Southwest Church shows appreciation for local hospital workers

“It’s nice to know that people still care,” general surgeon and chief of surgery at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Dr. Peter Jamieson told News Channel 3 on Saturday morning.

Members of the Southwest Church in Indian Wells assembled 1,600 goodie bags this weekend and dropped them off to show support for local hospital workers on the frontlines of this pandemic.

“For three weeks we’re going to cover all three hospitals in the valley with generosity, hospitality, gift bags, encouragement; to see a face that represents this community that is saying, 'Hey on behalf of all of us who call this valley home, thank you for what you’re doing,'" senior pastor at Southwest Church Ricky Jenkins said.

For the last eight weeks, registered nurse John Nobles has been pushing 60 hour weeks. He shared how much this support means to him.

“This morning I was debating calling off of work; I was just so tired and just beat down basically and it’s my last day this week and I was in the break room this morning heating up my breakfast and I saw the bags there and it’s just really awesome to see the community supporting us and acknowledging us that we need a little extra hand every now and then,” Nobles said.

Some members of Southwest Church spent shifts outside the hospital praying for healthcare workers and healing as part of a 24-hour prayer vigil.

“There’s a passage where Jesus says that by this shall people know that you’re my disciples, by your love for one another and so we believe that our best message for the love of Christ is to be the hands and feet of Christ,” Pastor Jenkins said.

Next Saturday, Southwest Church plans to bring meals from local restaurants and then on the last Saturday in February they’ll bring all the hospitals gift bags to enjoy at home. Some will be coffee lovers bags, relaxation bags, movie night buckets for the healthcare workers.

“It’s a great feeling and again we’ve been apart of Southwest Church for approximately three years, the same time that Pastor Ricky came," Dr. Jamieson said. "It’s a marvelous church and one of the biggest things that we love about Southwest and what they do is all the outreach all around the Coachella Valley no matter what the purpose is Southwest has always stepped up and been a part of it,” Dr. Jamieson said.

“Other churches have done various things to show their love and their generosity and now it’s just our turn,” Jenkins said.

Their hope is to keep the love going and inspire others to make similar gestures of support.

“The biggest problem is we’ve been in this pandemic for over a year that we tend to start to forget a little bit about what’s going on but the reality is that we still have a pandemic, people are still getting sick and we have to remember that,” Jamieson shared.

For more information on Southwest Church visit: https://southwestchurch.com/