Hospital visiting

Friday is the day that our pastor takes off for himself and I am the pastor on call. Today, I had my first random hospital visit. A gentleman asked the hospital to give our church a call, and see if a pastor could come visit him. Now I have done many hospital visits, but this is the first visit where I didn't know the patient or why he was in hospital. It made me nervous thinking to myself: what if this person was on his death bed? Or had a terminal illness? What would I say? could I make a difference?

When I got there, I went cheerfully and met a new friend. His name is Jim and if you keep him in prayer that would be awesome! I soon found out that he had been there two days, been through all sorts of tests, and the doctors were still uncertain what was wrong with him. Talked a little while with him until a nurse came in to do some stuff. When I came back in Jim was ready to take a nap, which I had told him at the beginning if he needed to kick me out for a nap that was okay. I asked if I could pray with him, grabbed his hand and prayed. It was a great experience for me, to better myself on what to say or not say, how to react around hospital patients. Always learning and building my relationship with people.