Updates

Pet Therapy at Community Village

Talk about drawing a crowd! That’s exactly what our furry friend Beethoven does whenever he and his owner, Krys Nolan-Himm of First State Home Health & Hospice, stop for a pet therapy visit! If they can manage, residents find themselves kneeling on the floor to get as close as possible to those sweet kisses. Others gently offer a tiny treat after Beethoven does a trick or two. And some residents fondly remember the closeness they enjoyed with a pet from their past. It was truly a happy and therapeutic experience today! Thank you, Krys, for the wonderful service you provide for us.

Reminiscing According to Edna

“When I was born, the doctor put me in his hand and told my mother “here’s your baby”. They put me in a shoebox to send me home. I weighed 1 pound and a half. They didn’t think I was going to live to be three years old and now I’m 78! I was one month premature. My mother put me on an old cook stove to warm me. That’s where I would stay until I was old enough to stay in a bed. Just like an incubator, they didn’t have those when I was in the hospital in 1940.”

Oh how we love to hear these stories!!!
Happy Senior Citizen’s Day!

How You Can Help: August 2018

Community Village is operated for the purpose of making assisted living affordable to frail elders with limited means. Supplementing the modest resident fees, Community Village is sustained by charitable gifts from churches, businesses, professionals, community groups, and generous people like you.

Pantry Products We Could Use

Rice
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Spaghetti Sauce
Juice
Canned Fruit

Thank you for caring!

An Adventurer Among Us

Always and forever up for an adventure, Dorothae is celebrated with deep love today… her 89th birthday!

Thanks to the creativity of her daughter, Barb, Dorothae can page through memory books to see the woman she has always been – a loving, faithful daughter of God! Below is just a glimpse of the life Dorothae has lived.

Homemaker Recalls Christian Experiences

by Howard Peterson, Nebraska – The Sunday School Missionary (July-Sept 1959)

Some are called to be preachers or teachers while others may be called to be evangelists or missionaries, but here is a young mother with a rich full background in Christian training and missionary experience who is equipped to radiate her testimony to her own little family, as well as to the many others with whom she comes in contact. Her name: Mrs. Dorothae Hohndorf. This is her thrilling testimony.

“I doubt if time will ever fade the memories of those years at the American Sunday School Union Bible Conferences. I especially thrill at the memories of the long walks up the hillsides each morning for the sunrise services where we sensed the Lord’s presence in our midst. I often relive the ball games, wiener roasts on the banks of the river, the long hikes along the many trails, and all of the many good times we had with the other Christian girls and boys.

“I remember so well the day at camp when I made my decision to accept the Lord as my Saviour. Although I was not aware of what was happening, my life changed. The classes took on a new meaning for me. I thank the Lord for helping me to remember one particular class taught by a wonderful Christian lady, Miss Myrtle Johnson. She taught the first lesson that I can remember on full-time Christian service. This led me to think for the first time of giving myself as a full time Christian worker.

“These were happy years. Each spring I was privileged to teach Bible school for the American Sunday School Union. I had the joy of leading souls to Christ. Today this joy is being doubled as I see some of those that were won for Christ now receiving further training in Bible Institutes.

“Leaving my carefree days behind me, I began to prepare for adulthood and Christian service. I entered our state teachers college to prepare for teaching. After I had taught one year, the Lord led me to Grace Bible Institute from which I graduated. After the second year of Bible school, I ceased to travel life’s road alone as I united my life with that of Alvin Hohndorf in marriage.

“In March 1956 one of the speakers at a Bible Conference read from God’s Word the familiar verse in Matthew 28:18, Go ye therefore. The Lord used those words as if He were hammering them into my heart. I had told the Lord many times that I would go wherever He would send me. Now I knew the time had come when the Lord was commanding in a definite way.

“Step by step the Lord led the way. In five months I was on my way to Cuba! I would be gone for four months and I was going alone. Not because my husband would not go, but because this was the Lord’s leading for this situation. I went to teach school for missionary children as the missionaries were short handed for these particular four months. There I gained a wealth of experience in missionary life and broadened my special interest for missionary children.

“Since I have been home I have been able to share these wonderful experiences with not only members of my family but with others with whom I have come in contact.”

A World of Difference for 25 Years

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A Michigan Home for the Aged

The year was 1993 – an important year for City Rescue Mission of Saginaw and for us. Constructed by Saginaw County to replace the historic County Infirmary that stood on the other side of Hospital Road, the Village had seen its day and was set to close as determined by county commissioners. Because our leadership at City Rescue Mission knew many frail elders found Community Village to be exactly what they needed, our board approached the County Controller to dissuade the leadership from closing. To our surprise, their recommendation was for City Rescue Mission to submit a proposal to assume Village operation. Though today that sounds practical, in 1992 our organization was much smaller and the idea was daunting. Yet we came to an agreement with Saginaw County and invested over $1 million to have the facility licensed as a Michigan Home for the Aged.

Residents You Know And Care About

Since that day, residents have come from both City Rescue Mission and even more from the general public. I think of the folks that have made Community Village their home during these 25 years, and I can connect almost every church in the area with someone who once lived here. Some of them your neighbors, some of them your family.

One of our current residents is a dear lady with whom I attended church 40 years ago. Another lady turned to City Rescue Mission in 2002 and then moved into the Village a few months later. A victim of domestic violence and eventually a widow, she was also diagnosed with lung cancer, the beginning of a long battle for her. Numerous times we were unsure whether she’d recover, but today she is living cancer-free! For sixteen years now, this dear lady has been an important part of our community.

Christian Love: To Visit the Widows

At the heart of our story is Christian love. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” – James 1:27. We have many friends who are heavily invested in Community Village through their financial support and volunteer involvement. Last month I visited with a lady who has so generously given to help Community Village. I asked her how she became interested in the Village, and immediately she responded that she could think of nothing worse than being a widow in need of assistance without having resources to pay for her needed care. This is someone truly committed to the mission we embrace.

If you’ve walked any part of this 25 years with us, thank you for the significant role you’ve assumed. We may not be changing the whole world, but we are making a world of difference. Together!

– Ken Streeter