A weekend away...

Last weekend we went to a "Care For the Family" training weekend for telephone befrienders as part of their work with those who have lost a partner early in life. At the same time, their Bereaved Parents team were also having a training weekend. There were about 50 of us in total...everybody with a hideously sad story of a precious wife/husband or child who has died. The weekend was emotional for us both, because inevitably talking about bereavement and your journey plunges you head first into the world of pain and heartache that you are so familiar with.

Care for the Family as an organisation do an outstanding work for families up and down the country, and Ellie and I met at one of their weekends arranged for those Widowed Young.
I also had a telephone befriender who I spoke to many times whose wife had died under similar circumstances to me back in 2002 leaving him with 2 children of a similar age to mine. It's a unique relationship really to talk to somebody on the phone who knows just how painful the journey is; somebody who's lived it and is still going on....

There are a lot of words we could use to describe the people we met - inspirational, humble, not bitter, hurt, warm, open, empathetic, able to laugh, able to cry. They all shared a common desire as christians with solid hope, to help others who are on the same journey as they are on (based on...2Cor1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.)

Being amongst these dear people we felt like we were standing on holy ground. I think we were.