Behind Jericho - by Bruce Atchison

Deliverance from Jericho is my memoir of how I ended up in a residential school for deaf and blind children. For six lonely years, my parents sent me five-hundred miles from my home in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta for months at a stretch.

Because I lived so far away from Vancouver, British Columbia, I was only allowed to return home during Christmas and summer. Additionally, my parents paid for the train tickets so I could visit for two Easters and the government paid for one Easter plane trip home.

These experiences scarred me deeply. For decades, even the mention of Jericho Hill School made me depressed.  I also suffered from bad dreams about being back there.

But thanks to a radio show called Hope in the Night, I learned how to deal with the traumas of my past. The host, June Hunt, told me that I could hand over the pain and those bad memories to Christ and he would heal my soul. Furthermore, she said I would have to keep on doing this as those bad thoughts would surface over and over for a while.

Thanks to this technique, I felt ready to write about my experiences a few years later. Doing so gave me the ability to release any claim I had on being a victim of that injustice. It also helped me explain to others what I went through.

Better still, our Lord experienced far worse injustices so he can identify with us. Hebrews 12:2 (KJV) says we should be, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

We know too that a day will come when our sorrows will be no more. Revelation 21:4 (KJV) assures us of this. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

I should add that June Hunt's method is based on the scriptures. We read in 1 Peter 5:7 (KJV) that we should be "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

How wonderful it is that our Lord and Master understands our grief. He truly cares for us in so many diverse ways. This is something the world will never experience apart from him.

THERAPEUTIC WRITING - Bruce Atchison

Almost nine years ago, I learned a valuable technique for dealing with emotional baggage. June Hunt, host of the Hope For The Heart and Hope In The Night radio shows, advised that I write down the name of everybody who wounded me. Then I must forgive those folks one by one, placing them (along with the painful incidents), in the hands of Christ. She also said I should do this as often as I feel upset about things in my past.

Nine months after I called Hope In The Night, I thought of a new way to deal with my mental anguish. From my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, here is how I used my writing to purge myself of these painful memories.

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In February of 2004, the heavenly Father led me to another effective technique of dealing with my bitterness. I found an ad on the Writers Weekly site that offered lessons on how to write an autobiography. I completed the course but I didn't publish my lengthy life's story in its original form. Instead, I wrote When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies), a memoir of my life with house rabbits, in 2006. Writing that paperback taught me much about the writing craft.

A year later, I published Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). God used this memoir to heal many emotional wounds I had received as a child. Each time I encountered painful memories of being exiled five-hundred miles from home for months at a stretch, I poured out my heart to the Lord and handed over the pain to him. Writing and publishing that paperback also eased the pain of tormenting memories from my time at that institution. I had fewer nightmares about Jericho too.

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In addition to being a member of InScribe, I've self-published When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) and Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). I hope to have How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity in print some time in 2012. Read more about them here. You're also welcome to contact me directly for more information.