By Tina Teng-Henson

On Sunday, March 9th, I emailed several friends the following:

Hi friends,

I know this is a bit of a strange question — but would any of you (or folk you’d recommend) be available on Holy Saturday (between Good Friday + Easter Sunday) to meet me and a few others to do a prayer and blessing time at one of the memory care senior centers I serve in the Bay Area? 

The activities director told me on Saturday (as I drove her home to Redwood City after a Celebration of Life up in Woodside) that she would like a blessing of the building. When I asked her more what she meant, she told me that there might be souls there that are somewhat lost, confused, needing help finding peace/rest… because there are soda cans that get moved around, caregivers sometimes feel pressure on their shoulder like they’re being touched, and items on their desks that might spin unexpectedly. It hasn’t been malicious (the way it might be at one of my other facilities where she said caregivers felt something swipe or grab at their ankles). But there just seem to be souls that are kind of stuck in the building, in her opinion. 

I wonder if this might be a bit upsetting for the caregivers + perhaps it interferes with their ability to care well for the living residents who are dealing with dementia and memory loss. 

It’s also possible the activities director (who has been there for 22 years + is retiring in May) might have some closure, too, on her work there — if this happens before she leaves. 

I was touched that she asked me. Apparently she asked the Catholic church + they wanted to bring it up to the Archdiocese, so she gave up on them.

Maybe some of these souls need to be blessed to go to the Father heart of God + be received by him — and maybe encouraged to go to be with him + find rest. Maybe they also need to be acknowledged, thanked for their presence, and encouraged to move on. They were loved by these staff + are loved by these staff, but can perhaps work thru whatever lingering issues there might be — and be lifted up to God. 

I’ve not done much with this before (not since the one thing Caren and I did 8 or 9 years ago when we were at FPCSC with Therese), so thought to ask for some help/guidance/coverage/partnership! 

NO worries if this isn’t something you’ve encountered before. Just thought to invite you to participate if you feel so led. J/K, M/S — could my husband possibly bring the kids to one of your backyards to play while I do this with the others? The facility isn’t far from your neighborhood…

Sandee — can you send me the Novo materials you mentioned today that cover the idea of “reclaiming territory”? Thank you so much!!

Much love to you all,

Tina 

I’m writing this now, on March 30th, just a few weeks later, because we decided to move up the date for this blessing of the building. I felt like the Lord said to do it earlier, and if it turned out not to be efficacious, we could try it again on Holy Saturday. But this way – if we could address the situation earlier, I could free up Holy Saturday for other plans – perhaps have the Chinese church planter and his wife over for dinner with other Mandarin-speaking pastor friends. 

So on Friday, March 28th, my friend Rubin and I arranged to meet at the care facility from 11-1 pm. It was the gentlest, most normal exorcism imaginable, at least to me.

The activities director met us – and Rubin thought she seemed nervous, but she seemed fine to me. She had the executive director also shake our hands, and I vaguely remembered meeting him once before, but I hadn’t really interacted with him much.

It helped to have Rubin there, a dear friend who I’ve processed much of life with over our 15 years of friendship.  He was a pastor’s kid growing up, and someone who has thought a great deal about the afterlife, reading and recommending books to me like Surviving Death by Leslie Kean. He’s a robotics engineer, so he’s a scientist – he likes to test things – to ask questions – to figure out what’s really going on. But he’s also a dad – and a husband – and a generally wonderful person.

So I asked him to come help me. I asked a lot of people to come help me, actually, but he was the only one who came. (Continue to Part 2–>)

Tina Teng-Henson serves as a spiritual director and hospice chaplain. As a wife and mother of three, she occasionally guest-preaches and teaches. When she’s not volunteering at her children’s schools, she plays volleyball, reads, and writes.