Carroll Lutheran Village Restarts Ministry Program Offering Help, Hope and Healing

Two years ago, the pandemic put the Stephen Ministry program at the Lutheran Social Ministries of Maryland community Carroll Lutheran Village (CLV) in Westminster, Maryland, on hold for safety reasons. Now, a team of four residents and an associate chaplain has returned to manage the program and resume its work with CLV residents on depression, loneliness, family loss, loss of faith, health, end-of-life and other challenging issues and are grateful to be providing caregiving again.

Stephen Ministry trains lay people to provide one-to-one Christian care to those experiencing grief, illness, hospitalization, life transitions, or another life challenge. Bob Nicoll, the program’s class administrator, provides oversight with two other CLV Stephen leaders: Connie Kidder and Jay King. CLV’s associate chaplain Charles Marshall and Spiritual Life Committee chair James Boesler round out the leadership team. Each team member received 50 hours of specialized training to be a Stephen minister before working with residents.

While the reasons for volunteering vary for each, they all share an understanding of the program’s importance and necessity. Kidder became interested in caring ministries early in life. As a young adult, she received support from her church, family and others. Since then, she has had a passion for helping others.

King’s interest in assisting older adults came from his interactions with a pastor while in high school. He stated, “Now I am one,” yet he still enjoys befriending residents who are close in age. He saw an ad about Stephen Ministries at CLV and immediately applied. He feels lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. Stephen Ministries allows him to do what he loves—empowering others.

Boesler faced many challenges and at one time thought, “God can’t love me.” It took time, but he now believes, despite everything, God loves him. He wants others going through a difficult time to know God is with them all the time. This desire led Boesler to complete the Stephen Ministry training so he can support CLV residents.

After a long career in management where Nicoll spent most of his time with lots of people and organizations, he said, “I wanted to find something different—something to experience one-on-one relationships.” As a Stephen minister, he’s been able to experience those relationships.

Nicholl said, “We routinely remind our team that we are caregivers, not cure givers—the latter is in God’s hands.” CLV’s eight Stephen Ministers are careful to remember they are not therapists and avoid trying to fix care receivers’ problems. If care receivers need more support than a minister can offer, a referral is made to an outside professional or mental health specialist.

The leadership team plans to expand the program to include reaching those who may need support but do not require the full program. For example, some residents may benefit from simply having a conversation with a Minister rather than meeting for multiple sessions.

Considering the challenges many are facing since the pandemic started, CLV’s residents and team members are happy to have Stephen Ministers and Leaders in the community to provide caring support.

Lutheran Social Ministries of Maryland is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a national network of 300 Lutheran health and human services organizations that reaches one in 50 people in America each year. Carroll Lutheran Village, a community of Lutheran Social Ministries of Maryland, is an accredited, not-for-profit continuing care retirement community that supports nearly 700 residents in 397 homes and apartments, 50 assisted living suites and 103 skilled care beds.

Learn more about Lutheran Social Ministries of Maryland.

LSS of Southern California Offers a Basket of Hope on Easter

Elizabeth Gomez first came to Lutheran Social Services of Southern California’s Orange County center three years ago after her husband lost his job. As their primary source of income disappeared, Elizabeth and her family became desperate for groceries and other essentials.

LSS stepped in to support Elizabeth and her family in their time of need. The organization provided essential services, including rental assistance and support with transportation. LSS helped the family get connected to other community resources as well. The organization continued to support the family during this difficult and frightening time as they slowly got back on their feet.

This past Easter, Elizabeth’s three children received Easter baskets donated by the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Cypress and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Irvine. Even in times of poverty and struggle, the children received much-needed comfort—and the opportunity to just be kids.

Today, with assistance from LSS’s dedicated team, Elizabeth was able to apply for benefits as her husband secured new employment. They are all looking forward to moving onto the next chapter of their lives, together.

Lutheran Social Services of Southern California is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a national network of 300 Lutheran health and human services organizations that reaches one in 50 people in America each year.

Learn more about Lutheran Social Services of Southern California.

Adam Libby: A Bold Chef Who’s Become a Social Media Phenomenon

Since Adam Libby was a little boy, he’s been an entertainer. Back then, he put on plays in his yard—confidently assimilating all the characters—and people in his small town of Lincoln, Maine, would come to see him.

“He’s a comedian and a storyteller. He doesn’t shy away from the limelight at all,” laughs Teresa Hess, a community living coordinator at the Mosaic service Living Innovations. “Sometimes when he’s talking with you, he imitates a character in a movie he’s recently watched, and he does a really good job.”

In fact, according to his twin sister, Emily McCormick-Libby, “Adam has always loved entertaining, and he’s always dreamt of becoming an actor.”

Emily added he loves to cook, too, and has done so almost his entire life.

Adam, 30, was born with Down syndrome. Mosaic is passionate about helping people like Adam lead meaningful, healthy lives on their own terms. With more than 100 years of experience of providing care, the Nebraska-based organization supports people and communities in more than a dozen states, from Arizona to Adam’s home state of Maine.

To combine all of Adam’s attributes, his Living Innovations support team came up with the idea of his recording and posting “how-to” cooking videos on the social media platform TikTok. “I thought this would be a great way for him to reach people, show off his personality and focus on his conversation skills,” added Emily. “My wife, who’s a professional videographer, and I started with his first post on how to cook burritos.” That was April 16, 2021.

With his older sister, Brianne, assisting as well, they continued by trying to post at least one video each week. Adam gradually gained 1,000 followers and celebrated the milestone with a video of him making cupcakes. That was July 30.

But it was a short time after, on August 6, when Adam demonstrated making pizza in a woodfired pizza oven, he went viral. We’re talking worldwide viral. That video garnered almost 12.4 million views and shot up the number of his followers to 612,000 with 3.4 million likes on his videos.

In another segment, where he’s exuberantly shouting out what has become his popular catchphrase, “holy crow, man!”, he made homemade french fries that could best any short order cook’s. That video has captured 924,000 views to date.

A few weeks ago, Adam’s TikTok account hit 1.5 million followers.

“He just loves what he’s doing; he’s just eating it up,” stated Emily. “It’s unbelievable. I can’t get my head around how many people are following him and engaging with him!”

With his jubilant and upliftingpersonality, Adam’s such an inspiration that he’s making videos with some of his biggest fans. In one, he’s encouraging a young boy, also with intellectual disabilities, to cook a meal for his family (albeit a meal made of a quick-service restaurant’s chicken nuggets and fries): “Good job, dude! You’re making your mom proud of you!”

Additionally, he’s captured the heart of professional chefs. Tommy Isidori, an executive chef at a Fairfield, Connecticut, country club, sent a chef’s coat with “Chef Adam Libby” embroidered on the front. Isidori also included a professional chef’s knife.

“Chef Tommy is my favorite chef,” said Adam, and he has a few others. At the mention of Chef Gordon Ramsay, his face instantly lit up. “Yeah, I like him too!”

“He hopes Chef Ramsay will see his videos so he can meet him one day,” added Emily. “Chef Ramsay is tagged in many of his posts and comments from his followers.”

Besides the news coverage in his hometown newspaper and on the local CBS affiliate, Adam is being covered by many other social media channels and media outlets overseas. “No one contacted us,” remarked Emily. “We just saw the other stories, including some in England, when we Googled ‘Chef Adam Libby.’

“The thing I love most about my brother is he has this excitement and this joy and happiness, and it’s contagious. It doesn’t surprise us that once the world saw him, they would love him, too.

“I’ve never seen him happier, and he’s become so much more independent. He has his own life now with his own passion and career. It’s all so wonderful.”

Oh, did we mention Adam also has 17,000 followers on Instagram?

Mosaic is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a national network of 300 Lutheran health and human services organizations that lifts up one in 50 people in America each year.