Visitation and Call

Contact and Connection

Shepherd of the Valley has openings in two wonderful ministries that involve keeping in contact with each other during this time of separation. We’ve been biding our time through the summer, seeing if COVID would subside enough for us to visit in person or come together as a group. So far that’s not happening, so we’re renewing and re-dedicating our personal contact ministries: the calling group and Commissioned Visitors. Each is undergoing subtle changes. Please read below and see if you feel called to participate.

Calling Ministry
As COVID hit last spring, we instituted a phone call ministry, trying to make sure every member had been contacted at least once to ask how things are going and what they needed. We made it through the list. The vast majority of members said they were doing well and weren’t in need at that time.

Now that we’re heading into a new season, we’d like to touch base with people again. We’re not going to do an every member, one-time sweep this time. Instead we’ve identified a smaller list of people we’d like to call on a more regular basis. We need folks to volunteer to call, say hello, and see how people are doing.

Many of our initial callers are staying on for this next round. We need to pick up about six new callers to cover our list. If you can greet someone, ask how they’re doing, and listen for a minute or two, you’re qualified! We plan to give each caller a list of 8-10 people to contact over the course of a month, which amounts to 2-3 calls a week. Calls are usually brief. A half-hour of time dedicated per week would be plenty, and probably it’d be less than that. You’ll keep the same call list throughout the ministry, so it’s a good chance to develop a relationship with people.

Commissioned Visitors
Kari Sansgaard did a fantastic job of training our initial Commissioned Visitors. As demands from COVID have increased, we’re finding we need a few more…maybe five or six. We’re also going to be augmenting the ministry, helping people get the most out of phone visits.

We’re asking Kelly Loy (a Boise-based counselor, chaplain, and pastor) and Linda Peightel (a visitor and chaplain) to help us grow our Commissioned Visitor ministry into the future, especially into the time of COVID.

We’re also asking five or six of you to step up to become Commissioned Visitors. You’ll get simple training about how to visit in person and via phone, hear about the goals and limits of the ministry, and have the chance to meet monthly to share stories and get support. You’d be assigned 1 or 2 people to visit per month, so the time demand isn’t great here either.

If you are a person of compassion with a heart for reaching out to folks who could use a friendly voice in their lives, could you please call me at 208-362-1112 or email me at pastor@sov-id.org? Whether you want to call or become a Commissioned Visitor, you’d be making a big difference!

We hope to fill these volunteer positions over the next two weeks and get the ministries going again right after! Please help if you can!
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--Pastor Dave