New Birth Outreach Church takes on Combat PTSD

Did you know there is a 3rd war being fought right now? War in Iraq is over and Afghanistan is due to be over next year with troops back home but the 3rd war is the battle to save their lives when they come home.

Last night on 60 Minutes the suicide of Marine Clay Hunt focused on how we are losing this battle. He did everything advocates said they should do. He got help, got involved, reached out to help others but in the end, he didn't get what he needed to heal. When you hear stories like his, among the 22 veterans committing suicide everyday, I hope you pay attention to his family and friends blaming themselves. All of these veterans lost to suicide had people in their lives trying to cope with the loss and wondering what they could have done differently.

My husband's nephew got everything everyone thought he needed after Vietnam, finally. He had his claim approved, was being treated at the VA, had a woman in love with him and even had an "expert" on Combat PTSD in the family. Me. A lot of good I did for him when he wouldn't listen to me or the woman in his life who happened to be psychologist. He committed suicide and left behind his family, his love, extended family and a long list of friends all blaming themselves.

Would he have been able to survive if he was given what he needed? Probably. Too many of them are lost in a sea of too much information and most of it, sadly, is wrong. Too many of them are told to "do this" but when they do and it doesn't work, they are not told to try something else because nothing works 100% for 100%. Take this pill, take that pill and when they are not working, here, take another. They are told meditations works, yoga works, cognitive therapy works, vitamins work, the list goes on but the one thing that actually does work for everyone to being healing is left off the list far too often. Spiritual healing.

COLUMBUS CHURCH TACKLES PTSD IN NEW FILM ‘THE TURNING POINT’
Ledger Enquirer
Published: March 2, 2013
By LARRY GIERER  

Pastor Farnsworth Coleman Sr. laughed when he said he always knew there were good actors in his congregation at New Birth Outreach Church. They are the couples who fight on Saturday and come to the Sun-day service holding hands and smiling while pretending that nothing happened, he said. “They are real good actors,” Cole-man said. Several of his New Birth congregants, including Coleman, have acting roles in a new hourlong film “The Turning Point,” which was produced by the church in association with Creative Minority Entertainment, an independent faith-based production company. The pastor said the congregation showed enthusiasm for the project. There was a full house at the Sunday service when filming took place. The premiere of the film is 7 p.m. March 15 at New Birth, 10107 Veterans Parkway. The event is open to the public, and it is free. DVDs will be for sale, and they’ll later be available on the church website. The story is about post-traumatic stress disorder and how it affects an Army sergeant and his family.

“PTSD creates unbelievable challenges for soldiers, their spouses, friends and family on a daily basis,” film writer and director Ty Manns said. “I just pray that those who see the film will leave knowing it is possible for them to find relief in the church.”

A former major and a veteran of more than 23 years in the Army, Manns lives in Phenix City with his wife and two children. At Fort Benning, he was chief of the Soldier Systems Division. He is now director for a manufacturing company Tactical Assault Gear.
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When religious leaders get involved, healing begins as long as they are more interested in healing than getting butts into pews. This cannot be about increasing the numbers of people in the congregation but has to be about decreasing the number of souls leaving this earth by suicide. PTSD has been recorded all the way back in the Bible and anyone that has read Psalms knows this already. The problem is, anything "religious" is taboo to the "non-church goers" because the "separation of church and state" has given people the wrong impression of what this is as much as they will not listen to what this does.

I am with Point Man International Ministries because they have been around since 1984 and have been right about how to help veterans heal all along. Healing invisable wounds has to start with what cannot be seen in all humans. The soul.