From Shattered Pieces to a Ministry of Hope: Ronni’s GriefShare Story
Shattered and drowning
When Ronnie Chandler lost her husband, grief affected far more than her emotions. It changed how she saw herself and the life she thought she would be living.
One moment in particular captured the weight of that change.
When Ronnie returned to work, she had to update her information with Human Resources. For the first time, she had to check a box identifying herself as a widow.
She stared at it for nearly 30 minutes.
“I didn't want that title,” Ronnie remembers. After finally completing the form, the weight of the moment became too much. She had to leave work for the day.
Grief affected the whole family
Ronnie wasn't grieving alone.
Her daughter, Nicole, was trying to understand what was happening to her after losing her dad.
She struggled with intense brain fog and fatigue. Because she had never experienced grief at that level before, she didn't know whether what she was experiencing was normal. “I thought I was crazy,” Nicole remembers.
GriefShare helped give her language for what she was experiencing. She began to understand that grief can affect the mind and body as well as the emotions.
And she found something else she desperately needed: people who understood.
Nicole describes the freedom of sitting with others who were grieving, talking openly about what they were experiencing, and knowing there was no judgment about where they were in the process. Week after week, she began seeing change.
For Ronnie, GriefShare became an important part of finding her footing after her husband's death.
“My whole world was shaken,” she says. “And GriefShare helped me get my bearings again.”
But as Ronnie experienced that support herself, she began thinking about other people walking through loss. She knew they needed a place to go too. So Ronnie approached her pastor.
Her conviction was simple:
Our church needs to provide GriefShare.
The church responded, and Ronnie and Nicole became part of helping other grieving people receive the kind of care they themselves had needed.
What began in their own pain became an opportunity to serve.
The ministry began to multiply
Then something happened that showed just how far that care could reach.
One woman participated in a GriefShare group at Ronnie's church and was deeply impacted by the experience. She didn't want the ministry to stop with her. She returned to her own church and began helping bring GriefShare to that community as well. One grieving person had received care. That person helped bring care to another church. And now more grieving people would have somewhere to turn.
That's the multiplying potential of a church equipped to care well.
Your church can become a place of hope
Every community has people trying to figure out how to live after someone they love has died. Some are sitting in church on Sunday. Others may not have walked through your church's doors before.
They are spouses adjusting to an unwanted new identity. Sons and daughters trying to understand why they can't think clearly. People trying to make it through work, family responsibilities, holidays, anniversaries, and ordinary days while carrying an extraordinary amount of pain. They need more than a quick answer. They need people willing to walk alongside them.
For Ronnie, helping provide that kind of care has become part of what she calls her “next normal.”
She sees purpose in using what she has experienced to help others “reignite hope and discover next step clarity.”
“This is a privilege and an honor,” she says.
Your church can offer that same kind of place for people who are grieving.
You don't have to take away their pain. You can create a Christ-centered community where they don't have to walk through it alone.
Grieving people are already in your congregation and community.
GriefShare gives your church a structured way to come alongside them, surround them with people who understand, and point them toward hope in Christ as they navigate life after loss.
And, as Ronnie's story demonstrates, the impact may extend far beyond the people who attend your first group.
The person your church serves today may become the person God uses to serve someone else tomorrow.
Help grieving people in your church and community find support, hope, and a way forward.
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