Healing and Bereavement come in many forms and healing is not always as we expect. Click here for help and comfort.
For help with children facing bereavement look in Children and Bereavement.

Healing Wounded History

- Reconciling Peoples and Healing Places

by Russ Parker

Originally published in 2001 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Books by the long-standing Director of the Acorn Christian Healing Foundation are always worth reading. This re-issued title is no exception. As usual, Russ Parker stretches our understanding of the meaning of healing. He writes that over more than twenty-five years of praying with people and seeking help for himself, he has learnt that ‘the profile of healing is more complex than I had at first thought’. The healing agenda may begin with an individual’s request for prayer, but we soon have to engage with the context of our lives. That context takes the form of a ‘collection of group stories’, with all their memories and emotions, blessings and wounds.
Parker explores the stories of several human groups: The Family Group, starting with 3 generations in the biblical story of Abraham’s family; The Church Group, starting with the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation (and including a fascinating chapter on ‘The Christian Day of Atonement’; The Community Group, particularly the city and The Tribal or Nation Group.
Reconciliation and the healing of group stories and wounds is the book’s theme. Parker has much to say about ‘representational confession’ and the way in which Jesus is the representational confessor.
He frequently refers to the workbook that is the essential companion to this volume as your use of Healing Wounded History will be incomplete without it. You can order the workbook on The Acorn Christian Healing Foundation website http://www.acornchristian.org via the bookshop. It is on sale for £2.95 at the moment, Feb 2012.
Further information can be found from the links below.

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Review by Barry Vendy (03/03/12)

Paperback
Price: £14.99
Publisher: SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
Published: January 2012
ISBN: 978-0-281-06625-4

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Forgiveness Is Healing

by Russ Parker

There can be no question of the importance of forgiveness, be it in the life of an individual, in a church, or in society. So I am pleased to see this reissue of Russ Parker’s profound and practical book on the subject. It is full of cameos and commentaries from the Bible (for example, the man who was lowered through a roof in front of Jesus, and Jesus’ healing of a man beside a pool in Jerusalem. Forgiveness is an issue in both those stories) and illustrations from the practice of healing (many of them drawn from Russ Parker’s work as a minister and as Director of the Acorn Christian Healing Foundation. Some of these are reassuring, but some are very challenging!). Jesus, writes Parker, actually models the healing of relationships through forgiveness, and 'expected his disciples to be forgivers'. Do read this book if you are serious about taking up that challenge. Incidentally, I appreciated the chapters on the healing of the memories and deliverance, which receive much calmer consideration than they sometimes do.

Review by Barry Vendy (01/01/12)

Paperback
Price: £10.99
Publisher: SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
Published: 09 September 2011
ISBN: 978-0-281-06616-2

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Losing Tom – Finding Grace

by Jackie Slough

My son is long through adolescence but what if.....? How many mothers have wondered.
Jackie Slough had no idea suicidal thoughts were going round the head of her seemingly well adjusted lovely teenager. It was only in retrospect that she could think what could have been done and said differently. She, her husband Alan and Tom, were all baptised members of their local Baptist church. With Tom’s older brother James, they were all very involved with church life, very busy with their dogs and their work, a happy family they thought till Tom’s death.
Their faith is what has held them together – just; and knowing Tom’s great faith has given them the assurance that he is now at peace with his saviour, Jesus Christ.
Jackie wrote a journal through the first difficult months, not intending it for publication, but was subsequently persuaded that it could help other mother’s struggling in like circumstances, so she continued adding to it and this is the story of those first five years. It is a no holds barred account of her feelings and actions though this traumatic time, grippingly readable, and interspersed with poems written by Jackie which express so poignantly what she was going through at the time of writing.
At the end of the book is more of these, and some of Tom’s own writings too. Heartrending stuff, but well worth reading.

Review by Mary Bartholomew (03/11/11)

Paperback
Price: £9.99
Publisher: Onwards and Upwards Publishing
Published: Spring 2011
ISBN: 978-1-907-50907-0

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A Piece of Blue Sky

- Conversations With a Loving Father

by Virginia Duhanes

How best would I describe this book, probably a series of short memoirs and remembrances from one womans life, in which there are interspersed moments of her prayer life and the active voice of God she heard when listening in her quiet times with him. These moments include some times of real pain and growth, times at which understanding and hearing the voice of God in our lives can be the hardest, and through these recollections she helps to show that God is always there and perhaps offers comfort to others going through these times, raises awareness of the fact that we are all called to be in conversation wth our Lord and that he yearns to speak to us.
I think this is very much a book that would help some going through hardships and would certainly appeal to those who like The Friendship Book or of course the writings of Eddie Askew.

Review by Melanie Carroll (08/10/11)

Paperback
Price: £5.00
Publisher: TLM Trading for The Leprosy Mission
Published: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-902-73185-1

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I Am My Sister’s Keeper

- Reaching Out to Wounded Women

by Denise George

The title of the book indicates that the readership is intended exclusively for women. The author, Denise George has written this book as a tool through which God can speak to every woman, and the reader can be encouraged to reach out to hurting sisters seeking solace in friendships in Christ. Denise draws on all sorts of women's stories here, from Biblical examples to modern, hurting women. There are women trapped in unhappy marriages, those who have experienced divorce and need to forgive their ex-spouses. There was one prostitute who wanted more than anything else to be a lady, and gave her life to Jesus when a young man informed her that the Lord could wash away the stains on her soul. There was a chapter on loneliness and another on suicide. These are two taboo and misunderstood subjects which I felt Denise did well to explore, even if I felt the section on loneliness was a little too neat and over-sentimental. It’s worth it for the reader to look at the back, as well – there are lots of useful questions and subjects to explore for Bible studies. A great resource for those wishing to show Christ-like compassion for suffering women.

Review by Alice Collins (19/09/11)

Paperback
Price: £7.99
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications
Published: 2011
ISBN: 978-1-845-50717-6

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When Someone You Love No Longer Remembers

by Cecil Murphey, illustrations by Michal Sparks

Approximately six inches square, (580mm) this little book is intended to be given to a caregiver, to help them deal with the situation they find themselves in. Twenty four contributors tell of how this situation feels, how they have come to terms with it and how prayer and coming closer to God has enabled them to win through. Each piece is very brief, but very telling, twenty four different experiences yet all very similar as any caregiver can tell you. Reading these pieces could help lessen the sense of being the only one in this position, the loneliness of being tied down by looking after someone you love but who is changing irrevocably.
The Appendix has suggestions of how to care for yourself, how to communicate with your loved one, advice on exercise and activities, expecting the unexpected and helping your visitors to know how to act, practical advice from someone who knows.
A gentle book, enhanced by the illustrations and one I can recommend as a gift to a man or a woman.

Review by Mary Bartholomew (31/08/11)

Hardback
Price: £6.99
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: June 2011
ISBN: 978-0-736-93871-6

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The Undistracted Widow - Living For God After Losing Your Husband by Carol W. Cornish
ISBN: 978-1-844-74491-6 Price: £8.99	Published: September 2010
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Heaven Revealed - What is it Like? What Will We Do? by Paul Ennis
ISBN: 978-0-802-44982-5 Price: £8.99	Published: April 2011
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The Death of a Child Edited by Peter Stanford
ISBN: 978-1-441-18303-3 Price: £16.99	Published: 16 June 2011
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In the Midst of Life - Is There Such a Thing as a Good Death? by Jennifer Worth
ISBN: 978-0-297-85958-1 Price: £14.99	Published: 2010
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Understanding Panic Attacks and Overcoming Fear by Roger Baker
ISBN: 978-0-745-95545-2 Price: £7.99	Published: 18 February 2011
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Good Grief by Granger E Westberg
ISBN: 978-0-281-06427-4 Price: £4.99	Published: February 2011
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God Knows My Name - Never Forgotten, Forever Loved by Beth Redman
ISBN: 978-0-781-40365-8 Price: £8.99	Published: July 2010
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Learning to Heal - A Practical Guide for Every Christian by John Coles
ISBN: 978-1-850-78857-7 Price: £8.99	Published: August 2010
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Lynda - From Accident & Trauma to Healing and Wholeness by Lynda Scott
ISBN: 978-1-852-40539-7 Price: £9.99	Published: November 2010
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Praying Through Grief - Poems and Meditations for Healing Compiled by Kate Kirkpatrick
ISBN: 978-0-745-95510-0 Price: £6.99	Published: September 2010
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The Challenge of Caring - Bible Related reflections by Alexine Crawford
ISBN: 978-1-841-01748-8 Price: £7.99	Published: January 2011
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Two Hours to Freedom - A Simple and Effective Model for Healing and Deliverance by Charles H. Kraft
ISBN: 978-0-800-79498-9 Price: £7.99	Published: 01 November 2010
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Finding Hope For Your Journey Through Breast Cancer - 60 Inspirational readings by Yvonne Ortega
ISBN: 978-0-800-73409-1 Price: £7.99	Published: 01 October 2010
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A Place of Healing - Wrestling With the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain and God’s Sovereignty by Joni Eareckson Tada
ISBN: 978-1-434-70206-7 Price: £9.99	Published: 28 September 2010
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