Walk With a Widow Empower. Educate. Prepare.: A guide to Launching the Walk With a Widow Program
Synopsis "Walk With a Widow Empower. Educate. Prepare.: A guide to Launching the Walk With a Widow Program"
Walk with a Widow was founded with the purpose of equipping the church with tools and resources to provide much needed immediate and ongoing support to a new widow. Our mission is to empower widows, educate non-widows, and prepare married couples for the inevitable. In the early days of widowhood, a widow needs other people to come alongside her and help with any emotional, spiritual, and practical challenges she encounters. The people around her, including the church, find themselves ill-equipped to help her; hence, they stay away. We educate non-widows on "what to say" and "what not to say"; we give them tips on how to understand a widow. We also provide practical resources that can be used to help widows. By educating non-widows, we enable them to empower widows and we get them to a place where they are not as uncomfortable around the subjects of grief and death. Lastly, we understand that a lot of widows and widowers would find themselves in a better place if they had taken the time to have the difficult conversations about death and widowhood. We provide conversation starters, discussion points, and practical tools for financial/legal matters. Starting these conversations early in a marriage, and continuing them throughout the course of a marriage allows a couple to be more equipped mentally and emotionally to make end-of-life decisions. Our Guidebook also offers resources and tools for married couples in respite care; we believe it is wise to walk alongside a person caring for a terminally ill spouse and then transition into walking with the widow or widower. Our Guidebook offers suggestions on how to set up a core team within the church which will coordinate assistance for a widow using the already existing ministries in the church. We give tips on how to set up boundaries, how to avoid certain pitfalls, and how to circumvent certain challenges in showing care for a widow. We hope and pray that our resources allow a church to take seriously the biblical mandate in James 1:27 to "care for the widows and orphans". Our desire is to see the church be the hands and feet of Jesus in the hurting world of widows. Cynthia Mascarenhas was widowed on February 4th, 2018, when she lost her husband of 29 years, Franz Mascarenhas, to a sudden heart attack. She met her husband in Bombay, India, fell in love, married and remained in love through the challenges and blessings of marriage. They successfully raised their two daughters in the fear of the Lord. Professionally, Cynthia is a Registered Nurse and Independent Legal Nurse Consultant. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Orlando Chapter of Legal Nurse Consultants and on various committees for the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants.
