What started as a way to meet the spiritual needs of isolated people during COVID–a devotional aimed at senior citizens–has grown into a widely used Bible resource, accessible to anyone in the world through Dwell’s website.
Dwell’s Pacesetters ministry offers over 50 devotionals, written by Dwell pastor Gary DeLashmutt. They’re designed to be short enough to be easy to read, but meaty enough to feed people’s spiritual hunger. While many are aimed at Christians, some are evangelistic. You are welcome to share the link to the page, or to print and distribute these devotionals to people you know. Pacesetters hears stories of people sending them to relatives, near and far.
Back in 2020 Pacesetters asked local senior centers, “What if we wrote up some Bible studies, put them in a large font, and dropped them off at your facility?” Pacesetters Director Ben Foust says property managers were desperate for anything to share with their residents, and were very receptive. Many ran off copies for everyone in their buildings.
Gary wrote one each week, which were shared with the senior facilities and put on the Dwell website. By the time COVID restrictions eased, he had produced 40 of these devotionals.
This year Gary has returned to writing new devotionals, and you can now find over 50 of them on the website (with more coming each week). Because of a health challenge, Gary had to take a break from his usual teaching schedule, but he took the opportunity to put his time into these helpful essays.
These writings continue to open doors for the Pacesetters ministry as its volunteers spread into new senior housing facilities. Ben says one of the first things these facilities ask about is whether we have any large font devotionals. Thanks to Gary’s biblical knowledge and wisdom, and his perseverance, we can answer with a resounding, “Yes!”
Ben says they’re also great for discipleship time and cell group use, as well as your own time with the Lord.