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High Five Divorce Recovery Program |
TESTIMONIALSHere are some wonderful testimonies from a Christian College that has experienced great success using the High Five Divorce Recovery Program. They are from a year 6 Teacher and Primary Pastoral Care Coordinator. We pray you will be as blessed and challenged afresh to pray for the hurting children of divorce as we have. The first program was taken with a brother and sister at the school who were not from a Christian family. The parents really appreciated the quality of the program and the way it helped the children to share with them about how they felt. The following year a young student I was teaching in Year 9 English who was showing signs of anger, punching walls at home and not coping with general classroom interactions fighting etc…. After talking to him and discovering his history I found out his parents were divorced. So organised High Five Divorce Recovery Program sessions after school through his mother. The young man did not want to come at first and when asked about what he thought about God he did not believe. After the second lesson he sat there and said, “It is not my fault, is it. “ He had felt that the divorce had been his fault for 6 years. His Mum rang up and asked what had happened in the session because when he went home he went straight to the garage and got out the lawnmower and mowed the lawn. A job he had been avoiding for 3 months with angry outbursts. At the end of the program it was my pleasure to be part of the church team that baptised the young man as a sign of his Christian faith. The remarkable change was so obvious when he had a skateboard stolen he didn’t react in anger but said that whatever happens God would expect me to forgive them a great change from the angry young man that began the sessions. That young man will still SMS me today when he is in town and thanks me for what I did to help him even now at 19 years of age. One young man who came to the school was 12/13 and threatening to commit suicide to his mum. I was able to run him through the program and pray with him. It was great to see the hope he gained. I even had to go and see his cubby house he was building, what a privilege. At the end of the year I received a lovely hamper from his mum with a letter thanking me for saving her son. He no longer talked about suicide. I am ever thankful that the Divorce Recovery Program gave me some tools to use that has helped lead children to the healer and gave them hope for the future. Another student who had been through the foster child system had a intellectual disability and constantly showed aggressiveness and was uncontrollable in a class situation. He was given a teachers aide to work with him individually but even this was not working. I suggested the High Five program even though divorce was not relevant. His many foster homes and abusive situations were emotionally similar to the grief and disappointment that happens in divorce. He showed a remarkable change as he worked through the program, especially the forgiveness session where he forgave people who had abused him or let him down. The principal even commented to me that he thought it was me that had made the difference to the others but now he saw it was the High Five Program as the aide had worked through the program with him under my guidance. Of course it was the Lord working through the program to heal the young man. Thank you for a wonderful program. Last year a young man was pushed through the door crying not wanting to come but left smiling and asking to come back next week because “ they understood what I was going through.” A year later he always has a smile for me each day although he is still going through tough times with custody battles. Another young girl commented to her mum, “ The first story they told was just how I felt, I didn’t think anyone knew how I felt.” Many of the parents have shared how they can use the anger management techniques to help themselves. Another mum commented that her child came home and said, “ Hey mum there are other divorced kids at school just like me.” Mum said it was such a freeing thing for the child to know that they were not alone. One other girl just keeps coming back every year, she did the course 3 years ago, in year 4, then turned up again in year 5. We sent her home after one week saying you have already done it. But then when she turned up in year 6 we thought she just needs to work through it again as she is still getting something out of it. She came every week. It has amazed me the way the children really enjoy the program. They may be reluctant to come the first week but after that they are actually really sad when the program ends. I have had more than one parent say to me, “What are we going to do without High Five? They just love it so much they can’t wait to get there.” So dear Ken and Dorothy you have blessed so many with your program and because of the success of the program at our school another college nearby will begin the program this year. I am also using the program in our Children’s Church with great success and one of the young people going through the course wants to develop a teenage version to help other young teenagers. So rest in the Lord that the program the Lord gave you many years ago is truly changing lives across the Nation. God is good! (Names and addresses withheld for privacy)
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