Hurdles for Hope Alive in Dealing with Dangerous Deviations
Situation. It has been brought to my attention that in one country, Hope Alive counselors have characteristically done 2 sessions per week and all weekend. How this started and how it escaped our attention I am still puzzled about. Needless to say it is wrong. It is dangerously wrong and must stop before someone is badly hurt by it. Our adage “Do it right or not at all” is there for everyone’s benefit. Let me explain. 1. Healing takes time. Surgeons do not pile one serious operation upon another. They know all too well that if they do, the surgery is not as successful...
Read MoreHe’s Gone Now
‘Yup, old Joe’s gone. Look at his poor little house. Used to be bright and cheery. It’s run down and the roof is caving in. But the Cherry Tree remembers’. “I come by every spring just to remind myself of old Joe and the good and bad times we had. I wanted to keep his place looking half decent but it isn’t my business. His kids keep fighting over the property and so nothing gets fixed and now it’s beyond repair”. ” But the Cherry Tree remembers. Every spring it blossoms like this and every summer it’s covered with cherries that the...
Read MoreI Can Only Imagine
I never thought of myself as pretty or attractive. Growing up in a small farm, I was constantly teased by my siblings and peers about my appearance. My parents didn’t come to my defense. They were ordinary people working very hard to support a family of 5 children. We all had to help out with farm work and chores. Otherwise we were beaten. Oh, how I resented the fact that I couldn’t sleep in or simply play like other children around us. Though I didn’t think they were horrible parents, I wish I was born into a different family. We had our food and clothes, but there was very...
Read MoreMy Story
As you recall when you came to Kenya in 2003, I had left my place of work at Family Life Counseling Association of Kenya (FLCAK). At the time I was pursuing my Masters degree in Rural Sociology and Community Development at the University of Nairobi. However I had to drop out of college because of lack of funds. At the time we had four children (my brother’s daughter whom we adopted after the mother passed on, my two sons and daughter). At the time my husband’s business was doing badly, we were broke, we had children who not only needed food but they needed to be paid for school fees and...
Read MoreNotes on Faith
A patient of mine is struggling with complicated grief following the death of his handsome 5 year old son from cancer about 3 years ago. The grief is complicated and becoming pathological because of many unresolved conflicts surrounding the death. As keen Christians, he and his wife held strongly to a belief that God would heal their precious boy. So determined were they to have a non-wavering, non-doubting faith, they did not tell discuss with their 9 year old daughter the possibility the boy might die. After his prolonged and pain filled death, their daughter became very angry, depressed...
Read MoreWhy it is Hard to Forgive
A PASS woman, badly mistreated in childhood, is about to write and send her first Letter of Reconciliation. All members of Hope Alive groups are asked to consider all the reasons they might not want to forgive a Perpetrator or Observer. These are the reasons that came to her mind. We hope they will be helpful to you when in the same situation. Name withheld, January 9, 2006 I am hesitant that they (the person) will take my forgiveness as an excuse for them to continue, or as a viewpoint that I am a pushover or weak. I also fear that they will think that it means that they get...
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