A Class That Spells Relief
How can you help the people in your church who live with pain? The United Methodist Church of Oregon City, Oregon, holds a pain support-study group each Sunday evening. Special speakers, films, and books provide the content for the meetings, • A pastor who was the victim of three heart attacks has spoken to the group; so has a counselor who works with stroke victims, and a worker from a local crisis center who prays for hurting people. • One meeting featured the film Crossbar, the story of a teenage athlete severely injured and paralyzed in an accident and how he and his family grew closer to God as a result. • Books sometimes provide encouragement, such as Philip Yancey's Where Is God When It Hurts? a penetrating study of why God allows suffering. Members include people in physical pain, but also those experiencing emotional crises. Divorced people and those disillusioned with life, for instance, are as welcome as the heart attack victim and the rheumatoid arthritic. Usually about fifteen people attend. A crucial element of the meetings, according to Pastor Wesley D. Taylor, is corporate prayer. One woman, for instance, suffered from an intense muscle ailment she had experienced as the result of chemical injections for Hodgkin's disease. After group prayer, she experienced relief. "We've had some dramatic stories of healing," says Taylor, "while other people have gradually learned to cope with their continued sufferings." One pain-ridden arthritic had nearly given up faith in God because of the continued suffering. But through attending the group meetings, this person has been helped to see that God's love is not measured by our comfort, and that we can still believe in him without bitterness. The group might never have been launched ...
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