Author: ChristianWorks

Sharing and Caring at GriefWorks

Posted on | by ChristianWorks

For the last fourteen months Southwest Airline Safety Specialist and GriefWorks Volunteer Brent Askins has entered in a significant, healing way into the lives of children, teens and their adult family members who are struggling with grief.  Some children have lost a parent, others a sibling, and some a grandparent or close family member or friend.

Thanks to Brent’s heartfelt concern, boundless compassion and ability to have fun with these children ages 5-18,  there are lots of smiles and laughs at the end of the twice monthly GriefWorks sessions where there used to be forlorn faces and endless tears. What Brent and the other 25 trained volunteers do at GriefWorks for hurting children facing the darkest times of their lives may sound simple on the surface, but it is profound and life-changing.

Here’s how Brent describes his volunteer work in “From the Ground Up” the quarterly newsletter of the Southwest Airlines Ground Operations Department, “I usually hang with the nine through twelve year olds and spend time listening to their stories from school and home.”

Brent explains further how a GriefWorks volunteer is “there” for the children providing them the comforting gift of presence and support,  “(We’re) drawing pictures about feelings and emotions, playing grief board games, making memory boxes, and sharing my own grief stories.  These kids teach me about life and death, how to enjoy memories, and most of all, what it means to be a true friend….These kids hold a special place in my heart.”

Brent and the GriefWorks volunteers hold a special place in the hearts of the children and their families too.   Here is how one widowed father explained what GriefWorks volunteers mean to his family:

“We are thankful for all your time & the work you have been doing with us.  You have made a big difference in our grief journey.   Before my wife died I was able to talk to her.   I asked her that when she died and went to heaven to please send me and my son an angel to look over us and make us stronger.  I think all of you at GriefWorks are that angel sent to help us during this difficult time.”

Do you have time to join Brent and all the other GriefWorks volunteers to turn things around in the lives and grief journeys of mourning children and their families? Do you have the boundless compassion, the ability to have fun and the need to just be there and be a true friend to a child?

For more information on how you can become a GriefWorks volunteer email Program Coordinator Kim Daily at kdaily@christian-works.org.

If you would like information on the next training session for GriefWorks volunteers click here.

For more information about GriefWorks and how you can be involved as a participating family in the grief support groups call Program Coordinator Janet Johnston at 972-960-9981 or email jjohnston@christian-works.org.

Monica Epperson answers, “Why Children of Divorce?”

Posted on | by ChristianWorks

Curled up in a porcelain bathtub that had been donated to my elementary school library to encourage kids to read, I read, for the first time, about a girl going through her parents’ divorce.  I couldn’t put the book down.  Judy Blume had single-handedly pulled me out of my distaste for reading and provided a new friend who struggled with the same questions and fears that I did.  Her name was Karen.  It’s Not the End of the World was more than just a title; it was a new realization that I was not only going to survive divorce, but that I was going to someday become a writer and befriend as many of my peers as I could.

As 2007 came to a close, I released my first book, A Heart with Two Homes.  This book depicts my personal story of having two very different homes and two very different lives. Elizabeth, the main character in the book, is Lizzy in her mom’s world and Beth in her dad’s world.  Like many children of divorce, she tries to please both parents separately.  By the end of the book she not only finds her voice, but also discovers that she desires to be called Elizabeth because she is one heart and one person.

“A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.”  This may be a well-known saying, but have you ever considered the ramifications of this proverb?

What if the marks are lines of guilt, lines of fear, lines of mistrust or lines of anger?  A child only knows what they have been taught or trained to believe is normal or good.  What keeps them from marking on their own children with the same marker?

The Lord says in Malachi 2:16 that He hates divorce.  It is hard to be any plainer than, “I hate divorce.” Maybe His hatred for divorce is directly related to His awesome understanding of the horrible effects.

KidWorks is addressing the negative effects.  They are providing children with marks of understanding, marks of compassion and marks of unconditional love.  The children of divorce who are able to go through a KidWorks program will be walking away with a sense of a new normal; one that includes coping skills for handling the negative issues associated with divorce.  That perception, that exposure, can never be taken from that child.

I read a book in a bathtub.  I now write them.

This year I released my second book, Bounce, for boys.  Michael, the main character, faces a new reality since the divorce of his parents – losing his dad as the coach of his basketball team.  His older cousin, Cole, takes on mentoring him through playing basketball on the weekends and talking through the divorce. Through the process Michael realizes that he will bounce back and that he loves playing basketball.

I am thrilled to share my heart and my stories with KidWorks and the families they minister to as they are going through a divorce.  I am confident that investing in children is more than a moral obligation – it is a spiritual mandate.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

Monica Epperson

CEO of The Child of Divorce

Learn more about KidWorks and The Child of Divorce partnership by watching the video below.

The Beauty of Love

Posted on | by ChristianWorks | 2 Comments on The Beauty of Love

The Beauty of Love:
The question is asked, “Is there anything more
beautiful in life than a young couple clasping hands
and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be
anything more beautiful than young love?”
And the answer is given. “Yes, there is a more
beautiful thing. It is the spectacle of an old man and an
old woman finishing their journey together on that path.
Their hands are gnarled, but still clasped; their faces are
seamed, but still radiant; their hearts are physically
bowed and tired, but still strong with love and devotion for
one another. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than
young love. Old love.”
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For the man and woman who make the decision to share and build a life together through marriage the promise is “till death do us part”. We see through the high divorce rate in our society that many couples part ways and do not fulfill their vow. There may be many different reasons that contribute to the end of their marriage. CounselingWorks provides pre-marital counseling and hopes to help couples identify potential problems before they are married, learn how to effectively communicate and understand one another’s needs and prepare them with the tools to help resolve conflicts. In addition to pre-marital counseling CounselingWorks also provides marriage counseling for those who are striving to keep the promises they made to one another.

If you are interested in pre-marital or marriage counseling please contact our CounselingWorks office at counseling@christian-works.org.