Stories Behind The Hymns

What do you say to a caregiver?

How do you help a caregiver? I was talking to this billing agent at the doctor's office and said, how are you feeling? And she said, oh great It's Friday. And before I could catch myself, I said Friday means nothing to me. Every day is Monday. And I felt kind of ashamed of that and I'm sorry for that, but I realized that whole principle of every day is Monday. What that means for us as caregivers, we know that this is going to be a challenging day. And I wrote these one-minute chapters.

You literally could read them in one minute. And I'm really proud of this book. It's called A Minute for Caregivers, when every day feels like Monday. It's filled with bedrock principles that we as caregivers can lean on, that we can depend upon to get us to safety, where we can catch our breath, take a knee if we have to, and reorient our thinking and the weight that we carry on our shoulders. If you don't know what to say to a caregiver, don't worry about it.

I do. Give them this book. You Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg.

This is the program for you as a family caregiver. Many of you all know that I love the hymns of the church and I try to connect them to us in our caregiving journey as many times as possible. And so today I am thrilled to introduce to you a wonderful guest, a man who loves these hymns more than I do, which is saying a lot. And his name is Dr. Larry Frazier. He is a tremendous singer, professor, author, and caregiver. So, Larry, it is a treat to have you here with us. Dr. Larry Frazier, it is a treat to have you here with us. Welcome to the program. Thank you, Peter.

It's a treat to be here. Tell me a little bit about your musical background before we get into anything else. Where did this love of hymns and everything originate? Well, it started in church at a very young age, at First Presbyterian in Alexandria, Louisiana. And we sang, we had a great organist and choir master and we sang wonderful hymns of praise with informal worship on Sunday morning. And then Sunday night and Wednesday evening, we sang the gospel songs.

And so we kind of had a little bit of everything. And as I grew up, worship was always special to me and the music particularly. So, I started singing in the church choir in the ninth grade. It was an adult choir.

It wasn't a youth choir. And we sang just great master works and also had wonderful hymns during worship. So, that really sparked my interest in music. And then I got interested in concerts, the oratorio, the more formal spiritual music, if you will, religious music.

And decided to, when I was a senior in high school, I sort of felt a call to go into music. And I started out in church music, but then through a series of circumstances switched over to opera. But my love of church music continued and has been a constant in my life. The hymns sustain me and inspired me and I still go back to them.

I love that. I started in church as well. My dad was pastor of Georgia Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. And I remember being five years old, Larry, and my mother held the hymnal. It was that red hymnal we use, the Presbyterian hymnal. And she held the hymnal down for me to look at it. Well, I couldn't read the words. I couldn't read at the time. I couldn't keep up with that, but I could see the staves and the notes.

I didn't quite know what they mean, but I could see music before I could see words. And I thought, we have a responsibility in our churches to bring these back to our churches. We have a poverty of hymnology, if you will, in our churches, because I can't tell you how many people have been sustained through, that I run into, that have been sustained through that.

I know this is the same with you. And so many musicians learn to play music in the church. That's where, that's where it started for so many.

And I could look at somebody pop, R&B, blues, all of that. You could trace all the way back to the church and what happened along the way that you felt like you needed to not only continue this passion of yours, but to write about it and to share this with others and draw on your rich history. What happened in your life that inspired that?

That's an interesting question. And because even though I was a college professor, well, I was an opera singer first, then I discovered I didn't like living out of a suitcase. So a series of circumstances led me back to academia. And that's where most of my career was spent. But I didn't really, instead of, I was in the performance area of music.

So applied performance, if you will, or informed performance was my research. And so I didn't really write much at all as an academic until I was nearing retirement. And a lot of circumstances led to my producing this radio program called the Hymn of the Week. And I began to write these episodes, these weekly episodes for the radio program, which is still being brought up.

It's still being broadcast today, recently here in Georgia and Alabama. And in writing these stories of the hymns, researching the stories of the hymns, that's really where I started writing about the hymns and discovering more than just what's in the hymnal about how the hymns came to be. And it was an incredible heritage, if you will, some of which I was familiar with, but the more I got into it, every hymn's got a great story behind it. And then there were some tragic events in my life that kind of led to me being a caregiver in a special way. About in 2008, my wife was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. So she went through a series of chemo treatment surgery and then chemotherapy. So I was producing these episodes of the Hymn of the Week during the time of her chemotherapy. And she and I both found comfort in what we learned about these hymns. And so that was the nucleus, the germ of the book, A Story Behind Every Hymn, which was sort of precipitated by another event.

My wife has been cancer-free for years now. And so we were on a dream journey, dream trip to the Middle East. We started in Israel. We spent about eight days in Israel. Then we spent a couple of weeks in Egypt. And then we went to Jordan. And on our near our last day in Jordan, my wife fell at Wadi Rum.

We were at the top of a small rock outcropping. She fell and fractured her femur right where it joins the hip. And we got her to the emergency room at the nearest hospital, which was 45 minutes away at Aqaba. And the diagnosis was what I just mentioned, requiring surgery. So just God was with us.

We ended up going back to Amman, the capital of Jordan, from which we were scheduled to fly out. And she had the most wonderful medical care there. And that experience, that's what inspired me to write the book, I think, is that experience of we felt God's presence and hymns really sustained. The hymns kept coming to mind during this very trying time while she was recovering enough to fly back to the United States.

Which is no easy thing on her to be able to fly with a repaired fractured femur. We've been there and done that. And that is, bless her heart.

I don't know how she did it. What were some of the hymns that, for example, that came to you during that time? Well, it's interesting. One of them was God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea and guides us through the storm. That was one that really. I'm glad it wasn't on Jordan's stormy banks I stayed.

No, it wasn't that one. And although any reference to Jordan has a new meaning to us now. I would imagine it does. Well, how is she now? Well, she is totally recovered. We got back to the United States about three weeks. We were about three weeks injured while she recovered enough to fly back. So we go to the orthopedist and the clinic that all the orthopedists they're looking over her x-rays, which were extra large that they had given us at the clinic in Jordan.

And they all leaned over like a bunch of, it looked like a bunch of birds looking down at food or something. And almost with one accord, they raised up, you got a great treatment. You got a great procedure about that. So we were very, very fortunate there, but it was about three weeks before we could fly back. Well, you had, you extended your trip in Jordan.

That's for sure. And it was at that coincidentally with my wife's accident, I was losing my voice. For some reason, I guess the dry climate for three weeks, it just got to me.

So there we are, very few people speak English, very little English. And I'm trying to communicate and the people are so, they were so nice to us. The Jordanians, I think were the friendliest of all the people that we encountered in the Middle East. They took great care of us. And so it was an incredible experience. And we were just aware, we were aware of people praying for us back here at home.

And we had met Colonel Oliver North on our, during the part of our trip that was in Israel. And so he found out about our injury and he emailed us that he said, everybody in our church is praying for Mary Lynn's recovery. And that was, what a powerful affirmation that was. So we had just, we had, and then our people at our local church, our pastor was extremely supportive. And it was an incredible experience to be so totally helpless in a way and not able to communicate very well to someone who is very verbal and used to communicating. It was a real humbling experience that we didn't have a lot of control, that God was in control. And we felt that very, very strongly. We're talking with Dr. Larry Frazier.

He is the author of the book, A Story Behind Every Hymn, long time singer, professional, academic, author, caregiver. And we're going to talk about that more when we come back. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver.

We'll be right back. Hi, this is Jeff Foxworthy. 65 million Americans serve as a caregiver for a sick or disabled loved one. If you're one of them, then listen to my friend, Peter Rosenberger's show.

He's got redneck tendencies, but he's really good at what he does. Years ago, I had the idea of doing a radio program for family caregivers. And so I pitched this to a large radio station in Nashville when Gracie and I lived there at the time. And they looked at me and they said, you're going to do a show for what?

For whom? You're going to fill up an hour with this? Some even said it's not even a viable show. So I left that station and went to a very tiny radio station and started doing the program. The folks at the bigger station were listening to my program and they called me up and said, we like this. We think it's working. Come back over here. We want to do this program.

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This is Peter Rosenberger. We're so glad that you're with us. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

I'm talking with Dr. Larry Frazier. He has written a book, a story behind every hymn. We're both aficionados for him. We have great affection for the hymn, I might say. And the stories behind them are so intriguing.

They give so much more context. In fact, I was recently at our church out here. The favorite song I had as a child was, let me head over here to the caregiver keyboard. He keeps me singing.

There's within my heart a melody. And I love that as a child. And the assistant pastor at church where my dad was the senior pastor, the sister pastor knew that I love that hymn.

And again, I was five, six years old. And so every time we did that hymn, he would say, Peter, this is your hymn, you know, kind of thing. Well, I just now learned the story behind that hymn.

The man that wrote that, his wife and three children died in a fire when he was 26 years old. And he nearly lost his mind. And he, during the, he was suicidal.

I mean, he really went through a pretty rough patch. And the verse came to him that he gives a song in the night. And then he wrote that hymn. He keeps me singing. And now I'll never sing that and play that song the same way again.

And so I love the fact that you've taken these stories. And one of the stories that you put in there, I did not know, praise my soul, the king of heaven. I didn't realize that Queen Elizabeth brought that out of retirement, if you will. And, and did that at her wedding, uh, back in what, 1947 ish. Something like that.

That's right. And, uh, and it also was sung in her, in her Jubilees. And I think it was sung at her funeral. I did not get to hear that, but I think it was. Well, it's such a great hymn, praise my soul, the king of heaven. Absolutely. And I taught in my book, I entitled that a hymn fit for a queen. It was wonderful to see that.

And, uh, and I think that heritage that we have is what sustains us. I've played a lot of funerals over my life as a pianist, uh, at every funeral, they, they want to hear these hymns. Nobody, nobody's really, I only had one funeral. It was kind of an odd guy who wanted to hear a tune from the Eagles.

And, uh, but I didn't play it. He had it played, but everything that was, that was, that was a one-off, but it's astonishing to me on how many people, when life hits full frontal, that they go back to these hymns. Life has hit you full frontal with your wife going through cancer and now dealing with Alzheimer's.

How are you doing? You know, compared to, compared to so many other people with, you know, my life has been easy, you know, I've got great health and I've got a wonderful wife that, uh, that I love to be with. And, uh, so I'm, you know, blessed far beyond what I deserve, if you will, but the hymns, it's, it's strange that connection because the authors of hymns, there are many clergy that wrote hymns, but, but just ordinary, or I say ordinary non-ordained people, but all of these people, they were believers. They were Christians. They experienced the challenges of life. And the stories that come through their hymns are like testimonies. These are real people. Now, this is not, you know, some textbook story. These are people that have experienced life. And yet they're, uh, I think I'll forget the person who is credited with calling hymns compact statements of theology. They really are.

And they're practical. It's amazing. Like Annie Sherwood in New York, she was very wealthy and a believer, sincere believer. She, she wrote a hymn that came to her while she was doing housework. She showed it to her, her pastor, Dr. Robert Lowry. And, uh, so he set it to music and it wasn't until later in life, after her husband died, that the power of that hymn that she had written in a time, she was just doing routine, you know, sort of housework, if you will.

And that's when she wrote the hymn, but later, uh, you know, after her husband died in a time of real challenge, the hymn came back to her. I need the every hour, most gracious Lord, no tender voice like thine can peace afford. And then her pastor added the refrain. I need the, Oh, I need the every hour. I need the, Oh, bless me.

Now my savior, I come to thee. Well, it's a great story. Um, to me, this woman was, she was a real woman. She was a wife. She was a mother. And then later she became a widow and, and only later did the true impact of what she had written.

Come back to her. Well, that story who does, who hasn't been in a situation when you feel like you're beyond your own resources, I need the every hour. And it just, it's, it speaks to, it speaks to us today. And knowing that her, knowing her story, uh, is inspirational. It connects us to, to hurt to her.

And, and we realize that the faith is alive and has been alive for, for 2000 years plus and through believers and the, and believers have often expressed themselves in, in, in hymns in the poetry that expresses the faith and, and they're in their own particular circumstance. I put that him on my CD songs for the caregiver. And so, and I said, you know why I put, I need the every hour on there.

I said, because nobody's written. I need the every minute yet. I, I love that him. I love playing that him. Now I put some chords in those hymns, Larry, that are not, um, thanks you. I remember one time I was playing in Nashville at covenant Presbyterian church, and I would play before uh, people would, as people were coming in just to kind of quiet the place down. And my pastor walked across these light the candles, Jim Baughton. And I threw in a flat nine chord when I was playing this like this. And I, but I threw in a flat nine chord just as Jim was light the candles right beside me. And I threw this in on, on a song.

I think it was, I need the every hour. And I looked at Jim and I whispered, you know, I can get brought up on charges for that chord. He put his head down while he's trying to light the candle. He put his head down and started laughing because I love adding these chords. I had a, uh, my piano professor for many years at Delmont university of Nashville, John Arne, and I still stay in touch with him. I've had him on this program and he really taught me, uh, so much about arranging hymns to add different kinds of chords and the way you do the melody. But, but the thing he told me, and this will mean something to you as a musician. He said, start off playing it with one finger and just play the melody. If you can play that hymn expressively with one finger, then you've earned the right to go and arrange the hymn, but you've got to play the melody and as expressively and for now, that's no big deal. If you're a trumpet player, cause you only play one note at a time, you know, but if you're a pianist, that is work.

That is a lot of work to do that. And to really, and what he wanted me to do is understand the text, understand what the text is saying through that melody, that one note. And it was a great exercise.

I still do that today. Um, go back to that when I arrange any kind of hymn and play them, because I want to make sure, am I communicating the heart of what this hymn is doing? What is one that has sustained you and Mary Lynn through some of the things that you're dealing with now?

Well, let's see. Oh God, our help in ages past. I love that hymn. I love that incredible poetry. And, uh, and one of my favorites is crown him with many crowns. Oh, that's, that's in the top five of all. I have a list of 25 hymns that every Christian ought to know. And that's in the top five. One of the ones you talk about in this book, all hail the power of Jesus name.

And you call that one, the Christian national Anthem. Right. Yeah.

Talk about that a little bit. Well, that one, you know, I think that's interesting in several ways, particularly for Americans, because we're not in a, we've never been in a culture in this country where we have a King or a queen. And, um, and that him is, is, you know, it's, it's, it's all about your, you give full obeisance to the almighty, our, our almighty King and, uh, and, and that's very, very powerful. And, uh, it, it puts us, puts us in our place, I think in a, in a, in a great way. You know, that's, I've never even thought of it that way, but yeah, you're right. We, we don't, we're somehow drawn. Like when we had the recent coronation of, of King Charles and so forth, we're drawn to this pageantry, but that is just a poor shadow of what awaits us.

Yes, absolutely. When Jesus, uh, when we see him and, and, you know, I, I've talked about this and I want to, I want to get your thoughts on this, and if we have to go to a break, we'll, we'll do that. But I want to get your thoughts on this. When I play these hymns, I am, I am refreshed. I asked some people one time, I said, how many of you all think that I need rest as a caregiver?

And they all raise their heads. I said, how many of you all know what rest looks like to me? And, and people, you know, say we'll get some sleep or whatever. It's sleep is not always rest to me. It's sleep.

That's fine. But rest is something different. Rest is for me to settle down and anchor myself in the great truths of God, that he's got this.

He's got this. And when I play these hymns, when I focus on the message and not the hymns of like, there's some hymns that are kind of a little bit sappy and, you know, particularly in a lot of today's music, I really, it's very self-reflective and yada yada yada. I don't care for that as much.

I want these hymns that lift my soul, praise my soul, the king of heaven, all hail the power. When I focus on him, it rests. My soul rests even in the midst of my distress.

It's, it's one of the strangest things that happened to me, but when I'm playing, it actually strengthens. And, and, and I don't know any better word than that. You have the same experience.

Yes, absolutely. As a matter of fact, when we first got married, we have a nice piano, a 1901 Steinway grand, six foot two model A. And I mentioned that because I'm really proud of that instrument. But one thing, my wife is a good pianist and doesn't practice much anymore. But when we, we first got married, she would play the piano. And then when I would come home and she knew I was coming in, she'd stop playing because she didn't want me to hear. She thought, well, you're a professional musician. And, you know, you wouldn't think much of my playing, but I love to come in and hear her play hymns.

And now she plays them very often. And for both of us, it's, it's, it's cathartic. I mean, it's inspiring, it's rejuvenating and it connects us. Rejuvenating. That's the word. It rejuvenates me.

Yeah. And just, and right now in retirement, I play hymns probably as often as any music that I play. And I play a lot. I love the piano myself and I'm, you know, playing it in retirement a lot more, but the hymns is, that's a constant. And it's the music, you know. Hold that, hold that thought. We've got to go to a quick break.

I'm up against the clock. You do radio. You understand that sort of thing.

Absolutely. We're talking with, exuberantly talking with Dr. Larry Frazier. His book is called A Story Behind Every Hymn. We've been talking so much about hymns. We haven't really gotten into caregiving. May not. That's kind of the whole point is it helps redirect our thoughts to the things that sustain us.

And I, you know how much I love these hymns. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Don't go away. We've got more to go. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

Glad to have you with us. I am talking with Dr. Larry Frazier, who I must in all full disclosure admit, it's his brother that connected the two of us. He's also Dr. Frazier, Dr. Michael Frazier. And he's been tutoring me in theology for lo these many months.

Dr. Michael Frazier obviously has a penchant for pain to take me on as a student and he's making sure that I don't go off the rails on things. And he connected me up to his brother, Larry. And it is just a real treat, Larry, to be able to spend time with you and talk about this mutual love we have of hymns.

We both are caregiving husbands and we are both sustained by this great treasure trove we have that unfortunately in many places has a lot of dust on it. And I'm hoping we can be a part of shaking some of that dust off and letting people know that there is so much to sustain us, as we said in the last segment, to rejuvenate us, to lift our hearts. Luther said that next to the word of God, music elevates the soul like nothing else. I think I probably butchered that quote, but that's close enough.

Michael won't come over and beat me on the head with that one. But you're talking about how you play these things now to strengthen your soul as you are in a different area of your life and you're approaching some things that are a little bit uncomfortable and yet these things still draw you back and anchor you. Talk a little bit about that. Yes, it's the power of music. Music expresses so much more than words alone can express. And the powerful combination of music and text that we have in hymn and poetry is incredibly powerful and moving. And the music brings to mind the words, but it enlivens the words.

It takes the text and it brings another dimension. And we think of hymns and really we think of the title of the hymns and we identify the hymn by the music, typically. And you can study the poetry of the hymns and that is great because that's what the hymn is, is the poetry. But when you put it with music and then when you connect it with 2000 years or actually more than that because really you've got the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. When you connect the words, the hymns, because the hymns are the words, when you connect them with music, there's another dimension of that expression that goes beyond what words can do. Like the Luther quote you made, it's incredibly powerful and it connects us. The Presbyterians have the doctrine, which I believe very strongly, the communion of the saints.

That we indeed are a part of a stream of history, a stream of believers that we're part of that stream. And the music sure it comes from the time in which the hymns were written typically, although not necessarily because the music and the words were written by different people in many cases at different times and some cases too. But the particular marriage of tune and hymn is incredible, just incredibly powerful and sustaining. One of the things, like I said, I've played a lot of funerals. When people ask me what song to play for funerals or sometimes even weddings, but I don't do weddings anymore. I almost refuse to play for weddings.

There's just way too much drama and I just don't like to do it. If I play for somebody's wedding, please know I love that person so much that I will overcome my reluctance to do it. But for funerals, I try to, if possible, play for any funeral that I'm asked to do, unless it just becomes way too cumbersome to be able to do it.

Because I feel like that's a real opportunity for ministry. But one of the songs that I, if they ask for suggestions and it surprises people, but it's the hymn from Duke Street, the tune, Jesus Shall Rain. And I love that hymn. And I think that when you play that at a funeral, you're making such a statement as a believer that transcends, yes, we're looking at death full frontal, but at the same time as believers, we're saying Jesus shall rain. And I love the majesty of that tune of Duke Street.

Jesus shall rain. I shouldn't have sung there. No, that's great. There's FCC requirements against me singing sometimes. There's ordinances and lawyers get involved.

It gets ugly. But I love that hymn. And I know that my father, one that is particularly dear to him is lead on O King Etern. And that's something he asked or stated that that's something he wanted at his funeral.

And we hope that is a long ways away, but that is what a statement of faith. A funeral sometimes is the last opportunity for a believer to bear testament in this life, one last time in that service. And I tried to counsel people on that when they asked me, as a musician, let's don't play the Eagles.

Let's play something that has some weight to it that says, this is not the end of the story. And that great connection, it connects that individual to everybody that's attending that funeral because they may have remembered times when they sang that hymn or they heard that hymn. And in your case, you talked about the hymn your father wants you to play or wants to have it played at his funeral. That connection of family and friends through the hymns and the music of the hymns is an incredible connection.

It is. And one of the indelible memories I have of my father in the pulpit, and I need to tell him this. I'll tell him that he listens to this show every week. I tell people when mom and dad listen to my program, my audience doubles.

No, I'm just kidding. They listen every week. But I remember him singing that hymn in the pulpit and he literally lifted on his toes when he was singing it. Just his whole, everything about him just lifted lead on on King eternal. I mean, it's, he's not singing this meek and mild and muttering it out. He is with zeal singing this hymn, uh, because this is a defining hymn of his life that he is. Dad's a long time military man. And he, he understands who his commander in chief is.

And that's what that him does for him. And as you said, uh, we talked about last block with them, raise my soul, the King of heaven, the guy that wrote that you gave us the great him abide with me, which is a Henry light. That's one of my mother's favorite hymns, if not her favorite hymn of all time, abide with me. And I, those hymns and somebody more just are so precious to me. And I, and so when I play them as a pianist and as a singer, I know that you, you take the same care. I want to make sure that I'm properly handling this thing. It's almost like when you're talking with rare documents, you put on gloves, so you don't hurt it.

Yeah. I want to make sure that I don't hurt these hymns. The way I play them is they're so precious. And you're articulating that precious connection. You connect with the him because of your own belief, but also the, what you've shared with that relative or that friend who also experienced that him. That's an incredible connection. Again, that communion of the saints and we can Henry Francis light, you know, we can, it's almost like we're with him when we sing his hymns or read his poetry.

It's an incredible connection. And to hear when he wrote that hill abide with me, he was near death. He was within three weeks of death. I think he was writing why he was just sort of lamenting about his fading senses. And he said, would that verse of mine would inspire another person, something I'm not, I'm not giving them to write poetry, but would that a verse of mine would inspire someone else. Then I can, I can go to my grave confident that I have, my life has had purpose or something to that effect. It's a wonderful statement. Of course, I love that the light of their help of the helpless, Lord abide with the help of the helpless.

And so when I'm struggling in the hospitals and all the things I do, I don't have the words sometimes I can't, I don't know how to pray. And so I'll just go to the piano and I'll play and just pour out my heart, knowing that there are men and women who have written words that sustained me and millions upon millions, millions of others in those dark moments. And I treasure that. I I'm kind of on a mission here to help make sure that we don't forget these.

And I want to pass them on to children and grandchildren and so forth. And as many people as I can, you've helped me do that today. And, uh, I'm very, very grateful. This book is called a story behind every hymn. And your brother was very gracious to send me a copy of it. I think it's available on, you know, certainly on all the online sellers.

If people want to find out more about you, I know you're a busy guy in your retirement, because you're also now a caregiver, but if people want to find out more about you, what's the easiest way to get to you. You can go to my website, uh, faith, music connection.com. And I've got many resources on hymns and, uh, musical examples.

And, uh, there's a, there's a lot of stuff on there. And also I want to mention too, that the book is available on audio books, because I know I have friends that say they, they, they like audio books better than printed books because they can listen to them when they're commuting. Well, I listened to a lot of audio books myself when I'm doing caregiving chores and so forth.

I can't sit down and read like I used to. And I'm constantly on the go and I just listened to audio books a lot with that. So I enjoy that. So that's great to know. We're going to have to do this some more. Okay. That'd be great.

Absolutely. Let's do this again. This was a real treat for me, dr. Larry Frazier.

Tell me the website one more. Faith music connection.com faith music connection.com. That's very easy to remember you can also enter a story behind every hymn and that should get you there also, but direct as faith music connection.com. Well, if this program has touched something in your heart about the hymns, go out and get this book. You'll find it very meaningful and, and go out to his website, take a look at it. Let's make sure that we pass on to the next generation, this same passion for hymns, because we're, we're doing a disservice to many of our people out there by not telling them what's going on with these hymns, why they're important. And like you said, with compact theology, you're taking a tremendous theological lesson set to poetry, set to music and some that have literally changed the world. Yeah.

Dr. Larry Frazier, thank you so much again for joining us today. We didn't get into a whole lot of caregiver issues. We got sidetracked by the hymns, but maybe that's the whole point.

That's what elevates her souls. This is Peter Rosenberg. This is Hope for the caregiver, hopeforthecaregiver.com. We'll see you next time. You've heard me talk about standing with hope over the years. This is the prosthetic limb ministry that Gracie envisioned after losing both of her legs. Part of that outreach is our prosthetic limb recycling program. Did you know that prosthetic limbs can be recycled?

No kidding. There is a correctional facility in Arizona that helps us recycle prosthetic limbs. And this facility is run by a group out of Nashville called CoreCivic. We met them over 11 years ago, and they stepped in to help us with this recycling program of taking prostheses and you disassemble them. You take the knee, the foot, the pylon, the tube clamps, the adapters, the screws, the liners, the prosthetic socks, all these things we can reuse and inmates help us do it. Before CoreCivic came along, I was sitting on the floor at our house or out in the garage when we lived in Nashville and I had tools everywhere, limbs everywhere, and feet, boxes of them and so forth. And I was doing all this myself and I'd make the kids help me.

And it got to be too much for me. And so I was very grateful that CoreCivic stepped up and said, look, we are always looking for faith-based programs that are interesting and that give inmates a sense of satisfaction. And we'd love to be a part of this.

And that's what they're doing. And you can see more about that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle. So please help us get the word out that we do recycle prosthetic limbs. We do arms as well, but the majority of amputations are lower limb.

And that's where the focus of Standing With Hope is. That's where Gracie's life is with her lower limb prosthesis. And she's used some of her own limbs in this outreach that she's recycled. Obviously she's been an amputee for over 30 years.

So you go through a lot of legs and parts and other types of materials and you can reuse prosthetic socks and liners if they're in good shape. All of this helps give the gift that keeps on walking. And it goes to this prison in Arizona where it's such an extraordinary ministry. Think with that, inmates volunteering for this. They want to do it.

And they've had amazing times with it. And I've had very moving conversations with the inmates that work in this program. And you can see, again, all of that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle. They're putting together a big shipment right now for us to ship over. We do this pretty regularly throughout the year as inventory rises and they need it badly in Ghana. So please go out to standingwithhope.com slash recycle and get the word out and help us do more. If you want to offset some of the shipping, you can always go to the giving page and be a part of what we're doing there.

We're purchasing material in Ghana that they have to use that can't be recycled. We're shipping over stuff that can be. And we're doing all of this to lift others up and to point them to Christ. And that's the whole purpose of everything that we do. And that is why Gracie and I continue to be standing with hope. Standingwithhope.com.