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June 2007 MIM Meeting: Mary Whitney
Note: The monthly Mental Illness Ministry meetings often feature a guest speaker who shares on an aspect of mental illness. This month we were treated to the hopeful story of Mary Whitney. The MIM meetings are held the second Monday of the month from 7-9 pm in Hospitality Hall. The next month's meeting is listed in greater detail in the Sunday Bulletin. Everyone is welcome.
The Mental Illness Ministry invites a speaker or a panel of speakers each month. They address issues related to mental health. The speaker for the Mental Illness Ministry meeting Monday, June 11, 2007 was Mary Whitney, a woman who three years ago began a nonprofit, Women Planting Seeds. Their mission statement is: Second Chances and Changing Lives. The organization is designed to assist women in developing and maintaining positive life experiences, whether women are dealing with divorce, domestic abuse, incarceration, the loss of a significant person or childhood trauma.
Prior to organizing Women Planting Seeds, Mary volunteered with Amicus for four years to work with women in correctional institutions. This important work helped prepare Mary for what has become her passion, helping women believe in themselves and, with a supportive environment, rebuild their lives. Women, who feel that all is lost and that there is no hope, connect with Mary Whitney and lives do change and hope is born again.
Mary can connect with women without hope because she has lived many of the same experiences. She too, has experienced feelings of worthlessness. Women connect with Mary because she has walked the walk. Through the telling of her own story, she taught us how she reaches women who are hurting. She tells them the words that she needed to hear for her own healing. She continues to heal by helping others heal. And she continues to believe in herself by helping others believe in themselves.
Mary has written a book about the challenges of her journey from early childhood to adulthood. It is because of these experiences that she receives the respect of the people whom she is trying to reach. That respect provides a seed for building a supportive environment. Mary now works with women, men and youth. She is a trained circle leader and uses that method to help participants interact with others in the circle.
My words feel like dry dust compared to fire in the belly when Mary talks. Clarence Shadegg, a MIM member, said this of Mary’s presentation, Monday evening: “She is refreshingly genuine. I was deeply moved by her stories. She has done much to turn her life around and she has deepened her spiritual connection along the way. And she’s helped to deepen the spiritual connection of other people as well. What a gift she has! She shared a powerful set of messages with those of us in the audience tonight…Mary Whitney gave me many things about which to think.”
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