Welcome,
Pastor Julio C. Peña's May 2024 Message
“Struggling?"
This month is Mental Health Awareness Month; I believe that this year is a critical time in which we all need to get together and work on getting a handle on what I believe to be a very serious issue that affects all of us. Since COVID, anxiety, depression, and stress has increase and even suicide has exploded. We don’t even need to do a national survey; we can just look around the city and in our neighborhood and see all this increasing, even a lack of good social skills has been going downhill.
It has gotten so bad that even the stigma has gotten stronger. We as a “church” have to get educated about mental health, even pastors and get into the mindset that not everyone has been “possessed by demons” but have a clinical mental health illness. Know the difference.
We the church, the community, institution, therapist, and others need to come together to support individuals and families that are struggling with mental health illness. We at Good Shepherd have open our doors for support on discussion, listening, educating on the issues of Mental Health Wellness on the second Tuesday of each month, except in July in which we gather together and share with Jesus and others. We call this ministry; Coffee with Jesus at 7pm.
If you are struggling with any kind of mental illness, you are not alone and you will not be judge by condition here at Good Shepherd, before I end let me share some scriptures that has help me with my diagnoses of Anxiety Disorder.
Philippians 4:6 – 7, 1 John 5:4, 1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 11:28 – 30 & Isaiah 41:10 these scriptures have brought comfort and peace for me. I hope that it will for you.
Blessings,
Pastor Julio