Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Weekend Workshop

This past weekend Gary had a workshop at one of our local congregations, LaVergne.  The preacher at LaVergne, Josh Pappas, was previously our educational minister.  It was great to see him and his family over the weekend and it made me realize how much I missed them at Highland.  However, they are EXTREMELY happy at LaVergne and it was awesome to see!  That congregation is very blessed to have Josh and Keshia working with them!
The workshop began on Friday night and we honestly weren't expecting a very large turn-out because of the weather, but LaVergne came through and we had about 50 that night!!

Gary did the introduction, what is SFT and how he got involved and then our friend, Brandon, went through the behavior cycle.

Even though I've heard this presented several times over the years it's still incredible to hear over and over again. Brandon did a great job and we hope and pray that he will continue to be able to work with Gary and SFT!

On Saturday morning we started off with donuts and coffee and then dug into the Pain Processor's Responsibility (upper right corner).  Gary is amazing to listen to.  He has mastered these skills, not saying that he still can't get stuck in the cycle, but he knows how to identify that he's in it and get out!  He learns new things everyday and does such a fantastic job explaining them.  For example, he introduced a new concept this weekend concerning your programming.  I'm not going to go into too much detail because I won't do it justice, but just know that we have to go to the root of the problem and not constantly try to fix things on the surface.  Think of a tree and it's roots, we can't see what's going on below the ground only what's above the ground...

Wren was soooo great all weekend!!  I had a blanket for her to sit on and play with her toys during most of the workshop and she did so well!!  Saturday morning some of the kids stayed in there and sat on the floor in the back and so I pulled Wren's blanket back there and let them play with her and they all LOVED that!!  At Highland, Wren is the 'church baby.'  She gets passed around all over the place and I love it!!  LaVergne was no different!  We know several people that go to church there and obviously met more over the weekend so on Sunday morning she was passed around all over the place.  Keshia kept introducing her as Wren Pappas :).  

We are excited for this door to open to the LaVergne congregation.  They are soooo friendly and we can't wait to see what God has in store for them in the future!

If you are interested in SFT and learning more you can contact Gary at garywasher@sftawareness.org or visit this contact page to find someone in your area.  SFT offers one-on-one sessions, small group sessions and large group sessions.  We can't wait to meet you and help you learn the skills and attitudes that are taught in the Bible to work through your emotional pain, depression or addiction.

Kimberly

1 comment:

Joshua Pappas said...

Great blog post Kimberly, and thanks for all the nice things you said about us and LaVergne CofC! Believe me, we feel the same way about y'all! You're awesome!