This eBook was created to: a) assist Christians desiring to minister to those who have suffered loss due to death in understanding the complex phenomenon of grief; b) increase sensitivity to the bereaved c) offer effective techniques for providing Soft Care support and d) provide spiritual resources to share with the bereaved.
This project is a training tool for Christian leaders to educate and equip leader and laity alike with the knowledge of the field of grief, and to equip them to improve their ministry to the bereaved. This book can be used by denominational leaders, conventions, and church leaders to train pastors, deacons, and lay leaders in grief ministry skills. The book examines the theological dimensions of death and grief, as well as the theoretical foundations of grief, both normal grief and complicated. Also, the book identifies essential grief ministry skills and the practical application of those skills. The book is both educational and practical. This book can be used in a seminary class room, or can be used by associations to develop the grief ministry skills of its local pastors. This book can also be used in the local church to equip deacons and lay leaders to better minister to its congregants. This book holds value for its commitment to examining the field of grief, while holding to Christian principles. Most literature that combines the knowledge of grief and Christian principles either prepares a person for counseling or ministers to the person that has experienced loss. This book can in fact assist those studying for a career in grief counseling, and at the same time help those experiencing loss. The intention of the author is help the professional as well as the layman prepare for grief ministry and develop specific skills to assist them in their ability to minister to the bereaved.
Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you. If your heart is broken, you'll find God right there; if you're kicked in the gut, he'll help you catch your breath. ~Psalm 34:1718, The Message translation Has grief knocked your breath out of you? Everybody experiences grief, loss, and life challenges throughout their lives. Most are unprepared for their grief and the impact it will have. Grief is brutal and has a way of making you feel as though everything good in your life is slowly being crushed, leaving you gasping for air. Although painful to experience, grief is one of the most powerful teachers you can learn from. When one goes through grief or loss, the invaluable opportunity to understand, love, and know God better immediately beginsHe is the key to creating a fuller, more purposeful life in spite of grief. In Getting Your Breath Back After Life Knocks It Out of You, K.B.H. Niles transparently shares her experiences with grief and loss. She reveals how her relationship with God helped her grieve multiple deaths, including the deaths of her sister, father, and grandparents, after she found God in the midst of her pain. How do you get your breath back after life knocks it out of you? K.B.H. Niles explains key "oxygens" God revealed to her as she studied His Word during times of intense grief. In Getting Your Breath Back After Life Knocks It Out of You, you will find how to: Develop a treasured relationship with God Regain your faith and hope Resolve bitterness, guilt, and regrets Find the encouragement you need during grief Understand the importance of relationships Value God's time through grief and life Realize the importance of grieving in your own unique way Develop gratefulness, thankfulness, and praise Experience wellness, traditions, and enjoyment Create a fuller, more purposeful life
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
Born out of the experiences of hundreds of thousands of women who Raechel and Amanda have walked alongside as they walk with the Lord, She Reads Truth is the message that will help you understand the place of God's Word in your life.
Written in response to the Hawk's Nest Tunnel disaster of 1931 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, The Book of the Dead is an important part of West Virginia's cultural heritage and a powerful account of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in American history. The poems collected here investigate the roots of a tragedy that killed hundreds of workers, most of them African American. They are a rare engagement with the overlap between race and environment in Appalachia. Published for the first time alongside photographs by Nancy Naumburg, who accompanied Rukeyser to Gauley Bridge in 1936, this edition of The Book of the Dead includes an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore, whose writing on the topic has been anthologized in Best American Essays.
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
One of those rare, unforgettable novels that are as chilling as they are insightful, as thought-provoking as they are terrifying, award-winning author Connie Willis's Passage is an astonishing blend of relentless suspense and cutting-edge science unlike anything you've ever read before. It is the electrifying story of a psychologist who has devoted her life to tracking death. But when she volunteers for a research project that simulates the near-death experience, she will either solve life's greatest mystery -- or fall victim to its greatest terror. At Mercy General Hospital, Dr. Joanna Lander will soon be paged -- not to save a life, but to interview a patient just back from the dead. A psychologist specializing in near-death experiences, Joanna has spent two years recording the experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and lived to tell about it. It's research on the fringes of ordinary science, but Joanna is about to get a boost from an unexpected quarter. A new doctor has arrived at Mercy General, one with the power to give Joanna the chance to get as close to death as anyone can. A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Dr. Wright is convinced that the NDE is a survival mechanism and that if only doctors understood how it worked, they could someday delay the dying process, or maybe even reverse it. He can use the expertise of a psychologist of Joanna Lander's standing to lend credibility to his study. But he soon needs Joanna for more than just her reputation. When his key volunteer suddenly drops out of the study, Joanna finds herself offering to become Richard's next subject. After all, who better than she, a trained psychologist, to document the experience? Her first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined it would be -- so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why this place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid.... And just when you think you know where she is going, Willis throws in the biggest surprise of all -- a shattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page is turned.
The experience of modernization -- the dizzying social changes that swept millions of people into the capitalist world -- and modernism in art, literature and architecture are brilliantly integrated in this account.
