Elaina sits down with Pastor Sergei Marchenko to discuss his experience with mental illness both in his home and church. Pastor Sergei shares hope for the hurting and discussed the importance of mental health awareness in the church, and from the pulpit.
Ah, Thanksgiving. That festive time of year where we gather around the table with family, friends, or those who are like family to us to share in a feast of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all the foods that can fit on one plate and then some. While Thanksgiving can be about the food and the endless hours of football on television, it also provides us an opportunity to give thanks to God for the blessings we have experienced in life.
Elaina sits down and talks with Lisa Jamieson from Walk Right In Ministries about family caregivers, the holidays, and ways the church can better support them.
The training, content, gatherings and experiences that we’ve created for pastors, church staff and ministry volunteers produced with the assistance of like-minded colleagues serving in disability ministry have become our principal service. So much of what we’re able do to help churches welcome and support families, we accomplish by bringing together experts from other ministry organizations.
November is Caregiver Awareness Month. As someone who became one of my dad’s caregivers before I started school, I grew up thinking everyone in the world was aware of caregivers and caregiving. As a young adult my husband and I cared for a son born with a life-threatening medical condition, and his typical sibling. As members of the sandwich generation, my brother, sister, and I cared for our mother for 15 years after she was diagnosed with dementia. This explains why, when I first heard that November is Caregiver Awareness Month, I was incredulous, and I still am.
We’re supporting this project because persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented among children and adults who embrace non-traditional gender identities and leaders serving in disability or mental health ministry will greatly benefit from a deep understanding of gender and sexuality from a Biblical perspective.
LifeWay Research released the results of an updated study exploring U.S. Protestant pastors’ experiences with mental illness and the support their churches offer to affected individuals and families.
Life is a juggling act, and sometimes I have too many balls in the air. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, one or more of the balls drop. By identifying which balls you can let fall, you can prioritize the breakable ones, like relationships with your spouse and kids, growing your faith, and even your mental health.
