This Week's Program
I Crawled Out of a Garbage Can
“I flunked out of junior high. I flunked out of high school. I was a problem child. Nobody once ever did an intervention. Nobody ever once that I can recall, said, ‘Hey, well maybe this kid needs help.’” – Ray Guevara Ray was the definition of a person who society had given up on. After an abusive childhood and dropping out of school, he had nowhere to go but the streets. Later he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). He recalled an incident when a restaurant manager made him leave a roof’s overhang under which Ray had sought shelter. “And I remember that’s when I went to the garbage cans. And I remember having to choose between two garbage cans of what I was going to sleep in.”
Listen - Transcript - Study Guide
Continue ReadingMy Turn
Just Sayin'
Emily Ralph
If you open your eyes, the homeless are not as far away as you think. When we have that attitude, we become aware of those around us, those struggling, those without hope. We have the resources to become the support network that gives them a second chance at life—or even prevents them from becoming homeless in the first place.
Continue ReadingThis Week's Resources
Online
Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness Website. Information on topics such as mental health stigma, the role of the church, and the criminal justice system.
Video
Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness. A Third Way Media documentary. An inside look at what it is like to live with a mental illness. Ten stories.
Book
Souls in The Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets, Craig Rennebohm
Related Resources
The Carter Center
Founded by Rosalynn Carter dedicated to reducing the stigma of mental illness.
Crossing the Border: Encounters between Homeless People and Outreach Workers, Michael Rowe
The Soloist, Steve Lopez. The story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers.
The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. A true story of journalist Steve Lopez’s developing friends with Nathaniel Ayers, a former Julliard School of Music student, who became homeless and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Burton's Blog
A Sense of Place
Our first home purchase brought Mary and me great joy and excitement. We’d enduring years living in low cost apartments – something I disliked intensely. Growing up on a farm had ingrained in me a strong sense of place. Fence lines and roads defined boundaries that delineated what was and what was not ours. We could make improvements on our land, build buildings, plant crops. As tenuous as it was, there was a sense of being in control of at least a small part of your existence.
Continue ReadingNext Week
What does the Bible have to say about suicide? Dr. Lloyd Carr from Gordon College and his wife, Gwendolyn, discuss their personal experience of suicide, share biblical insights, and Gwendolyn reads poetry about the loss of her daughter-in-law.
Favorite Family Recipes
North African Couscous and Shrimp
Shaping Families producer, Melodie Davis is a published author, and is currently writing a new book titled Whatever Happened to Dinner? Melodie writes about the value of eating together as a family.
Continue ReadingUpdates
Current Offer
The Shaping Families free offer from this week’s program is no longer available. Visit our online store at www.MennoMedia.org/store if you would like to purchase the item offered. Some items are not offered on the store.
