Read More The post Dismantling the Silence of Suicide appeared first on Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries ..read more

Content note: This post contains stories about Indian Residential Schools Cheryl Bear Nadleh Whut’en (I am from Nadleh) Dum’tenoo (Bear clan) Hadih (hello) beloved friends and family,  I’m writing to you from Prince George, BC, in May of 2024. There have been a lot of significant deaths in my life since I first shared my story as part of The Sanctuary Course, including my dear dad (fourteen months ago), my best friend of over twenty-five years (eighteen months ago), a beloved cousin/niece (seven months ago), and most recently my older brother, who passed away in February 2024. His untimel ..read more

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and World Maternal Mental Health Day is observed on May 3rd. This month on The Sanctuary Blog, Karen Markiewicz shares her research on perimenopause as it relates to reproductive mental health and wellbeing.  I often describe my life as a tapestry woven with faith, family, and service. Like countless other Christian women, I have journeyed through seasons of joy and sorrow, growth and change, constantly evolving in my relationship with God and myself. Yet, one pivotal transition has been shrouded in silence and shame: menopause.  The term perimen ..read more

Excerpt from The Sanctuary Course coursebook The subject of mental illnesses doesn’t just raise questions for us as individuals. As Christians, it also challenges us to think deeply about how we are to respond to people experiencing mental illnesses within the Church. We know that Christians can and do experience mental illnesses. And with that knowledge comes an opportunity to learn more about the subject and to examine some of our own assumptions so that we can better care for those of us with lived experiences of mental health challenges in our communities. For this month’s blog, we are goi ..read more

I met a friend while serving with an international non-profit overseas. We were both in “helping roles” that seemed impressive on paper and to our church communities back home. My friend and I arrived in this new country with zest, ready to offer our whole hearts, serve, and be put to use. But just below the surface of that feeling, cracks were beginning to form. We were both separately experiencing mental health challenges. She was learning about her new diagnosis of anxiety, and I was trying to push away the feelings of isolation I felt living in a new country, without structures to support ..read more

A few weeks ago, I went on vacation to Bangkok, Thailand with my parents and some family friends, whom I affectionately refer to as my aunts and uncles. We spent ten days haggling in markets, feasting on seafood, and blasting the latest Afrobeat songs. By our final day, I was happily exhausted and ready to go home. But just before boarding the twelve-hour flight to our layover in Amsterdam, I fell horribly sick. Something I had eaten the previous night revolted against my body and I was not prepared for the fight. How would I get through a journey halfway across the world, trapped in a metal t ..read more

In his poem “New Year’s,” Dana Gioia calls January 1 “the most mundane and secular holiday.” A cultural frenzy to celebrate newness and possibility accompanies the initial moments of a fresh calendar year. A ritual of this secular holiday for many is to set goals, make resolutions, and enter the new year with vision and resolve. But this can be a lot of pressure, and as we know, even those of us motivated enough to create resolutions often break them by mid-January. For many, just getting out of bed is challenge enough. We are human beings, and the demands of everyday life are hard. We face re ..read more

For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, these are cold and dark days. Today—December 21—is the darkest of them all.  I have a sort of desperate energy as I search for little glimpses of light wherever I can find them, watching out my window for pockets of sun between the clouds. But by 4:00pm, I’m mid-work project and the sun has already slipped out of my grasp yet again. I usually resolve to white-knuckle my way through winter, closing my eyes tight until someone taps me on the shoulder to tell me that the summer months of lingering warm light have returned.  For some, th ..read more

“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” “Hope for Everyone” So many of the songs we sing at Christmas remind us of the importance of hope. Before the infant Jesus took his first breath in that Bethlehem stable, before the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son, and long before anyone knew exactly how, when, or where the Messiah would appear, there was hope—a hope that God would draw near with healing, justice, and redemption for humanity. This hope reminded people of faith to continue anticipating and looking for the Messiah, sustaining them while they wai ..read more

Job is one of those characters, and books of the Bible, that people either love or hate. “Patient Job,” as he is often called, is a difficult figure. He suffers great misfortune, sees his life crumble around him, and struggles to make sense of life in the midst of death, pain, and trauma. This is as much as we all agree on. But what else you think happens, depends on how you read the book. Job is often nicknamed “patient Job,” and held up as a model of patient endurance in the midst of suffering, and patient waiting for God to restore him. Some find this helpful as a model; others (like me) fi ..read more