My journey this week takes me to the ministry of visitation and its importance during this pandemic. In my Pastoral class at Seminary, I remember two points about hospital visitation: “Don’s sit on the bed and don’t stay longer than 15 minutes.” When I was hospitalized years later, I understood the importance of this guidance when a friend of mind came in the room with a coffee pot and a bedroll!
Visitation does not depend on wealth, ability, or intellect; everyone should do it. (Overheard at church one Sunday: “Cannot remember the words shared but I will always remember who came to visit me.”) The pandemic has produced a challenging opportunity to care by personal contact through emails, Zoom, letters and cards, phone calls to our neighbors, friends, family, church members. We need to encourage people by visiting them. In Matthew 25, Jesus admonished us to visit the sick and those that are in prison. What we do to others indicates what we really think about our Lord. Enter Fred Barnard, who represents for me a man who genuinely cares through his visitation ministry. Fred estimated that over the years, he has shared with about 40 contacts each week.
Born in 1933 in Haysville, N.C., then immediately upon graduating from High School in 1952, Fred enlisted in the United States Air Force which ultimately placed him at Bergstom Air Force Base, Austin. It was there he met his future wife, Connie Landrum, of Taylor, and they married in 1955. To this union two daughters and one son were born.
