Looking? Found someone you have, eh?
-Yoda (fictional character from George Lucas’s Star Wars)
While attending the Spectrum PPD group (”This isn’t what I expected”), I met another girl, named Diane, that attends the same church that I do. A few weeks later at a Spectrum PPD playgroup a second fellow-church attender showed up. That sealed it–I knew what I had to do.
I figured that if there are two or three of us from the same church seeking help at a downtown community health center, there have to be more of us. And the fact that the Spectrum PPD group has been growing exponentially–almost to the point where there are more people in a room than the room can hold some nights–I realized that there was a huge need out there for more space and another group.
My first meeting was with Nancy, the nurse and creator of the Spectrum PPD group. I asked her if Spectrum would be expanding its support group program. Although both Nancy and I were greatly disappointed, the answer came down “from above” to the fact that starting a new group was not in the budget, the current group would simply have to remain as is.
I then contacted a group called Omni Faith Health Partnership program. I thought their credo fell very much in line with what I envisioned for a self-help group integrating the faith aspect of life and health.
Health ministry is a faith community’s intentional effort to minister to the spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and social health of its members and the community.
After a one-hour meeting with a newly-hired Omni-Faith representative, I anxiously waited for their response to my request. A week went by and I received no answer as to whether or not we could partner and create a support group on our end of town. A few days later Nancy, the nurse from the Spectrum PPD group, called me. She was distraught. She had been asked to meet along with the “powers that be” as well as the Omni Faith representative I had met with to determine whether or not the group I was envisioning could be a reality via Omni Faith. The higher ups took the word of the newly-hired, not-quite-in-the-loop Omni Faith rep’s advice that because I belonged to such a large church, we were not an “under served population”, rather than taking the advice of the nurse that has been immersed in the field of PPD for more than a decade.
Devastated again, I requested a meeting with Nancy and her supervisor as I felt I had not been heard nor that I had the opportunity to represent myself at the meeting where the Omni Faith employee “represented” me. This supervisor was very gracious in our meeting and empowered Nancy to spend 10 hours working with me to develop and start my own group. I am very appreciative for all of Spectrum’s help and support in this process.
My next step was to set up meetings at my church. After a few face-to-face meetings, I researched and worked hard to define our mission statement, vision, and strategy to accomplish our mission and vision.
I got great feedback and support from all the church leadership people I met with or sent my “ministry plan” to. Our group was ready to go–we had a room reserved, a bulletin announcement to announce that a group was in the works as well as one to recruit volunteers, speakers lined up, an ad on the church calendar, permissions to use materials from authors, welcome packets created, a logo designed, and a blog set up.
Our first bulletin announcement ran and we began to get responses from people interested in volunteering or attending. How exciting!
Then I went to Africa for 10 days.
Upon return, I checked in with Diane to make sure our bulletin announcements had been in the bulletin while we were gone as our group was set to start meeting with volunteers for training just 2 weeks after my return from Africa.
Diane informed me that the bulletin announcements had not been in the bulletin either week. I started sending e-mails and leaving phone messages to see what had happened. No responses came. Then Diane called one morning and said, “I was just on the church calendar checking on our LAB group listing, and it’s not there anymore”. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Something was going on that I was not aware of.
Myriad phone calls, e-mails, and finally a meeting later, I was told that a decision had been made that this group was not in line with the direction our church was going, and that there were liability issues attached to our group that they were unable to host.
I was disheartened. I was angry. I was frustrated. I was deeply hurt.
I began searching for a place where our group could still meet on our start date of August 6. Ada Community Reformed Church offered us a room to meet in for just $10 per meeting. I was thrilled to have a Plan B in the works, but still very unsettled, upset, and not okay with the fact that my own church was unwelcoming to myself and others and that I was seeking out spaces to rent. I felt like my “family” had turned their back on me. And I wasn’t going to take that lying down. I requested some more meetings…
I’ll have to continue this (epic) saga in another post!
We have certainly had our share of obstacles in developing LAB. We have not always understood, but I know that we have grown from the challenges. God has used the hurdles to strengthen us and to provide direction for LAB. I imagine what improvements might not have been made if we had met no resistence. I see God’s hands on our group even though the molding process has been hard.
Diane–I agree wholeheartedly. If there had been no tension, this story and group would have been booorrrring. In order for growth to occur, you have to meet resistance, and it’s in the recovery that either failure or success happens.
I’m really excited about group tonight. That’s all that matters–that LAB exists, and that there are amazing people putting into each other’s lives and putting a little wind in our sails to help us glide through the ensuing days and weeks.