I mentioned in this post that OVCF would be hosting a Grief Recovery Weekend called “From Mourning to Joy.” We had several reasons for hosting this type of weekend.

One, there are so many hurting people in Owen County (just like every where else).

Two, a new small group ministry is beginning in Spencer called GriefShare.  OVCF is serving as the umbrella for the group, but it is meeting somewhere else.

Several points were highlighted with regularity and I thought I might share them with you and say a few words about each one.

1. Grief knows no bounds. That is a given. We focused primarily on death, in particularly death of a child and spouse. We left out, to my chagrin, death of a parent. I hope to remedy that next year if we do this again.

2. Grief is not limited to death. Again, I failed to really address this in the event and the publicity. Divorce is a grieving situation for many. Joblessness. Failing business. Runaway children/spouse. I’m not sure how to address all these life-changing events, but hope to do so somehow.

3. There are certain things to say and not to say. I could go on and on about this. Maybe in a future post I will.

4. It was an emotionally draining weekend. We did a Friday night and Saturday (9-2:00). That may have been too long. I was wiped out (and still am to some degree). My anti-draining activity? Since I didn’t have to preach Jo & I went to Captain America. Yowzer!  😀

5. Grieving is never over. Everyone who spoke made sure this point was made. You still gotta move on though and not be paralyzed.

I honestly believe people were helped and given some hope. That is all we can ask for. Now for God to continue growing the seed of hope placed inside them.

Too all of you who read my post and said you would pray: Thanks. I believe your prayers were answered.

Any thoughts on what I wrote?