My spiritual journey with God has been a major influence with how I made my decisions. Don’t get me wrong, I still do what I feel is best for me, but asking him for guidance through a path that you’re uncertain of (or even if it’s clear, but doesn’t feel like it’s something he wants for you) has helped tremendously. Knowing that God put me on that path, only gives me the strength to carry on, considering that it’s his will guiding me. Taking God from being someone who I went to as a last resort for pain, to someone who I go to first in a situation to ask for support when I know I need it. He’s been the one whom I can rely on solely, should I choose, but I haven’t needed that just yet considering he’s blessed me with people in my life now, that have helped me through it all, but I’m not blind to the fact that he’s been with me through everything as well, and hasn’t forsaken me even when I feel I have no one. Now I see God as my loving Father who will never abandon me! Father’s are so important. Their absence or abandonment deeply affects a life. Much of this ministry seeks to fill the void that a missing father can cause. During high school and after when Harrison would come and share at the groups at Palm Desert High School, he would simply say I have “daddy issues” and new students would smile or laugh but it was no laughing matter to him or others. This week in a conversation I said I know when the time comes you will be a better father as a result of his loss. Harrison has been a father figure for his younger brother in his early years. Please pray for Harrison as he prepared for the upcoming deployment to Iraq this October. Below is a picture from Veterans Day 2017 when he came and shared at the Carlotta before my opening prayer. Also, below is a picture of him while in high school with other students. He has become a close friend over the years and I look forward to seeing how God will use him in the future. The new school year which begins our 21st year begins very soon many of the students will return, some will move on, and there will be an influx of new students. Grief ministry is a way of connecting with students. It creates a heart bond in short order with many. The inner question they have is why do you care? But the first inner thought of students is now, “I am not alone there are others that understand in part the pain I feel.” I do funerals at the Carlotta far to often and I have found there are few differences of substance between the young and the mature in dealing with loss. Seeking to help the fatherless and the orphans,
Tom Morris