Faith-based groups offer ‘healing’ from effects of physical, emotional illness

Two faith-based groups launched on Saturday a “healing” conference that seeks to help people suffering from the negative effects of physical and emotional illnesses or what they call “life-altering conditions” such as cancer, lupus, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, depression, and anxiety.

“The spirit of death, for our purposes, is the influence of death, a shadow over our days that subverts our perceptions and produces a fatalistic mindset,” said Benji Cruz, one of the organizers of the “Pagyakap sa Buhay: Breaking free from the spirit of death” healing conference sponsored by the Living Waters Philippines and the Embracing Life Ministries.

The Living Waters Philippines is “a national healing ministry for the relationally and sexually broken” while the Embracing Life Ministries is a “Christian healing ministry” headquartered in Southern California.

Cruz said the “spirit of death” is able to exert undue influence on many individuals because of the burdens of daily living.

“Life and its many pressures and traumatic experiences cause us to be vulnerable to these influences.”

Cruz said in an email interview that their groups seek to guide Filipinos “to begin or continue the process of being free from the spirit of death.”

The groups are not only targeting clinical depression but also the “sense of hopelessness that goes with a life-altering illness,” he added.

“Although our programs are effective in helping people manage their depression, which is also a life-altering illness, if they are so diagnosed,” he said.

Also included in the long list of “life-altering conditions” are despair, shame, and self-hatred caused by abuse during childhood, cultural issues, trauma during adulthood, and care-giving for others with life altering conditions, Cruz said.
“Even the seemingly benign name-calling by peers during childhood can affect us.”

“This cycle of living in hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness begins in childhood when our life source, mother and father, are not healthily represented to us by our parents,” he said.

Cruz said that the larger community, outside of the family setting, can also cause “abuse” and “set up the environment for hopelessness and depression.”

“Most people who are in this (spirit of death) condition, really affect everyone because life itself is a life-altering condition. They have a vague sense of the feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness. Their lives may be chaotic, filled with addictions, and an endless sense of not being loved or accepted,” he added.

The healing conference “Pagyakap Sa Buhay” seeks to minister to people facing life-threatening medical conditions and reaches out to those experiencing resignation, anxiety, defeat, and self-sabotage.

The conference was also designed to equip doctors, counselors, allied health professionals, pastors, church leaders as well as family members and friends of individuals facing these issues.

Among the speakers were Jonathan Hunter, an author and director of Embracing Life Ministries and Neil and Debbie Driscoll, associate directors of the Embracing Life Ministries.

Hunter was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 but has become healthy, while Debbie Driscoll is a breast cancer survivor who also battled emotional and sexual abuse. Neil Driscoll, her husband, is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in mental illness, and overcame depression caused by her illness. — JDS, GMA News