{"id":1420,"date":"2024-03-26T22:41:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/?page_id=1420"},"modified":"2024-12-14T18:04:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T00:04:40","slug":"founder-about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/founder-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Founder about"},"content":{"rendered":"

About Us<\/p>\n<\/div>

Father Medard Laz,
\nfounder & executive
\ndirector<\/p><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Father Laz Bio<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Our History and Founder\u2019s Message<\/p>\n<\/div>

A significant part of my ministry and the ministry of all who serve god\u2019s people is to those who are sick & dying.<\/p>\n

When a person has passed on to their eternal reward, the family, and especially the surviving spouse, are consumed with grief. They are much in need of care & support.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Bereavement ministries<\/p>\n<\/div>

Thirty-five years ago I found myself often conducting two or three funerals a week. Bereavement ministry groups had not yet come into existence….or were very rare. So I asked 28 widows & widowers to write the life story of their marriage, about the death of their spouse, and the grief process they went through.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Each person\u2019s story is unique<\/p>\n<\/div>

The stories were varied, Some spouses died suddenly, while others lingered with illnessed. Some people had strong marriages, others had struggled.<\/p>\n

As they told their stories, key emotional and spiritual insights were shared – ones that were common to all or most of the 28 stories. These common spiritual moments and insights would be the ones that the participants in the Joyful Again! Retreats would later see on video, write about privately and then discuss in small groups<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>

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In Luke, Chapter 7, we see Jesus who is moved to great compassion for the widow of Naim.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus comforts her as she weeps. Jesus then says to the body of her dead son, \u201cI say to you arise!\u201d<\/p>\n

We cannot work the same miracle Jesus did for the widow\u2019s son. But through Joyful Again! we can breathe new life into you, preparing you to move\u00a0forward with joy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Feelings drive the story<\/p>\n<\/div>

Journaling is important. Getting in touch with one\u2019s feelings is essential to resolving grief and guilt.<\/p>\n

Once these feelings are written down, they can serve as markers to gauge progress in the present as well as the future. Everyone has a grieving story to tell. But feelings drive the story.<\/p>\n

Sharing in the small group can greatly help the healing. Non-widowed friends and family have a hard time understanding. Everyone in a Joyful Again! small group, including the facilitators, has been widowed. Every story is unique and everyone in the small group Is at a different place in their grieving.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Bringing Widows\/Widowers together to minister to each other<\/p>\n<\/div>

Joyful Again! is a peer ministry. Everyone is listened to and helped at whatever emotional place they are at. A healing begins to happen.<\/p>\n

For over 30 years hundreds of Joyful Again! weekends have been held throughout the Chicagoland area and around the country. Over 10,000 widowers and widows have attended.<\/p>\n<\/div>

My heart has been touched<\/p>\n<\/div>

What I have heard from participants<\/span><\/a> deeply touches my heart:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of searching, I finally found a group of people who knew and could feel what I was going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weekend was a miracle \u2013 I began to live again!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids and grandkids say I\u2019m not the same person after the weekend. I\u2019m alive. They want me to go again!\u201d<\/p>\n

I could go on and on with comments like those. I have yet to find a participant after all these years, who didn\u2019t find something very special on a Joyful Again! weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Support Joyful Again!<\/p>\n<\/div>

Your donation helps us help individuals who may be unable <\/strong>to attend a Retreat due to financial hardship. It may also be <\/strong>used for administrative costs so we can keep the cost of running workshops affordable for most people.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

If you are able to share with us financially, thank you so very much. But whether you can or can\u2019t at this time, we appreciate your prayers in support of this mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Donate<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1420","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2045,"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1420\/revisions\/2045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfulagain.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}