James & Carolanne

I've often been amazed at some of the stories and comments we receive off the websites.  I have to admit, sometimes the stories seem so personal or heart breaking that my amazement turns to a little bit of scepticism.  I wonder if the situation is really legitimate or just another person trying make waves or get a reaction.  So how do we know that these people are telling the truth?

One clue to this is when the stories actually line up with the news.  Last week, we got a comment on this article, "Starting Over After Significant Loss" (http://powertochange.com/discover/faith/startingover/), from a man named Rick.  He wrote...

Thanks for the encouragement my wife was murdered on June 1 and I have had many different emotions from anger to emptiness and the things that do help me are my family and the relationship I am building with god. It’s is very hard to go thru each day but I do believe that god has a purpose even if we don’t understand why? I have been searching for help and your writings have help me. Thanks so much.

One of our staff, also being somewhat sceptical, decided to see if she could find any additional information about this person online.  She was quite amazed to find the painful story.

The news report of the murder of his wife is here:
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/060310-loved-ones-seek-justice-for-starr-harris

With an update here:
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-drummonds-update-murder-story,0,6537964.story

In light of that information she responded to Rick the same day in another comment.

Rick, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your wife. If you would like to talk to someone privately we have mentors available 24/7. You can use this form to send in a request and we’ll match you with a mentor who will respond by email. You might find this article helpful “Relearning the Promises of God” -- http://powertochange.com/experience/family/relearningpromises/ -- it deals with a different kind of loss, but the journey of grief is probably similar. Can we pray for you and your family?

When we see our work touching real people with real life situations and problems, the impact of the mentoring, prayer and help that we offer suddenly becomes a whole lot more real.  Thank you for your part in helping us continue in this ministry.

Would you like to have a more direct part in this sort of online ministry?  If you love the Lord, have access to a computer and know how to answer email, you should have no problem learning how to become an online mentor.  We are always looking for more people to help as our ministry continues to grow.  If you would be interested, feel free to read more about it at http://truthmedia.com/thementorcenter/.