Wanted: Advice, Help, & Prayers

[two feathers]

In a couple of months I will be reentering the lives of a handful of people who have suffered greatly in the past and are presently walking down troubled paths. I love these people with all my heart and have dedicated my life to helping them. They live in a small village in the subarctic and outside help is extremely rare. There are a variety of problems in their lives that need compassionate attention:

Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Alcoholism
Drug Abuse

...are the most notable.

So, I am here, asking for advice from anyone who is familiar with the aforementioned problems that are presented to me on a daily basis. Anyone who has counseled people with these problems; or anyone who has suffered from any of these things and is comfortable with talking about how you overcame them and/or how someone helped you overcome them...I would benefit greatly from your advice.

For anyone who would love to help, but is short on advice, please pray. That's all I ask.

Feel free to PM or e-mail me with advice, help, and encouragement.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

[Didymus]

i hope you are able to help them. are they in the US or Canada ? dosent matter really just curious.

 

[two feathers]

Thanks Didymus.
To answer your question: they are in Canada.

 

[MetalBlade]

I don't know how to help any of those problems, having never suffered from them myself, but I will surely pray for you and everyone else who is suffering!

 

[wvmtnkid]

Fortunately, I have never been faced with those problems, two feathers, so I don't have any good advice to offer. But I will pray for you, that God will give you the wisdom and compassion you need just at the time you need it!

 

[Blynn]

I suffered from all of these things. The good news is that I was healed of all of them. I used alcohol and drugs to deal with my problems and to numb the pain that I was feeling. All that this does is create another problem if you then become addicted to it. Alcoholism is a complex disease. I was put in a treatment center when I was 19 years old. We were told that there was a 2% success rate that we would never drink again. Very encouraging huh? Anything is possible with God and He can help a person to over come any type of addiction. I am sure that many on this forum can verify that. God helped me to sober up.

I was sober and a Christian, but a problem that I faced because of past abuse was that I could not relate to God as loving or kind or even as a father. I had no concept of what a loving father was. I had learned a long time ago that the people in my life could not be trusted. I didn’t know how to trust and I didn’t know if I could trust God. I struggled with these things for a long time. God was kind and patient with me and I did learn to trust Him. I didn’t want to deal with my past. I didn’t want to face what had happened to me. With God’s help I was able to heal.

My advice would be to find out as much as you can about abuse and about addictions. I think it will help you in knowing what you are dealing with. These people need hope and they need healing. They need God. Let Him lead you and you will do fine!

I will pray two feathers. For you and for these people.

God bless you.

 

[Remny]

Hey there Two Feathers, first of all I'm happy to see a post by you here. It has been a while sense I've seen you in here, but maybe I just missed it. I remember you though, you offered me a kind word once or twice so of course I just think yer swell.

Now as for drug and alcahol abuse. Well I have never suffered through this malidy, but I've met a lot of people who have. There are treatments, there are therapies all with varying success. A lot of time people don't want to do these things anymore, but it's just habbit maybe they have too much time on their hands. It is your job to find these peoples want to stop and encourage it, motivate them and be their friends. You must try to avoid nagging and simmilar tactics. The more time you can spend with these people the better your odds. If you can be their friends and do things with them, keep them bussy, help find them fun things to do. Somehow this drug needs to be replaced. All this time these people are getting high or drunk needs to be filled with something, or inevitably they find themselves useing and abusing again. I've known people that must have spent 50% of their waking hours high or on something or another, so it can be a very big challenge to fill in this gap.

I'm working on helping someone right now, and it's very challenging. It takes some special effort, that person is my sister. I have to remind myself to try to do things with her from time to time instead of with other friends which are my first impulse. When I'm with her, she is forbidden to "use" anything. It doesn't usually come up because we are bussy doing something or another. Though when it does I'm firm about it, and it's worth it to her at least for that time she is doing something with me to give that up. I am encouraging her want to not be a drug addict. I point out people I know she wouldn't want to be like. She is makeing an effort to hang out with friends that are a better influence too. I am getting progress little by little, and if I followed my own advice better I would be getting better progress, but like I said it takes a lot of effort.

Alot of these people need new friends, or just more of them. It's hard to stay away from something like drugs and alcahol if everyone you know is associated with it. In fact that can be impossible. It might be hard for you to encourage new friendships over there in such a remote area. So I will certainly have to pray about that. In the end these people know that these things are hurting them but they don't care enough about their own lives to stop. So you have to help them find things to care about and appreciate.

Ok that was long winded. I will pray that God makes your words shrewd, that people find you charismatic and worthy of them following your lead. That God will give great motivation to these people, and help them find other things to put into their lives. That you will find the stamina to give this great attention and a fun loving spirit to offer these people.

 

[two feathers]

MetalBlade and wvmtnkid, thank you for your prayers.

Blynn, thank you for your prayers and helpful advice. I'll apply what you have said to my mission. I hope and pray that at least one of these people will overcome their addictions as you have.

Remny, God blessed you with wisdom and I am thankful that you have taken the time to help me. Your words have inspired me.