Local congregation to kick off grief support group

After the funeral, when the cards and flowers have stopped coming, most of the people around you return to their normal lives. But your grief continues and you feel alone. But now there is help.

First Presbyterian Church of Moorcroft (100 S. Belle Fourche Ave.) announces the kickoff of a grief support group for the area which will begin at 7 p.m. on Mon., Jan. 13. The program, called GriefShare, is a network of 15,000 plus churches worldwide equipped to offer grief support groups. The program is nondenominational and features biblical concepts for healing from your grief.

GriefShare is a warm, caring support group that meets for an hour and a half weekly for 13 weeks and has three aspects. First there is an encouraging, information-packed video featuring leading grief recovery experts from around the country.

The video is followed by small group discussion about the weekly video content. The third aspect of GriefShare is a take home workbook that provides opportunity for journaling and personal study exercises that reinforce the weekly session topics.

Topics are: “Is This Normal?”, “Challenges of Grief”, “The Journey of Grief” parts one and two, “Grief and Your Relationships”, “Why?”, “Guilt and Anger”, “Complicating Factors”, “Stuck”, “Lessons of Grief” parts one and two, “Heaven” and “What Do I Live for Now?”.

Each lesson is facilitated by caring people who have experienced grief and are working on successfully rebuilding their lives.

“We will be starting with two groups,” says Pastor Monte Reichenberg. “One group will be youth and the other adults. We will begin each week with the video, which both groups will view together before breaking up into the discussion groups.”

Each individual will receive a workbook that is filled with helpful advice, a listing of websites with helpful content and very short daily devotions which help individuals work through their grief. The only fee is a $10 fee to help cover a portion of the workbook. But if that is prohibitive, scholarships are available.

You are welcome to begin attending GriefShare at any point. Each session is “self-contained” so you do not have to attend in sequence. You will be able to pick up any missed sessions in our next 13-week cycle.

For more information please contact Pastor Monte Reichenberg at 217-251-1182, email [email protected]. Or you can visit the GriefShare website at http://www.griefshare.org.

Help and encouragement after the death of a spouse, child, family member or friend. Begin your journey from mourning to joy.