Dear Editor,
I don’t think any reader can fail to be moved by Tim Thornborough’s account (en, September) of caring for his mother who suffered from dementia.
This gives a vivid account of the dedication and care given by the hundreds, if not thousands, of other carers in similar situations, many of whom have little or no support for what they have often given up their whole lives to do.
At the end of Tim’s article, he puts out a call that God’s family, His church, should take steps to offer practical and personal support for those “walking this lonely and painful road”.
My prayer is that all of us who follow Jesus will pray about this, and ask God to show them and their fellowships how they might respond to this call.
Tim’s book also follows a book by Sir Ed Davey (leader of the Lib Dems) entitled Why I Care and Why Care Matters. This is a profound book from which I learned much, one thing being the huge number of young carers who have given up educational opportunities to care for a loved one. Social care is a profound and serious problem which churches could do more to help. There are many of us who with God’s guidance could do more, and so I put out a plea to all church leaders: find time to ask church members to pray about this and to ask God if the gifts He has given them could be used to help and support those who suffer, and those who give up their lives to care for them.
We are not only called to pray but also to help in practical and personal ways. This is clear from the template given for the church in Acts, and was a principle that was practised in the fellowships overseen by Spurgeon, Wesley and many others.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Owen, Bolton, Lancashire
