where once a senior is placed by the business, within 30 days, we have the rare and wonderful opportunity to present them a gift, a great gift, which is a cozy blanket. And this blanket represents so many things. It is a comfort, it provides peace for the senior, but it's also a way for us to go in, visit, and share the gift and say, How are you doing? What things have you have been on your mind? What is your relationship with Christ? Did you go to church? Did you go to Sunday school? Just something to lead them into how they speak about their relationship with God. And then we continue that conversation. You wouldn't believe the great stories we get from these seniors who are very passionate about their God. And there's times when they don't know that they can establish a beautiful relationship that God loves them no matter what. No matter what. So we have the opportunity to bring them through that next step, to bring them to Christ. So, as an example, as Wendy indicated, the business places them. We go in with these amazing volunteers that have gotten involved, and we step into their room, and we welcome ourselves to visit with them. Because many seniors don't have someone to come visit. They are excited to see us. You wouldn't believe the stories we get from these seniors on what's going on in their life, where they've been, and what we can do to help them have peace.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yeah, I think it's so important to understand too, um, they're finding themselves in a situation that they never thought they would be in. Right? And it's uncomfortable. And nobody really wants to be in an assisted living, but they need to be in an assisted living, right? So when these volunteers come in just to share love, really. God's love. It just warms their heart. Somebody actually cares about me, is what I think they're thinking, right? And brought me a gift.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Who doesn't who doesn't want a gift, right? When they come uh when someone visits them. So it just it does warm my heart because there is the next step, right? Once you're already moved in and everybody seems to be in a position where, okay, so mom's good, the family's good, everybody's back to good, right? But yeah, there's still another piece missing, and that's why that spiritual team. And thank you, Roz, for sharing because it is special.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Um, Christy and I had the opportunity recently to uh do some blanket deliveries. And Christy, could you share a couple of stories from our visit? They were they were phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Yeah, I think one of the stories that that stands out in my mind is um when we went to visit this woman who she was actually a double amputee. And it had just happened, I don't know, a couple months before. And when we went and we just started talking with her, and she had just a just a great spirit about her, sweet spirit, all that she had been through. And so she just shared with us though when we asked the question, so how are you doing? And she said, Well, I'm getting used to my new self. And in that moment you could just tell the journey that she'd been on. And I think just being there with her, we spent probably what, 20 minutes probably at least with her.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, she was lovely.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

And just chatted with her. Um, but then we found out a couple weeks later that she actually went to the hospital and she wasn't doing well. No. Um, and the placement specialist that she had worked with from the beginning actually went to visit her. And that's the thing I love about next steps for seniors. Yes, you have the business side, yes, you have the foundation, but it's all one team, right? And the ultimate goal is to make sure that those seniors are cared for. And that's what they do so beautifully. So this woman, um, she was in the hospital, the placement specialist went to see her, and then she ended up sending us a picture of this woman because what did she have with her us?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

She had this beautiful blanket that had been presented to her as a gift. And what we found out is she takes this blanket everywhere. It's her comfort, it's her peace. And I cannot tell you how that makes us feel as volunteers. Yeah, that we were able to present someone with some solace, with something that they could wrap their arms around and to recognize that God loves them so passionately.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Yeah. And I think for me personally, too, we had um my family had an experience with the Next Steps for Seniors, the foundation side as well. So my mom had Louis Body dementia, and my dad, you know, after seven years of caring for her, just couldn't do it any longer. Um, she became violent, and um, we're just so blessed that Next Steps for Seniors was able to place her into a facility, into a community where she was safe and where she received excellent care. But one of the things we remember most too is the spiritual support team, and they came to visit, and the placement specialist was there as well, and they brought this blanket, you know, to my mom. And my mom had lost her words, um, she had lost her memory. Um, but the one thing she didn't lose was her love for Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

And so when the spiritual team came, they gave her this blanket. Um, they offered to sing and they sang Amazing Grace. And the beautiful part of it was she sang right along with them. She did. I got it.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

I got to pick it up from here because I was there in that moment. And first of all, you could tell the sweet spirit that she had for Jesus. And I want to just encourage listeners, the last sense that you lose is your is your hearing. So she she was listening, she could hear everything we were saying. And what was so uh just profound is, and I knew that she was she could sing from Christy previously. And I we looked at uh we looked at each other, and Kim and I said, you know what, let's let's sing a song. And the second we all, I think you could hear that entire community could hear other three of us singing, and we started singing amazing grace, and I just remember holding hands and just like swaying back and forth and just giving God the glory. And it was such a beautiful moment. It was such a beautiful moment, and that's what they're relating that gift, Raz to that blanket is remembering that moment when someone cared, someone came into my room and cared about me and cared about where I was gonna spend eternity.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And and that's what is so important. Our volunteers are so excited to be able to bring that to the seniors, to come into that room and to share with them the love of the Lord. Not many people come visit sometimes, and it's important for us to recognize that we have that opportunity to share a beautiful moment with each one of our precious seniors.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Do you remember that one senior we went to visit Roz and we said, Well, bless your day? And she looked at us, she's like, You all have blessed my heart. Absolutely. And it was just a, you know, you just you you you just don't realize, I think, the importance of time and uh spending time with seniors. And um, you know, I would actually encourage anybody listening to if you have a senior in your life, you know a senior in your life, go visit them. Absolutely, go call them, spend some time with them. Um, just you know, seeing these these people um and just the joy that they experience just from having somebody sit with them and talk for 15-20 minutes. It's just it really is a gift to them, and it's a it's a beautiful ministry.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

And as we shared, it makes their day. It it really does. And so we just want to encourage you, think of someone in your life, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, it could be a neighbor who you haven't seen in a while. Just pick up the phone, go over, visit. You don't need to bring anything. Of course, you can bring a blanket if you want. But your presence is enough, really. Just showing them that you care. And if we all paid it forward, if everyone did one small act of kindness every day, imagine the difference that we could make in the lives of so many people. So I just encourage you, step outside of ourselves. We all need to do it. We get carried away in the day-to-day, but the reality is life is short. We don't know how much time we have, but we need to know number one, where we're gonna spend eternity. And number two, take time for others. Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps for Seniors Conversations on Aging. Please pass or forward this program to anyone you know that might be lonely and need some encouragement today.