Labels

.

Blogger News

Official Website - FaithNetworks.org!

I Need You

Listen To This Man Explain Why He Stuck With His Wife Through Her Mental Illness



Almost a year ago, Mark Lukach went on a TEDx stage in Monterey, Calif., and told an audience that his wife, Giulia, once contemplated jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.
In that talk (above), Lukach describes what it is like to love a person diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He also addresses a question he says many used to ask him: Why did he stay with Giulia?
"First off ... I love my wife, I love her a lot," Lukach says in the video. "The second reason I stuck around is because of this commitment to the idea of commitment itself."
Watch the full TEDx talk above to hear Lukach explain how love and commitment helped his family in the darkest of times.
Lukach has also discussed his wife's mental illness in a New York Times op-ed and a memoir, Where the Road Meets the Sun.
"The biggest thing I hope to achieve through sharing our story is to help others feel less alone, to know that they aren't the only people to go through this, and that although there are no certain outcomes, there is reason to be hopeful," Lukach, now 31, told The Huffington Post in an email.
In the past year, Lukach says he, Giulia and their son, have had time to "re-establish [their] sense of balance and stability."
"There's a huge temptation to simply put the troublesome past to rest once you've made it through," Lukach told HuffPost, "but by 'going public,' you feel this sense of obligation to live up to the things you say ... It's like I am now on the record saying these things about love, commitment, and faith, and so I damn well better not forget them."
Lukach says he's been floored by the outpouring of people who have reached out to share their own stories with him. He hopes that those who hear his message take away this:
Love doesn't solve all of life's problems, but it somehow makes them more manageable. Love takes so much from you, but it gives so much in return. When you are hurting, I think there's a temptation to turn inward with pity. Why me? Why now? But I've found those feelings of pity sap you of energy and of compassion for others, when it's compassion that pushes you in a healthier direction. So I want to remind people of the age-old truth to love each other. And love can be found everywhere, not just in a dozen roses, but in a psych ward or a conversation about suicide, too.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Exclusive: Interview With Acting President of Ukraine

ukraine
Viktor Hamm (right), the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Vice President of Crusades, meets with Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov on Wednesday.
Kiev, Ukraine — In the midst of ongoing turmoil that has enormous global significance, God is mightily at work in Ukraine, the nation’s acting president said Wednesday in an exclusive interview for Decision magazine.
“Stories of God’s hand abound,” Oleksandr Turchynov, a devout evangelical, said during a private meeting with BGEA Vice President of Crusades Viktor Hamm.
BGEA President Franklin Graham, who preached in Kiev in 2007, requested Hamm travel to Ukraine and meet with Turchynov because of Hamm’s deep ties to the country. Born in a Soviet labor camp, Hamm has led 15 crusades in Ukraine between 1994 and 2006 as a BGEA associate evangelist.
Turchynov has declined requests from internationally prominent news organizations, but grantedDecision magazine the interview that will appear in more detail in a special report on the Ukranian crisis in April’s edition.
Hamm also has met with some of the nation’s top evangelical leaders this week while in Kiev to show BGEA’s support. Decision traveled with him to cover the story that has gripped the world.
“Truth was on the side of those who stood for their rights, and (chose not to) be slaves, without rights and without voice,” acting president Turchynov said of the near-miraculous victory of thousands of unarmed protesters over the regime of now-deposed former president Viktor Yanukovych.
“All events demonstrated the greatness of God,” Turchynov said.
ukraine
A view of Maidan on Wednesday.
Turchynov was named to his position on Feb. 23, two days after Yanukovych was found to have fled the country amid a massive uprising against his regime.
During three months of protests in which Yanukoych’s Berkut riot police beat and shot protesters, it appeared the many freedom fighters had little chance in a David vs. Goliath kind of confrontation. A fiery showdown ensued and hit its violent peak from February 18-20, when Berkut snipers shot down and killed protesters. Nearly 90 have died in all.
Yanukovych, who fled on or around February 21, is now charged with mass murder by authorities in his country.
Turchynov said only God could have delivered those who refused to be oppressed any longer. The acting president noted how, during the war-like events that took place during the confrontations at Maidan (the city square), huge clouds of smoke would drift toward the Berkut riot police and away from protestors, obstructing the view of the perpetrators. Turchynov said there was also a time when a grenade was thrown near him, but that only one fragment hit him on the cheek, causing no lasting injury.
“I see God’s hand in every little detail that took place as unarmed people went out to defend their freedom and the independence of their country against a fully armed professional army, many times bigger in size,” Turchynov said. “Their faith was victorious. God granted them victory.”
God’s grip on Ukraine has been strong for more than two decades. Hamm says it’s the most evangelical nation in Europe.
Ukraine and Turchynov now face another massive challenge—overt Russian interference.  Leaders around the world accuse Russia of invading and taking over the Ukranian territory of Crimea.
Turchynov asked BGEA’s supporters and believers worldwide to “pray for us so that peace would return and people would be able to live peacefully.”
His hope for another victory, preferably without armed conflict with Russia, is based on a Biblical promise.
“If God is with us,” Turchynov said, “no one can be against us.”
To subscribe to Decision magazine, click here.  
ukraine
More of the thousands upon thousands of flowers placed in recent days at Maidan, where the confrontations happened, most ferociously from Feb. 18-20.

Michael Jr. - The Third Act from the series The Show

Courage DVD by Francis Chan

Comments / Your Posts

Featured

Live Feed

Visitors

View My Stats

HQ