SEMINARS HELP DIVORCED RECOVER FROM TRAUMA

Plenty of people in Cape Girardeau are bleeding from the wounds of divorce and haven't found any way to stop the hurt.

While the DivorceCare program is not a bandage, it does offer help, promotes healing and gives hope for the future, said the Rev. Art Hunt of Christ Presbyterian Church.

Christ Presbyterian sponsors the 13-week Christian-based class twice each year. The current session meets at 7 p.m. each Wednesday at the Health and Education Department of St. Francis Medical Center. Seminars end April 29.

"People come searching for real help," Hunt said. Many times they have tried other methods -- from bars to counseling -- and didn't find any answers to their questions or comfort for their pain.

Sandy Moore has been divorced for nearly seven years but still benefits from the lessons DivorceCare offers. She is attending the seminars for the second time.

"It was a very painful divorce that was thrust upon me," she said. "But I still feel like I benefit from the sessions. I can tell the second time around that there has been healing, even in just two years."

Divorce largely steals the song from people's hearts, and this is a way of giving them their song back, Hunt said.

The program is designed for anyone who is separated, going through a divorce or has been divorced.

Seminar participants are all at different levels of healing. Some have just separated, some just finalized their divorce and others have been divorced for several years. But everyone has similar problems and concerns, Moore said.

Videos are used to introduce topics like facing anger, depression, loneliness, new relationships, forgiveness and finances.

Following the videos, participants break into two groups and discuss issues. "The videos confront issues that they eventually will have to face," Hunt said. "Maybe they have or have not, but eventually they will come up."

The small groups offer a safe environment for talking because everyone understands the problems. "It re-enforces the feeling that they aren't the only ones going through this and aren't nuts for feeling that way."

Divorce is a tough issue for churches to handle. It creates a tension for many churches that must decide how to handle the issue based on Biblical mandates while offering help to those suffering with pain.

When churches attempt to offer help, it often seems like they are condoning divorce. That isn't the case, Hunt said.

"What we are saying is that we want to help people who are suffering."

Many times social issues like divorce and remarriage create tension within the church because members must grapple with the contrast between what society says is acceptable and what the Bible says is morally right, Hunt said.

"People haven't lived according to the Bible's standard, and the tension is that if we help it means we are condoning the issue," Hunt said.