Nothing By Accident

The Lord always works in mysterious ways, HIS wonders to perform.

I remember reading this line back when I was 10 year old and wondered what it meant. Through the years, it has taken on a deeper meaning as I have seen it come alive in several circumstances in my own life and as I have seen it happen in the lives of others. I am a firm believer that nothing happens in this world by chance or accident. That there are no coincidences and that no one is ever just "lucky" but that when something fortunate or serendipitous takes place, it happened because God has allowed it to, for a purpose.

Last Saturday, my husband H and I began the second module of GRIEFSHARE last April 14, 2007 at the Greenhills Christian Fellowhsip Church in the Ortigas Business District. As a I looked over the partcipants in the room that afternoon, a sudden realization hit me, six out of the seven families there had lost a loved one through sudden death, five of them through a tragic accident. I could not help but feel for their losses but in the same breath, asked God to help us, to fill both H and I with the courage to minister to the lives that had been entrusted to us for that Griefshare module. Clearly, it was going to be a pretty heavy session.

GRIEFSHARE starts out by viewing a video where grief experts from the United States share their knowledge and comfort about the experience of loss. After the video and a short break, we break up into a discussion group and share with one another what we learned from the video. THe discussion becomes a support group of sorts where H and I, together with another facilitator help the participants navigate their grief journey. It was there, after hearing their stories that it was evident that 6 out of the 6 families (one had to leave earlier) had experienced losses ALL due to accidents. I am sure that this was meant to be by God. To lose a loved one in itself is also a great tragedy, but to lose someone so suddenly and through an accident, complicates the grief even further.

If you are reading this, please help us pray that those who are currently attending our GRIEFSHARE group be healed in God's time of their loss. Grief is a long journey but with prayers and support, in HIS time, it is always possible to move from a place of deep sadness into a place of hope. We are also beginning a teens group and most of our participants are healing from the loss of their sibling. Please include them in your prayer time too.