"In Seasons of Distress and Grief"

Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. I am Peter Rosenberger.

This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? How are you holding up? What's going on with you? How are you feeling? 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, we'd love to have you. It's a show like no other. We focus on the ones who are pushing the wheelchair, who are staying up late at night doing laundry, who are cooking, cleaning, doing all the things necessary and then also holding down a job or back and forth to hospitals or doctors' offices or dealing with insurance companies, pharmacies, name it. There are a myriad of tasks that go into being a caregiver and they are often overlooked, often feel invisible, often feel secondary.

Not on this show. On this show, we understand that the role of caregiver is a unique and very special role and it's also a very dangerous role. A lot of people lose themselves and so that's why we do this show, to speak directly to the heart of a caregiver, to let them know that God sees them too. We don't just have to tear up a roof and get somebody to Jesus. We can get to Jesus too. You know that, don't you?

That's the whole point of this show and we're glad that you're with us. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. I've got a couple things I want to start off with this morning. One of them is, do you know this? In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter's snare. Do you know what that's from? Do you know what hymn that is from? I'll give you a little bit of a hymn. It's... You know what that's from?

888-589-8840. If you know that and I want to talk a little bit about that and why that's important to what we're going to talk about today. Romans 8 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Do you know how to pray?

Do you know what to say when you pray? When you think about your loved one, maybe it's the child with special needs that are having a meltdown. I remember a friend of mine whose son has autism and she went to take him for a haircut.

Now think about it. With a haircut with you and I, it's not that big of a deal. But when you get a kid who's 8, 9, 10 years old and you start putting scissors around his head and he's got autism and a kid just had a meltdown and everybody was staring.

It was very embarrassing to this mother and she said, I just wanted to have a shirt that said don't judge, it's autism. When you have situations like that, do you know how to pray? Do you know what to say? I've watched my wife through her many seasons of distress and grief and I haven't known what to pray. I don't even know what to say. I've watched her groaning and just in agony as she deals with her chronic pain.

She's had 80 surgeries now and this has been going on since 1983 and she doesn't know a day without it. I don't know. I don't know what to pray sometimes. But Roman says the Spirit helps our lack of knowledge.

When we don't know what we should pray, the Spirit itself makes intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Does that bring you comfort? Does that bring you relief? Does that help at all today? Have you found that to be true in your own life? Has that been made manifest in your life? 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. And I wanted to spend some time in this. Please understand there's always a disclaimer to this show. Everything I talk about I'm talking to myself about because I don't own these things. I'm learning them and I'm hoping to learn them better. But this is what I'm finding is the crux for all of us as caregivers. I'm in my 35th year now as a caregiver. So I've had a little bit of time to work this through and learn what doesn't work.

I'm kind of the Wile E. Coyote of caregivers. You know, I mean, how many times have I run off a cliff and I'm holding a sign up that looks at the cameras as help? You know, that's my journey. And everything I've learned I've learned through a lot of hard failure. But I'm learning what roads not to go down. That's a bad place down there.

Don't go down there. And it takes the kind of time that I've put into this to learn some of those things. And so what I'm trying to offer here is the benefit of a vast amount of experience to fellow caregivers to let them know, okay, somebody else has been walking down this path and here's what we've learned. And we're going to talk today about prayer. And if you know that hymn from that lyric, in seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. Man, if there's anybody that understands seasons of distress and grief, it's got to be the family caregiver. And you guys get this, don't you? You understand this. You understand what it means to have grief, seasons of distress and grief.

And the guy that wrote this hymn has got an amazing story. We'll talk about that as we get into the calls. Well, evidently our phone lines are way lit up. So let me just jump right into this. This is, is it Charlie in Ohio? Charlie, good morning. How are you feeling?

Hey, good morning, Charles. I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your show. I am not a caregiver, not a full time caregiver. I do work in healthcare. So I just wanted to let you know the reason why I listen to your show is because working where I do in healthcare, sometimes I come across caregivers and I can impart some of their wisdom on them.

I also figure someday what if something happens to my dad, my wife, one of my kids, and I become a caregiver or these days they have to become a caregiver to me, maybe I'll be more understanding. So I just wanted to let you know, you know, that's why I listen to your show is not that I directly need it right now, but just, I like to learn. I like to learn, you know.

Charles, thank you. When I set out to do the show, I had two things in mind. One of them was, one of the things I wanted to do was to impart a vocabulary to caregivers on what help looks like and then hopefully infuse them with the courage to ask for and receive that help. The other one was to impart a vocabulary to non-caregivers of what help looks like to a caregiver and then hopefully inspire them to offer that help. And so you've answered that and you're right. There's two possibilities here. If you love somebody, you're going to be a caregiver. If you live long enough, you're going to need one.

It's just that simple. And so you are right on target for everything I set out to do with this show. What type of healthcare, what type of the healthcare industry do you work in? So I do mobile x-rays. I drive to nursing homes and I take my x-ray machine and do x-rays, but sometimes I go into private homes and do an x-ray and that's where I come across the caregivers.

The full-time caregivers is in the private homes where a spouse or a family member is taken care of their loved one and I have to x-ray their loved one. And sometimes I tell them some things that I've heard on your show. I make sure I ask them, how are you doing?

Just like you do. Well, how are you doing? And you know, sometimes I tell them if I can see that they're getting a little discouraged, disgruntled, I tell them, you know, Hey, you got to get somebody in here for a little bit so you can go shopping. You can go get a massage, something for you, you know, cause I've heard you tell people that. Well, I appreciate that very much.

And how are you feeling is the question to ask and they're going to, and give them time to answer because it's going to be hard for them. Uh, speaking in first person singular is very hard for caregivers, but you have a, thank you for this. You've really made my day, Charles. I appreciate that very, very much. Um, thank you so much for calling.

We got to go to break. This is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver.

888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, if you know the hymn that this came from in seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and off to escape the tempter snare. We'll be right back. 24 seven emergency support, increasing safety, reducing isolation. These things are more important than ever as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19. How about your vulnerable loved ones? We can't always check on them or be there in ways we'd like. That's why there's Constant Companion seamlessly weaving technology and personal attention to help push back against the isolation while addressing the critical safety issues of our vulnerable loved ones and their caregivers. Constant Companion is the solution for families today. Staying connected, staying safe.

It's smart, easy, and incredibly affordable. Go to www.mycompanion247.com today. That's mycompanion247.com.

Connection and independence for you and those you care about. That's mycompanion247.com. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. I am Peter Rosenberg.

This is the nation's show for you as a family caregiver. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. I want to jump on this call real quick. Ray from Georgia. Ray wants to know what I think about the vaccine. Ray, good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning. How are you doing? I'm doing good. For once in my life.

For once in my life. Well, as far as the vaccine, I really don't know. I mean, you know, I think there are a lot of very smart people that have worked on this thing. I don't think it's going to, I mean, we have, you know, we take a flu vaccine every year and people still get the flu.

You know, I don't know. I think that I think there are a lot of smart people that have worked on it and I'm my, my in-laws have gotten it. I think my wife is, they, they want her to get it cause she's a high risk individual.

She's, of course she's had it and so have I. Here's, you know, my thoughts are this, I'm going to do the best I can to educate myself on it and move forward. And if the vaccine goes wonky, I'm going to trust, you know, Jesus with it. Cause if he's Lord at all, he's Lord of all, including a vaccine, I take a flu vaccine.

When I go to Africa to work with our prosthetic limb ministry that we do, I take a whole lot of stuff to go over there. And, um, you know, I think that at this point there've been, there's been a huge, um, collaboration of the scientific community. And, uh, there are some people out there that are, you know, that are non vaccinators and, and, you know, that's fine. That's their decision. That's their opinion. Uh, I, I, the only thing, the only strong opinion I have on it is, um, Andrew Yang, who ran for president is on the Democrat ticket.

He's a businessman. He felt like we needed to have some kind of ID for people who took the vaccine or didn't take the vaccine. And you need to have some kind of marker. And, and I was a bit appalled by that. Um, you know, it's one thing to have proof of immunization cause I have to have that when I go to Africa, you have to show all kinds of stuff, you know, that you're going in there for your own safety and so forth. And I get that, but I just didn't, I didn't, it's something about that rankled me a bit. And my thing was, you know, I don't have a proof of flu vaccine, uh, that I have to show. And, um, and I thought, eh, you know, if it's, if it works that great, why do you need to, to know who took it or not, you know, that kind of thing as long as you did. But I was, I kind of raised my hand and say, you know, what's that all about?

I mean, you know, cause I don't particularly have a great deal of confidence. Um, when you get some of these guys who are not medical professionals starting to get out there and weigh in on some of those things. So talk with your doctor, look at your situation and, um, make sure that you don't have any kind of underlying health issues that would be compromised by this and, um, and let your doctor and you have that discussion. Um, I'm not qualified in any way, fashion or form. I just think that my, my only opinion is, and I really don't like to give my opinion too much on the show about things like that because that's punching above my weight class. My only opinion is, is that it seems like there's a whole lot of very, very smart people that have worked on this, um, and come together to create something that's going to help stem the tide of this thing. Um, but again, you're going to, you're going to need to sit down with your physician and, and have that conversation.

Do your own research on it and, and, and see what kind of pops up. That's, that's my opinion. So I appreciate you. I can't afford a computer or nothing. I don't even have a doctor I can go to. I don't get paid. So, you know, it's hard to have a doctor, hard to afford a doctor to go to as a caregiver.

I don't get paid, but that's, but if something does happen to you and you don't have a doctor, what's, what's your plan for the person you're taking care of? I don't know. I really don't know.

That would be, that would be a good place to start because he can't talk or anything. So I'm not going to abuse him. You know, I don't like that. Well, I appreciate that. But, but at some point you're going to have to make a call here because if something happens to you, this, this fellow's in trouble, isn't he?

Yeah, big time. So, uh, there are clinics that you could go to at least check your blood pressure. Um, there are, look around and see if there are places that you can go to, to at least start this process, uh, that you can go to. They can offer to reduce, pardon me? They do have a clinic down here, but since this virus thing is going around, they don't even talk to you.

You can't go see them. You've got to have a phone interview. You know, I mean, that might tell you a whole lot, but.

Well, start with the phone interview and go from there and maybe they can work around it, but you're going to, at some point it, this thing is going to reach a critical mass with you. Um, and, and, and, and if you don't do something, it's not going to get better on its own. Okay. The stress on you as a caregiver. And then the chances of something happening to you, how old are you?

Well, see age is not a cure for health ailments. And so as this thing progresses on, you're going to, you're going to find this is going to reach a place where, okay, I'm going to have to make some, some hard decisions here. So I would, um, I would recommend you starting that process ASAP. I mean, Monday morning, make the phone call.

If all you can do is a phone interview, start with that and then go to the next step after that, that you can do. Um, I know that everybody's a little bit wonky because of the way they want to meet with the virus, but at some point you're still going to need to see a doctor and, um, and, and also work on your health to make sure, because if you are, um, if your brother you're taking care of your brother, right? Yeah. If you go down, who's in line to take care of him? Nobody. Cause ain't nobody else.

It's just him and me. Right. So then, then it's going to, you're going to have to make some hard decisions for yourself that if you're not healthy, he is really in a bad way. No, no. And I don't, I don't, I can't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't mean to be mean or anything, but it's hard to trust people with dying cause you can't talk, you know, cause like I said, that could abuse him.

And they wouldn't know it. I just, I can't put his, his best, best, uh, his health or whatever in somebody else's hands. I mean, I hate to say it, but there are some mean people out there, you know what I mean?

Well, there are, but there are also some good people. There are also some good people that will take care of him. How old is he?

He just turned 61 in November. All right. There are some people that, that will take care of him. And it's a matter of finding the right group of people. And you, you, you sit down with them and you, you lay out a plan of care of what this looks like so that you can go see your own doctor so that you can do these things.

And, um, you, you can do that. You can find people I've had to learn to trust people with my own wife and you sit down with him, you lay out and you get a professional in there. You don't just get somebody, you know, the one thing you don't want to do is just go down to the bus station and find somebody that has a pulse.

Say, Hey, would you watch him for a bit? No, there are services out there. There are people out there that you can trust. Your church may be able to put you in touch with those kinds of people.

Your doctor may be able to put you in touch with those people, but it starts with you taking the steps to get yourself into a better plan of care for you. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes I'll see this man in a wheelchair.

I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying the man's up for no good, but you just never know. Well, you don't, but I don't know that. I don't know that getting a guy that's in a wheelchair that's got all kinds of physical problems to take care of your brother's the right call. So you might want, my brother, my brother's in the wheelchair. Sometimes not, he can know, but like I said, you heard him. You know, there are other people that can help you with your brother besides some guy at the grocery store. Okay.

Well, I don't know the man. He just came up and asked me, you know, I told him no. Yeah, that's fine. Just you know, keep boundaries, but look for professionals to help with it. And you can also, uh, get referrals if he's on, if he's on disability, if he's on some kind of, there's also places with Medicare that can refer and so forth.

There are a lot of different ways you could go, but it starts with a phone call. Okay. Yeah. All right, Ray. Appreciate the call very much. Thanks for listening to the show and keep listening and then make the call on Monday to start looking at your own health. All right. That's, that's, uh, that's really important to do that. All right. We've got to run.

Shirley in North Carolina. Surely good morning. How are you feeling?

I'm doing fine. Thank you. Well, you know the answer to my song.

All right. Give it to me, Shirley. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne. Make all my wants and wishes known and seasons of distress and grief. My soul is often found relief and oft escape tempter snare by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer. Do you know who wrote it?

No, I know when I surely that's the bonus question. Uh, the guy that wrote this is a guy named William Walford and he lived, uh, back in the mid 18 hundreds and he was blind. He was blind and he would often speak at a little church services. He would preach and, uh, and he would do all of his sermons. He would compose by memory because he didn't write them down. He was, it was all in his mind. There was a guy visiting out there at this little town in England where he lived and the guy was writing, uh, interview him and he, and he said, do you have some, basically he asked him if he had some poetry or something that he had written and he was a little bit embarrassed.

He said, well, this do and he rattled off sweet hour of prayer and the guy wrote it down and it was put into a large publication and it just took off. And, uh, in that, in that a great hymn in seasons of distress and grief, surely. Have you ever had, have you ever had a seasons of distress and grief, surely?

I mean, I have. Well, it's, uh, I get it, but I love that hymn. I put that on my CD and, uh, songs for the caregiver and I just love it.

And you can download that on all the streaming services. Um, because I wanted to put that on there because it's, it's, it, it, when I play it for me, it just kind of helps calm my, calm my soul a little bit. And, um, and, and settle me down because there are just so many different things that can just, you know, bang on us as caregivers.

And, um, and I don't know what to pray. I would like to pat my brother on the back for being my parent's caregivers, both parents. And he had to put them in a nursing home to get to help, but he would take my mother and he put it, he had taken this recliner, a real recliner that you have in the house. And he built a foundation to put under it and put wheels on it. And he would take her and put her in it. And he would roll all around outside.

I think that's hilarious. Now, where did you help take care of him as well? Well, we just more or less set in when he couldn't, he was, he was kind of the boss of it. Did you help him? Well, yeah, sort of, sometimes, not a whole lot.

Well, because they were both in the nursing home. All right. Well, Shirley, I appreciate you calling. I appreciate you listening. The music means I got to take a quick break.

We've got to go to the bottom of the hour here. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is hope for the caregiver. We'll be right back to hope for the caregiver on American family radio.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. Want to give a big shout out to all our affiliates that also carry the show on the Truth Network, his radio, and so many others around the country.

We have the largest broadcast presence for the family caregiver. And I'm so grateful for all of Christian radio that has taken this up and led this charge. All too often, I feel like we as Christians allow the world to dictate how we're going to address many of the tough social issues of our culture. And we're seemingly playing defense. And this one, this show, we're on offense.

We're taking it to them. We're going into the isolation of caregivers. Today, we're talking about prayer.

By the way, that was Gracie from Her CD Resilient. If you want to be a part of this show and if you want to help us do more and do it better and so forth, go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com, click on her CD cover, whatever's on your heart, we'll send you a copy of that CD. And you can help us do this show. And we would very much appreciate that. We love what we do.

We love the fact that we get to do it. And right now, we're talking about prayer. And particularly with this hymn, Sweet Hour of Prayer, in seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. Caregivers understand distress and grief. But right now, our country understands it.

We are a divided, split country. And we don't always know how to pray, but that's why we go to Romans 8 26. And it says, likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray as we are. But the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered.

The Spirit is groaning for us. Isn't that amazing that we have an intercessor for us when we don't know how to pray? And if you've been a caregiver for any length of time, I can promise you, there are moments when you just don't know how to pray. Lots of moments when you don't know how to pray. You don't know what to pray for. You don't even know what to say. And if you haven't gotten to there yet, give it time.

You will. But we have an advocate that is doing that for us. The Spirit Himself is advocating for us, Scripture says, and praying for us in ways that we don't even know how to pray. It's just groaning for us. And so that's why I love these hymns, because when you get into these places, and sometimes all you can do is just hang on to a hymn.

That's all you can do. You hold on to this verse in Romans 8. Thomas Merton once said, all true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence upon God. And I think that we get to this place where we tell God, okay, I got this, I got this, I got this. But then when reality crashes in on us, we realize we don't have this. And it drives us to our knees. But that's not a bad place to be, because that's when we realize how dependent we are.

My pastor friend in Nashville, Jim Bachman, is my pastor for many years there before we moved out to Montana. He told me this the other day, I had him on my show, and he said, you know, to come to Christ, all we need is nothing. But how many of us have nothing? We surround ourselves with things that make us feel stronger and better, but all we need is need.

All we need is nothing. And that's where we find in these places of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. And I love that. And so, Sandra, I'm going to go to you anyway here in North Carolina. You said you had the answer to the song. We've already talked about it, but how are you feeling this morning, Sandra? I'm feeling good. How are you feeling?

You know, for the shape I'm in, I'm in pretty good shape. So you knew this song, did you didn't you? Yes, I did. Actually, I was humming it on the way to take my husband to work this morning. The Lord brought it to my mind. And it was before I even started the show? Yes, uh-huh, because I liked that song. And I was like, wow, that's something.

So I said, I hope I'm getting saved. What key were you humming in? Go ahead and hum it for me. That song brings so much sweet joy and peace to the truth things of God. And that's the first hour we're living in.

Well, hum it for me. That's just great, Sandra, because that's seasons of distress and grief. My soul has often found relief. Have you ever had seasons of distress and grief, Sandra?

Yes, I have, but I know to run to the Lord for my comfort and my peace. And I'm glad that you told the history of that song, because it even means more. And I will be giving that testimony if I can remember tomorrow in our home church about that song, because we sing it often.

So I'm glad you told the history of that song. William Walford. William Walford. And he was blind. And he would write these poems in his mind.

He didn't have anybody to write them down. And this guy happened to interview him and said, do you have some? And he said, well, how about this one?

And he rattled this off. And then think about how many millions upon millions upon millions of people have been comforted by that lyric. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. Well, Sandra, by the way, are you a caregiver?

Actually, I am. So that was the Lord again, Colin, because I didn't even know that. Yes, I'm a caregiver for this elderly lady. She's a 91 years old. She's a sweet Christian woman named Elsie Alligood. And we help each other.

And we talk about the Lord. And she recently went through quite an ordeal this past few months in the summer. She had her toe amputated and just a lot of things happened to her once. And, you know, I just kept encouraging her trust in the Lord. And we continue to pray for her. And she's getting stronger in the Lord and stronger in her body. How's her foot doing?

It's doing fantastic. It's healed and better and everything. You know, my wife's a double amputee, both legs. Oh, really? Yeah. And she launched many years ago a prosthetic limb outreach to her fellow amputees in West Africa.

We've been doing that for some time. We could actually recycle prosthetic limbs. They go to a prison out in Arizona and people that have used limbs where the family member has passed away or outgrown the limbs, kids outgrow them. We need those. In fact, I just got a request yesterday for a guy who needs two prosthetic hands. He was working on electrical wires, a young man, and he electrocuted himself and lost both of his hands. And so for those of you out there who know of somebody who has an upper extremity amputation and they may have a used one that they've outgrown or they don't need anymore or the family member's passed away, please, please, please go out to standingwithhope.com and click on the prosthetic limb outreach tab and you can recycle.

Standingwithhope.com slash recycle. And we'll take those parts and we can remake another leg. Now in her case, we don't necessarily need a toe unless we need to call a tow truck. See what I did there, Sandra? But my wife doesn't particularly care for it when I make jokes like that.

She says I'm being a heel. See what I did there? But no, I mean, we can give the gift that keeps on walking or in this case, help this young man with prosthetic hands. If you know of somebody, spread the word. I mean, send it out to your email database and friends and say, look, standingwithhope.com slash recycle.

We need all of those that we can get. And Sandra, I thank you for the work you're doing for this young lady, 91 years old and I thank you that you love this hymn and that means a lot that you were singing it before I even played it this morning. So how about that? And share that with your home Bible study and church tomorrow.

William Walford, he was blind and he wrote this wonderful text that has been so meaningful to so many people. I've got to run to another call here, but thank you so much for listening. And this is Nancy in Louisiana. Nancy, good morning. How are you feeling? Well, I'm doing good. I'm doing good.

I didn't know when I get back to you. Are you doing dishes, Nancy? I was just scraping my egg into my container so I can save it for tomorrow. I have to run. Listen, do you have, you have no idea how many interviews I've done because I use a Bluetooth all the time when I'm talking and so my hands are free and you have no idea how many interviews and phone calls, business phone calls, everything else I'm doing while I'm doing the dishes and cleaning because I'm a caregiver. I don't make any apologies for it.

So that's music to my ears to hear dishes clanking in the background. Tell me what you got. You're a retired nurse. So tell me, tell me what you got on your mind here. Okay.

Well, I didn't know if any of your other people that might listen, I enjoy listening to your show, but especially with the music. And, um, my main thing is that I don't know who to call to see if somebody needs a little help, uh, being, uh, help with the caregiver. If they're a caregiver and they want someone just to step in for a little bit, hour or half an hour while they call your pastor, call your pastor. Okay. All right. If your pastor, if your pastor doesn't know who in the congregation needs a caregiver, I need to find a different pastor.

Okay. Pastors. That's, that's the job of pastors is to know, uh, who has a need in the church. And, um, my dad's a minister. I've grown up in a pastor's home.

I know how the job is done. And, um, so you call your pastor and like I said, if your pastor is unaware and says, we don't have anybody that needs care in our church, I think you may be in the wrong church. No, I think so.

No, I think so too. So you go, you call your pastor and say, look, I want to help. I'm a retired nurse. I've got training and I can sit with them while they get a reprieve or whatever.

And that is incredibly gracious of you to offer that because to have someone to do respite care is wonderful to have somebody who's trained as a nurse is even better. So thank you for that very much. And, uh, and you behave yourself today and go ahead and finish up cleaning the kitchen. All right. Well, I got to go help.

My church was serving, um, three families whose houses got messed up by the hurricane and they're still not all back together. So we're going to do that right now today. And I got to go. You are just amazing. So what a blessing you are to so many people.

Thank you so much for, for just calling us this morning and sharing with us, Nancy. I really do appreciate it. And you have a fabulous day. Okay. You too. Thank you. Bye bye. You know, that's a, that's a great thing. If you are a retired healthcare professional and you're looking for something to do, call your pastor and find out who in the congregation needs some respite care, some training, uh, I mean, some trained individuals who can come and sit with their loved ones.

Um, just go out and get some groceries or see their own doctor. Like we were talking guy this morning, he didn't know who to trust with it, but there are people out there who can do this. And Nancy's down in Louisiana and she's out there helping folks that have been damaged by the things he wants to help other folks that are doing it. This is how we're going to do it. This is how we're going to minister people. This is how we're going to appoint people to Christ. This is our pulpit. This is our mission field.

And quite truthfully, this is how we're going to help our country. Okay. It's not by might, not by power, by my spirit says the Lord and the spirit itself makes intercession for us when we don't even know how to pray. Romans 8 26. See how all this ties in together.

This is hope for the care giver, healthy caregivers, better caregivers. I'm Peter Roseburger. Don't go away.

We'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger. And in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Roseburger. This is the nation's only one show for you as a family caregiver, and we're glad that you're with us. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, we have a trivia question of the name of a hymn. And I know that some of you may not be as into the hymns as I am. I grew up in the church. I grew up in church music.

I studied music and majored in music. And I go back to these hymns and find them to be extremely rewarding and comforting and strengthening and inspiring. And this is why I push this a lot on the show.

And I think I was telling Rick, who's producing the show today, I think I'm the only live radio host in the country that has a keyboard hooked up to the board here so that I could play. Because I think that it's something that sticks in us. Like the one lady that called in before, she was singing, she was humming a sweet hour of prayer before I even came out of the air. And how many hymns do you all know that you are singing and humming during tough times that are recalled to your mind? It is well with my soul. Amazing grace. How great thou art.

Great is thy faithfulness. And just go down the list. And by the way, if you ever want to call in and just have me play it, I'll be glad to play it for you.

At least a couple of bars. And I put this on my CD, Songs for the Caregiver. Go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com slash music.

And you can stream them now. Listen to them right now. There's a lot about there.

Just put it out there and you can just click on it and just listen to it right now. And I think it'll provide you with a great deal of comfort. And it's something that Martin Luther used to say, music elevates the soul like nothing else except scripture. And next to scripture, music elevates the soul.

And it is true. And I think in times when we don't know what to say, we don't know what to do. I remember when Gracie went through surgery after surgery, after surgery, she's going down on the gurney and how many of you all stood in a corridor of a hospital room and watched your loved one go into surgery over and over and over wondering, are they going to come back? What's going to happen?

What are we going to do? And I'll never forget that. There was one particular time I was thinking about when she lost her right leg. And as they took her down there and I was left in the corridor by myself. And when you don't know what to say, you don't even know how to pray.

You don't even know how to function. And that's when we go back to these things that guide us because other people have been in those spots. And so William Walford, this fellow wrote, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my Father's throne, makes all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. And that is something that is, those lyrics have sustained untold millions in seasons of distress and grief. You understand that as a caregiver, don't you?

You get that. And some of you are in a season of distress and grief right this moment. Most of us are. Otherwise you wouldn't be listening to a show for caregivers on Saturday morning so early.

And this may be the only time of the day where you can have any kind of just peace of mind. And I'm glad you're here with us. I'm glad you're here participating in the show, just listening, letting us speak to you into your pain to the best of our abilities. And I appreciate American Family Radio for hosting all this and all the other affiliates that are doing this because the isolation of caregivers is a real thing and it is a dangerous thing. You're seeing in real time, the way the world is responding to the isolation of the coronavirus.

We caregivers have been dealing with this for a long time. And now we're watching in real time, the entire world struggled with this and what it does to us emotionally and spiritually, physically. Isolation can cripple you.

Aren't you glad that we have a show like this that we can punch into that isolation and offer tangible help of what it looks like? So I ask you right now if that's where you are and your heart is just breaking and you're so troubled and you're so discouraged, hang on to those lyrics. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And as the day goes on and the weeks go on, go back to that hymn. You can listen to it right now at my website. I think I got that out there.

And you can listen to it in seasons of distress and grief. This is a tough time for our country we're watching. I've never seen our country so split.

Don't know that it's going to be unsplit anytime soon. I don't know what's going to bring us back together. I don't know what we can, when good compromises with evil, who wins. And if you feel like that one side is evil, how are you going to compromise with it? And I look at the stuff that is already in play.

How do you work with this? I don't know. But I know this, that the battle's not going to be won on news out, well there's no more news, it's all just media propaganda so move on from that. But the battle's not going to be won in the media. And the reconciliation's not going to be won into some kind of political argument. It's going to be won by just reaching out, neighbor to neighbor, person to person, effectively pointing others to Christ. I wrote an article a while back that was published and I kind of fussed at a lot of these pastors who were out there telling me Christians shouldn't vote for Trump or they should do this or whatever and I was just like, you know, stop pointing to the orange man and start pointing to the crucified man.

Because none of this is going to, you can't argue your way into comfort. And this transcends all of these things. Presidents come and go but our Savior never leaves us. That's His promise.

And that's where we stand on this. Paula in Oklahoma. Paula, good morning, how are you feeling? Hi Dan, well tired. Well I'm not Dan, I'm Peter. I've talked to you several times and you've given me good advice. You talked to me several times and you still call me Dan?

Yeah. No wait, I'm sorry, Peter. I get you and Dan confused.

I do talk to you quite often, Peter. I don't even know who Dan is. Who's Dan?

He's on ASAL4 too. The financial guy, he talks about you too. I thought that was Dave. I have a question.

Oh yeah, it could be Dave, I don't know. I came out of a, you know, homosexual lifestyle. I talked to you a couple of, I don't know. I remember you Paula, I remember you. And your brother was trying to basically blackmail you. Yes, yes, yes, okay.

And he moved out, well he's back in the house but everything's good, you know, and he's really changing. But my biggest thing is I'm feeling convicted. I just can't seem to find a church. Well, I tell you what, you can watch one online until you find one. And I would recommend one, I'll give you one right now that you can watch all their sermons online and you can participate, watch it live. They are doing affiliate memberships all across the country and I love this church, the Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

Go watch the Stevens Valley Church on YouTube. Pardon me? Okay. I just feel so guilty not being in a church but I go in all by myself, you know, and coming with my background it's just hard to, oh well how many kids have you had?

Have you ever been married? No, no, don't worry about that. And you've been caring for my mother. Well, while you're logging, while you're looking for one, if you want to hear solid biblical teaching, go to Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee and listen to the sermons from my friend Jim Bachman and Heath Cross and it is solid 100% and it will strengthen you until you find a local church, okay? Okay, okay, okay.

Thank you so much. When you hear this man preach, it will strengthen you that day right then, okay Paula? Okay, Jim Bachman.

Jim Bachman and Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee and they don't have smoke machines and electric guitars or anything like that, they just get up and preach the gospel. I buy your book and then I give it to friends and even non-believers and I just pray for them constantly. Well, that is very gracious of you. Do you have, did I send you my CD? Yes, I got your CD, I just keep buying your books and just give them out. Did I send you Gracie's CD? Yes, I got that one.

You got both of them? You even turned me on to Johnny and Friends, I went and volunteered at the Wounded Warrior. Oh. So, thank you so much. That'll bless Johnny, I'll pass that on to Johnny, that'll bless her. You are such a treasure, Paula.

Thank you so much. This is a long ways from our first conversation, isn't it? This is a long ways from our first conversation. My whole family has come a long ways and I just thank you for just, I got goosebumps right now for being so encouraging, thank you. Well, you have been encouraging to me and to this, everybody's listening today because you are amazing and you are, you are why we do the show and more importantly, you know, you are just such a model of the gospel. This is what the gospel does, it transforms lives and Paula.

I love you and your wife, thank you. Well, why did you wait so long to call me? Well, I don't know, I feel like a burden sometimes. You're not a burden. I feel like I'm not always calling. Just don't call me Dan, Paula. Just don't call me Dan. All right, listen, you are welcome to call in anytime you want. You are such a treasure and thank you so much for this.

You behave yourself today and go out to Stevens Valley Church in Nashville and just listen to the gospel until you find your home church here in Oklahoma. Hey, we got to go. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Help us do this show. If you like it, go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com and be a part of what we're doing.

We'll see you next week. This is John Butler and I produce Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife Gracie and recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envisioned doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling. You see all these legs like what you have, your own prosthetic legs and arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out.

Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea. I thought of peg leg, I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there.

What does that do to you just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time you always make me have to leave, I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them. And I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that CoreCivic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome. And I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and the other ones like it, but I know about this one, is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much. That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limbs, whether from a loved one who passed away or somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Where do they find it? Please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.