8 Reasons I'm Grateful For My Place Of Work

I've been so blessed being a part of this agency since 1988.

I shared this at the Park View Church's "Moments in Mission" this morning:

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, I’m grateful for the generous support of your congregation for the Family Life Resource Center. You've been with us from the first, renting us our first office space right here in the south wing of your church in 1987. And you’ve continued to include us in your giving, which makes it possible for us to see people who don’t have health insurance or other means to pay for professional help, so we don't have to turn anyone  away for financial reasons.

I’m grateful for the vision of the founders of FLRC, people like Gloria Lehman, Sam Janzen, John Drescher and others who way back in the 1980’s saw a need for a counseling center to help couples strengthen their marriages and help bring healing to broken relationships and hurting individuals.

I’m grateful for the privilege of working with colleagues like Jim Glanzer, formerly of this congregation, and people like Terri Adamson, who is also our clinical director and who’s with us this morning, and with seven other dedicated staff members working under the leadership of Marie Bradley, our exceptional executive director.

I’m grateful for all of the wonderful clients I and others have had the privilege of working with, people from whom I’ve learned so much. In fact, I’ve come to see that tapping into the wisdom and insights people bring with them is one of most helpful things that happens in my office. We see counseling as a collaborative process where therapists are coaches and facilitators in helping people find solutions to problems.

I’m grateful for our being a part of a network of Mennonite founded mental health agencies, ten different inpatient and outpatient institutions from Kings View Hospital on the west coast to Penn View Counseling Center on the east, many of which started in the aftermath of WWII, when hundreds of conscientious objectors, people like Harold and Ruth Lehman from this church who served in terrible state-run mental hospitals, saw the need for humane kinds of treatment and help for people with mental illnesses. For a small denomination, we're blessed with a disproportionate number of such centers.

     

I’m grateful I can work in a faith-based agency, not where we are imposing faith on others, but where we can, as appropriate, encourage people to draw on their faith and their faith communities as an important part of their health and healing. Only a small number of our clients are Mennonites, but many choose us because we are faith based, and an equal number simply because we’re seen as a reputable resource for people in distress. Our case loads are full and we too often have to put people on a waiting list. 

     

And finally, I’m grateful to be working in collaboration with others in our community who are in healing and helping professions, and with pastors and congregations wherever possible in order to be a resource for promoting shalom, extending grace and effecting reconciliation in the kind of troubled times we live in.

        

Thanks for your support and prayers.