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Dear Comox Valley Pentecostal Church,

With deepest gratitude, Nesting Place Society would like to acknowledge and thank you for your generosity over the last year. Your monthly partnership makes a difference!

We would like to share the impact your generosity is having on our clients, organization, and our community:

1) Free Resource Room: Approximately 100 families used the resource room last year for formula, clothing, breast pumps, car seats, diapers, wipes, emergency groceries onsite, and grocery cards.

2) Pregnancy Resources: Nesting Place Society builds community around pregnancy-related stressors like unexpected pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and the many concerns new parents experience. This includes pregnancy tests, grief recovery following a pregnancy loss, soul care groups for new parents covering a variety of topics, and generally building connection so that new parents know they are not alone.

3) Helping Children with Loss Program: Many parents, school counselors, and youth workers were trained as grief recovery advocates; they learned how to identify the grief in children's stories and how to teach children in their care how to process that grief and let it go. As a result, they went back to their schools, group homes, and their children, multiplying the important work of grief recovery in our community.

4) Grief Recovery, Student Sessions: Our grief recovery facilitators worked with approximately 25 students and completed roughly 125 grief recovery sessions.

5) Grief Recovery, 1-1 for Adults: Last year, our grief recovery facilitators worked with approximately 70 adults and completed roughly 280 grief recovery sessions.

One story I would like to highlight is a client named Mandy. She lost her mother to addiction and an overdose. Mandy felt guilty for not being able to do more to help her mother; she felt guilty that she was unable to have her mother over for her daughter's birthday party and other special events. We discussed that grief is often mistaken for guilt; guilt requires intention to harm, and Mandy only had intentions to help her mother. This understanding allowed Mandy to see that guilt was not the right word for what she was feeling; guilt was a barrier to feeling and processing her grief. As a new mother herself, she was able to let go of the pain, keep the happy memories of her mother, and truly feel and enjoy her new baby.

Since moving to the Lower Mainland to begin our ministry here, Sandy Vanderveen has become the new Executive Director of Nesting Place Comox Valley, and I have transitioned to a remote role as Grant Writer. 

Nesting Place couldn't do what it does without your support. Thank you for your partnership in this essential work. 

On a personal note, I would like to say that Vaughn and I miss you, CPC! Yesterday I finally unpacked the last U-Haul box, we are settled into our little condo, and our offices at Westwinds Community Church. I have started a counselling position with Harbour Counselling/Consulting, Cassidy and Jonah are busy looking for jobs, and our pup Freyja loves the trails a couple of blocks from our home. Recently we went through the catalyst training with Pastor Mark Lewis, which was amazing for our team and church. Things are slowly coming together. God is good!

Lisa (& Vaughn!)


PS from Pastor Mike: When we hear from our missions partners like this, it serves as a great reminder to all of us that being a missionary doesn't only mean working for an organization or going overseas. We are ALL missionaries, sent by Jesus to bring His message and ministry into the everyday stuff of life, right here in the Comox Valley.