As we sat, we saw a man looking through the window of the restaurant and realized it was our host for this day, Mr. Chee. Mr. Chee is a member of All Saints Church, and the Administrative Manager of St. Mark's Cozy Home. We quickly got our things together and went with Mr. Chee in his car to the Cozy Home.
The Cozy home was started before 1980 -- started by a non-stipendiary priest. He had a deep concern about people in Holy Orders, if they retired and had no place to go to, they needed a place to go in their retirement. As the Chinese are particular about sending their parents to a home -- it is a complicated situation for the families. So they built the home initially for retired clergy.
In the Malaysian context, there are not many people who were retired clergy that wanted to stay in a home. The objective for developing the home did not die out. They studied the needs of the area, and opened it up to the wider community. So today it serves the retired clergy as well as the community. When clergy retire and need a place like the Cozy Home, it will be free to them.
When they started to look for a place to start the home, it took time to find the right place. It took 10 years to find the right place. The original land here was overgrown - it looked like a deserted place. Mr. Chee fell in love with the property.
They had an initial budget of 2 million ringget -- it was during the recession, and it was difficult to raise all the funds. As they received money, they built -- it took 27 years to fully build -- it was finished in 2007. Mr. Chee, a dedicated layperson, stayed with the program and now serves as the home manager. At the beggining (2008) they had 7 residents and employed 4 staff members. There was hardly enough money to run the home. The person that needs to run this needs to be totally committed, per Mr. Chee.
The mottos of the Cozy Home are -- where life is worth living. Residents are always right. We run the home in the mentality of ownership.
Mr. Chee and the Nursing Manager Diljit actually do the weekly marketing together.
Now there are 67 residents and 26 staff are employed. The oldest resident is 100 years old, the youngest is 60. Minimum age is 60, but at that age they must not be able to care for themselves.
To come in, they must be mobile. When they become immobile, they are cared for there. For people who have had strokes, there are therapists there. Medicines come from the families through the pharmacist on staff. The pharmacist contacts the family two weeks before the medicine for the family member runs out.
All the water coming into the building is filtered for the health of the residents.
The home is run not to take away the responsibility of the family, but to compliment the responsibility of the family. They cannot take over the love of the family, but they can compliment the love of the family. The Cozy Home provides care for the day times needs of the resident. The home is also able to monitor the health of the resident by controlling the medicines, making sure they eat well and that they bathe daily. If the family members don't come to visit their parent for two weeks, they call the family to find out why they aren't coming to see their parent. If they persist in not coming to see their parent, the family is told to come and take their parent home. There are 3 people at the home who do not have family -- so Mr. Chee and Diljit care for them as though they were their family. They are special cases.
The working committee of the Cozy Home meets once per week to make payments and discuss issues in the home. The Vice Chairman runs the meeting. Diljit makes a report of the week before and any issues that arouse. Also there is a report on staffing issues. Things are sorted out every Monday. The working committee works in between Board meeting.
The home is world recognized -- The home is run in a concept similar to what has been done in Hong Kong.
37 out of 67 residents are Christians.
The Chapel service -- the priest in charge of Christ Church comes and does the service. Every Saturday the chaplain runs a service for the residents. On Wednesday there is a worship service conducted by the chaplain, who is appointment by the Bishop. On Sunday evening there are St. Mark's Church members (the home is built on the former church location) holds services here for about 30 St. Mark's members. They are looking to expand bible study for the Chinese speakers.
Once per week there is a Bible Study conducted by a member of Anglican Care and a member of a church.
Funding comes from the residents and outside donations.
The Cozy Home has regular activities -- exercise, outside games, indoor games or puzzle in the afternoon. Birthdays are celebrated monthly, and Christmas is celebrated slightly earlier than Christmas Day so the Bishop can be present (and he is!).
The staff are encouraged to listen to the residents.
This is a caring, loving facility, and it was a gift to be there today!
After we left the Cozy Home, Mr. Chee took us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. We had a wonderful time with our new friend, Diljit and the Vice Chairman as well as a member of the Church. It was a great time to relax and to talk more about the Cozy Home together over a delicious meal.
Mr. Chee found out that our plans were a bit fluid, so he insisted that we eat quickly and took us to the National Museum! We headed over there and enjoyed walking around the museum, learning more about the history of Malaysia. Mr. Chee's father worked in the Tin Mines, and there was a dredger machine there that pulled up sand and separated rocks from tin. I commented that it looked like hard work, and Mr. Chee said that indeed it was. It was good to see the museum after the background we had from William yesterday. They even had a replica of the entrance to the fort we were at yesterday in Melaka!
We headed over to a club on one side of the square near St. Mary's Cathedral to have tea, waiting for the Sub-Dean, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Cheah to join us. The Bishop Diocesan is also Dean of the Cathedral -- we will have lunch with him tomorrow.
Mr. Chee insisted we have iced lemon tea and banana fritters with ice cream. Okay, I caved on the banana fritters and ice cream!
Andrew joined us, and we talked about our challenges in multicultural ministry in our diocese and about the many groups they are reaching out to at the Cathedral. Services are held in English, Malay, Iban and Nepali on Sundays -- a truly multi-cultural Cathedral, to meet the needs of who is coming into the area. Brilliant! It was a good conversation.
The Verger, who has been a verger at the Cathedral for over 50 years, joined us . The Verger lead us on a tour of the Cathedral -- he knows every nook and cranny, and is there every Sunday to make sure all is set up properly for every service.
The Cathedral is beautiful -- especially the rood screen and the baptismal font. I have posted pictures of them near the end of this blog entry.
Of particular note was one window which was dedicated to the plantation owners who were slaughtered during the insurrection.
We said goodbye and were driven over to Central Market. We told our hosts we could make our way back to CCM -- they were to drive us, but last night we met Andy, our taxi drive, who told us to call him any time. We did -- and he was right there to pick us up after dinner, and will take us to the airport tomorrow.
At Central Market we walked around all kinds of shops -- we were particularly looking for batik, which is well known in Malaysia. We finally found a beautiful table runner that we liked.
We left Central Market in search of a place to eat dinner. We walked through Chinatown, which is really not populated by many Chinese. While it was fun to see the different street vendors, we didn't find a place to eat. Joshua had spotted a Nyonya restaurant called Precious Old China in Central Market. We doubled back and headed there -- and weren't disappointed! Again, an extremely delicious meal (I'll be looking for blue rice from now on) -- and very inexpensive.
Andy came and fetched us and we headed back to CCM.
Tomorrow will be our last day in Kuala Lumpur -- it has been a very blessed time for us, as we are seeing mission and ministry occur in a VERY multi cultural context here.
Here are some more pictures from today:
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Very full day, as are all your days. You saw some great things on this day. I love how the elders are cared for.
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