Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways and no one knows better than Mollie Reding, Tillamook County General Hospital employee.
Reding is the volunteer coordinator for the Faith In Action program at the hospital. FIA links the hospital with a coalition of area churches and health/human service agencies to recruit and deploy volunteers around Tillamook County. As coordinator, she helps organize the more than 60 volunteers who provide services to community members in need. Volunteers visit, run errands, make meals, do light housekeeping and help garden.
"It has been so exciting to be a part of FIA and to see what God is doing through this program. In the short time I have been here I have already seen God's hand at work. He has even reached into my own personal life through FIA," Reding says.
Shortly after she started work as FIA coordinator six months ago, her grandfather passed away. "His last days on this earth were not easy ones. After he died, I thought it would be great for my grandma to have the support of a volunteer. However, I didn't place a volunteer with her because I had so many other new referrals who also needed help."
And so Reding continued her work until, a few weeks later, Mary Welle Sims knocked on her door.
A hospice and FIA volunteer, Sims visited with Reding and told her about a hospice patient who'd recently passed away. Sims wanted to provide support for the patient's wife as a FIA volunteer.
"I assured her that would be great," says Reding. "As she told me more about the couple, I sat stunned, realizing she was talking about my grandparents. My grandma was the woman she wanted to help!"
"We both were in awe of how God had brought us together," Reding adds. "I didn't think there was a volunteer to help my grandma so God had one walk right through my door and say, ‘Here she is!'"
"I am so thankful for Mary. She is a caring and thoughtful volunteer, and she will always be very special to me. God used her to show me that FIA is His program and that He not only cares about the program, but He cares about each one of us personally too! I wait with eager anticipation to see how, where and when God will use the next volunteer."
To learn more about the FIA program, please visit: www.tcgh.com.
Mollie Reding (back), FIA director, with Punky, the dog; Harlene Johnston, Reding's aunt and Irene's daughter; Irene Baker, Reding's grandmother; and Mary Welle Sims, FIA volunteer, know that God puts people together.
Mollie Reding, Tillamook County General Hospital FIA volunteer coordinator, organizes more than 60 volunteers who provide services to community members in need.
