PTSD Patrol Road Trip to Tarpon Springs

read more here and see the videos

I am ready to fight the enemy of PTSD.

Tomorrow Watch Fire starts burning hope

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 17, 2019

What started out as an opportunity to go and film this, plus the Watch Fire, ended up being much more than I planned on. Tomorrow I will be speaking at a ceremony to honor members of the Armed Forces. 

All week I have been trying to figure out what I should talk about. With 37 years crammed into my brain, there were too many topics to choose from.

I decided the one topic that does not get enough attention are military/veteran families.

Suicides keep increasing even though it is the hot topic of the decade. While it seems as if everyone is trying to change the outcome, the facts prove that they have gotten it wrong. 

I'll have to start out with the bad news. Suicide Awareness will not prevent them from happening. We have a decade of data to prove that.

Current military numbers are at a ten year high, including member of Special Forces. While the number of known veterans committing suicide have remained in the 20s since 1999, the percentage has gone up.

All this proves that raising awareness does not prevent them in the military community or in the civilian population.


Suicides are at the highest rate in decades, CDC report shows

According to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 47,000 Americans died by suicide in 2017. Put another way, the suicide rate was 14 people in every 100,000 — up 33 percent from 10.5 people per 100,000 in 1999.

The suicide rate is at a 50-year peak, according to the AP. The new data shows that there were 2,000 more deaths from suicide last year than in 2016, the year when suicide became the second-leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 10 and 34 and the fourth-leading cause for middle-aged Americans.

The thing is, it is also up in the veterans community, current military, law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders.

For civilians, most of them were dealing with some kind of mental health issue, and it was the same for those who respond to everyone else. The one thing that everyone had in common was, the simple fact they lost hope that one more day would make a difference in their life to make living worth it. They lost hope because we failed to give it back to them.

When you consider that PTSD plays a huge part in all of this, that should be the place where we begin to change the outcome.

As long as the people in charge of making the decisions and funding "efforts" keep asking the same questions to the same people, they will continue to support what has proven to have failed.

If we are going to change the outcome, we need to change what we put into it. The best place for that to begin is in our own homes.

Part of what I do is track news and government reports from around the country, as well as internationally. Over the last decade, it has gotten worse while raising awareness about numbers has prevented healing awareness from reaching those in need of hearing it.

Point Man understood this back in 1984 when they established Out Post for veterans and Home Fronts for families. We are on the front lines and that is where healing begins. So how did a Seattle Police Officer figure all this out way back then? Simple, he came back from Vietnam and knew what he needed, so it was an easy thing for him to understand other veterans. 

It was understood that veteran belong with veterans, in small groups, much like the units they served in to receive true peer support. 

Families needed it too!


We know them better than anyone else and that is why it grieves me so much to hear a family member say that they did not know how much pain someone they loved was feeling or what to do to help them.

We need to be made aware of the power families do have to change the outcome, especially for those who serve others.

The event tomorrow is in Tarpon Springs Florida. Thinking about what the topic should be, I was reminded of the Spartan women and what their job was. 

When the warriors were out fighting battles, it was the job of the Spartan women to take care of their families, crops and livestock. It was also their job to defend the homeland from invaders.

They were highly educated and trained to do battle with any enemy coming to their home front.

We need to be ready to fight this battle when they come home to us. Prepare our minds to get into gear while telling our emotions to take a nap when necessary. To know when to take something personally and when it is coming from a place of pain instead of anger.

We need to be able to wisely pick our battles with those we love, as well as when it is time to walk away and chill out.

We need to know when we need to just listen, and when it is time to communicate what they need to hear.

We need to see them though the eyes of our hearts that fell in love with them...and know that all the qualities they had, are all still there.

We need to prepare for battle the same way they prepared to fight the nations battles on other shores as well as within our communities as responders.

We need to be like minded but the only way to become ready to fight for those we love, is to stop listening to what failed long enough so we can start to hear what worked for other families.

I am Spartan

I am ready to fight the enemy of PTSD.

I will defend my home front from any and all invaders.

I will learn what I need to understand.

I will train for what I need to do.

I will ask for support as willingly as I offer it to others.

I am Spartan and my greatest power lives for those I love.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

There will be more of what needs to be heard but necessary if we really want to change the outcome, we have to change what we are putting into it!

If you want to know how you can learn the easier way what this battle is like and how to win it, you can read part of my life here.

 For The Love of Jack, His War My Battle

Vietnam veteran, Pastor tends to all veterans in Holiday

Holiday pastor serves fellow veterans, invites all to spring festival

Tampa Bay Times
Ernie and Regina Bullock
By Sarah Whitman
Times Correspondent
Published March 12

Ernie Bullock served nearly two tours in Vietnam, and survived the 1968 Tet Offensive.

The former U.S. Marine, who also served with the Air Force, returned from war in 1970 a changed and broken man.

He has since dedicated his life to counseling and serving veterans.

Bullock works at the Veterans Hospital in Sarasota and as an associate pastor at Holiday Community Fellowship Church in Pasco. He leads the church’s veteran outreach, a chapter of Point Man International Ministries.

Bullock joined the organization in the 1990s when he became a Christian and led a chapter in New York before moving to Florida two years ago.

The outreach will host a free Spring Festival at Holiday Community Fellowship Church, 5144 Sunray Drive, from noon to 4 p.m. on March 16. Families are invited to come meet firefighters, members of law enforcement and veterans, play games and participate in youth activities. Veterans and their families will serve as volunteers.

“It is essential for children and others to meet veterans and law enforcement and emergency responders,” Bullock said. “People of all ages need to understand these men and women care for others and rise to the call of duty every time they walk through the doors at work. Some of these people have given up their lives to save someone else.”

Last year, about 150 people attended the festival. About 25 volunteers helped organize the second annual event. Many participate in Point Man’s meet-ups at church.

The members form a community with common histories and purpose, Bullock said.

Bullock ministers often to veterans struggling to reconcile their experiences with daily life.

“Many veterans get stuck in grief, but also many are stuck in anger,” Bullock said. “I believe the worst of the anger should be dealt with in therapy groups in VA hospitals. However, churches have a role in recovery, too.”
read more here

Vietnam veterans wounded forgotten warriors

Wounded Forgotten Warrior Project

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 9, 2019

I wanted to show what it is like driving into work at 5:00 am with very little traffic on the road. Much like when I got into working on PTSD back in 1982, the road was paved by others out there long before I even heard the term.

Vietnam veterans are responsible for everything we know about what trauma does. It is not that others never experienced it, but they were the ones who did something about it.

During the filming of the video, the commercial for Wounded Warrior Project came on and I lost my mind. It came on right after I ran down the things that have been forgotten, including the fabulous work done on the Forgotten Warrior Project. It told their stories to stop them from suffering in silence.

They are the wounded forgotten warriors! Their project was to heal their generations and all others who came before them and for those they knew would come after them.

In the video you will hear about IFOC, Nam Knights and Point Man International Ministries. 

I trained with the IFOC. I am a Lady of the Knight with the Nam Knights. I am Florida state coordinator of Point Man. So yes, I believe in them and what we do!

Please look them up if you want to know about about fabulous efforts to do real peer support.

VA needs to pay attention to spiritual healing for PTSD

The U.S. military must tell veterans the truth: Spirituality can help significantly with PTSD

The Dallas Morning News
Kevin Pham
December 28, 2018

In one study, only one third of veterans with a new diagnosis of PTSD received treatment through the VA, and less than 10 percent were properly treated, per VA guidelines. Notably missing from these guidelines is any mention of spirituality.

We are 17 years into the war on terrorism. During that time, hundreds of thousands of our American brothers and sisters have faced the horrors of war. Many are in desperate need of spiritual healing.

Their despair is deep. Too often, it is fatal. The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that, on average, 20 vets take their own lives each day.

Veterans' advocate Richard Glickstein notes that, over the past 15 years, the federal government has instituted 1,100 suicide-prevention programs for our servicemen and women. Yet the suicide rate has remained unchanged.

The recent film Surrender Only to One frankly portrays the rigors of combat and how they can affect the mind, body and spirit. Only those who have been in combat can truly know the weight a warrior carries on each mission. But all of us can at least imagine the stress of knowing that every single decision you make — or don't make — can wind up killing or maiming a comrade.

Too often that burden does lasting damage. PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, can be just as deadly as an improvised explosive device and more difficult to manage than the chaos of a back-alley ambush.

It's something the producer of Surrender, Lt. Col. Damon Friedman, knows all too well. And Friedman is determined to do something about it.
read more here

**While the above mentions how many VAs do not offer it, or even suggest it, many others do.**

The Heritage Foundation experts missed spiritual experts and a lot more

Considering the "experts" could not even get this right... not hard to guess why they did not know that groups like Point Man International Ministries had been doing exactly this work since 1984!

Glickstein highlighted the way government efforts have failed—and offered a possible solution. He said that in the last 10 years, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have together run 1,100 different programs addressing PTSD and veteran suicide, at enormous expense. During that time, the average of 21 veteran suicides per day has not changed.

Point Man International Ministries proved this worked back in 1984 and has been doing it ever since. So what else did these "experts" miss?

What Faith-Based Efforts Can Do to Help Prevent Veteran Suicide

The Daily Signal
Steven Bucci
December 10, 2018

I don’t often quote sources from The New York Times, but in mid-November, David Brooks wrote a piece called “Fighting the Spiritual Void.” He stated without equivocation that “[t]rauma is a moral and spiritual issue as much as a psychological or chemical one.”

He could not be more correct.

The Heritage Foundation convened a panel to discuss post-traumatic stress disorder and veteran suicide from the faith angle. The panel was chaired by myself, a 30-year veteran of the Army Special Forces, and the members included Richard Glickstein, an advocate working to move the government to appropriately address the crisis; Dr. David LeMay, a medical doctor who specializes in rehabilitation; and Lt. Col. Damon Friedman, an active-duty Air Force special operator, who also leads a veterans service organization called Shield of Faith Missions.

The panel laid out quite a story.
read more here

Spiritual Health and Military Suicide Prevention

If you think work on PTSD is new, it isn't

A veteran returned to Seattle and became a police officer. He noticed more and more veterans being arrested, and then started to listen to them. He heard the same heartbreaking stories. 

Then he decided to meet them in a coffee shop so they could talk longer. He decided to change the conversation from what was wrong in their lives, to how to make them better.

Not long after that, he started to work with their families. He brought in more veterans and their families, so that more healing could happen. And it worked.

The veteran did not come home from Iraq. He did not come home from Afghanistan. No, it wasn't during the Gulf war. That veteran came home from Vietnam and the year this veteran decided to change the conversation, was 1984!

Point Man International Ministries

Since 1984, when Seattle Police Officer and Vietnam Veteran Bill Landreth noticed he was arresting the same people each night, he discovered most were Vietnam vets like himself that just never seemed to have quite made it home. He began to meet with them in coffee shops and on a regular basis for fellowship and prayer. Soon, Point Man Ministries was conceived and became a staple of the Seattle area. Bills untimely death soon after put the future of Point Man in jeopardy.

However, Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans.

PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts, nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits, conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups, welcome home projects and community support. Just about any where there are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point Man are free of charge.

And another Vietnam veteran is President of PMIM. So, while all of the online news may seem to be "new news" now you know it isn't. 

YOUTH DAY EVENT

ON

SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2018 FROM 12PM – 3PM

SPONSORED AT

HOLIDAY COMMUNITY FELLOWSHIP CHURCH

via POINTMAN INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

AT 5144 SUNRAY DRIVE, HOLIDAY, FLORIDA 34690       

All Veterans, Children and        

 Community are invited.

PLEASE DON’T MISS OUT 

 MEETING AND SEEING THE

 FOLLOWING;

Christian Karate Club Exhibition;                              Christian Hot Rod Assoc. Exhibition Suncoast Credit Union                                                                                     Holiday’s Veteran’s Alternatives

US Marine Corps and 2 trucks, etc.                            Gideon's International

A Mobile Dental Unit                                                       Racing 4 Veterans on Exhibit

Local Marine Corp League                                            Chick-Fil-A

A Model Car Center by HCFC Members                   Local Fire Dept. #12

Pasco County Sheriff Dept.                                           Supporting Motorcycle Organizations           

Light House of Faith, Hudson Beach                       ACCESS for Education/Finance Infor.

For more information: Please contact Rev. Ernie Bullock at 585-727-3331, Don deMeurers 315-491-6235 or Donna Franklin at 727-389-4558;

DONATIONS APPRECIATED

#TakeBackYourLife

Do you want to fight with me?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 23, 2018


Combat PTSD Wounded Times is, exactly what it says. 

Combat 

Definition of combat

: a fight or contest between individuals or groups

PTSD is a wound, so that means you were wounded.

And now these are your wounded times, but you can turn that around and start your healing times. 

Yep, now you get it! They need to be empowered to do what few have told them. #TakeBackYourLife. Do you want to fight with me or do you want to keep talking about them as a number, that has already been proven to be false?

Here is your chance to change the message they've been hearing.

front and back of the T-shirt

Scream about healing...not suicides

All the funds raised for this go directly to Point Man International Ministries headquarters. Many of you remember the conference I went to in Buffalo last year. If you want to help us do the work of healing and spread the message that will empower them to not give up, here are a few of the videos. I could not do this work without them.

The conversation has to change if we want the outcome to change.

Want to pull a stunt that will actually change the message?

How can you help a veteran with PTSD?

Not just a face in a crowd
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2018

How can you help a veteran with PTSD? The same way they were wounded in the first place. Whenever you see pictures of a wounded service member, you do not see massive crowds surrounding them. You see a few of the members of their own unit coming to help help. And that is how it needs to be done when the wound is cut deeply into their soul.

That is what Point Man International Ministries figured out over 3 decades ago. Treat them like a member of your family unit, know them like a brother or sister and then help them by standing by their side. Then they'll know they really matter.

It isn't good enough to say you understand what they are going through if you do not have a story to tell of your own. You need to be able to share your own struggles with the veteran you are trying to help. In a large group, it seems that everyone is competing to tell their tales as if it is a contest to win as the most miserable.

In small groups, it is more about sharing and caring on a personal level. You can share what caused your heartache and then share with them how you ended up feeling better about your life.

You can be an example of not giving up on yourself as much as you prove you will not give up on them as long as they do everything possible to heal themselves.

You can make sure you stay in contact with them, encourage them to take the steps they need to get where they need to be. 
read more here

Horror of war and the battles we should be winning

These homefront battles should be won and done
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 15, 2018

A little while ago I came across this headline.

Horror of war heroes 'tearing families apart' as impact on loved ones goes unrecognised

While an understanding of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has grown in recent years, the secondary trauma is ripping families apart.

Their loved ones came back from the horrors of war as heroes in need of support.But it’s not just service personnel who can suffer in the aftermath of conflicts – it can devastate the lives of their partners and families, too. 

It is from Scottish News on The Daily Record. It looks like they, as well as the rest of the NATO nations have a lot of catching up to do, including the USA.

How is it that when Vietnam veterans came home over 40 years ago and forced this nation to pay attention to what combat did to them, most of what was known has been forgotten?

"Every generation

Blames the one before

And all of their frustrations

Come beating on your door"

In The Living Years

How have we allowed anyone to believe any of this is new? How have we managed to screw it up so badly that OEF and OIF families are believed to be the only ones having to face any of this?

"So we open up a quarrel

Between the present and the past

We only sacrifice the future

It's the bitterness that lasts"

In The Living Years

Stunning for anyone involved in this work all this time because, to tell the truth, I find it all unacceptable and inexcusable.

I got into all of this in 1982, but there is a group, who has my heart and I belong to, doing this work for veterans and their families going back to 1984.

We figured out that healing happens with the triple play of mind, body and spirit, as well as the fact that families were on the front line of this battle they brought home to us.

It is our fight and a lot of us won many battles but have still not won the war only because too many are oblivious to the simple fact they could learn how to defeat PTSD.

Point Man International Ministries knew this way back then. 

Outposts are lead by Christian Vets who care deeply about veterans and their struggles. They fully understand the difficulties associated with returning home after a long and difficult deployment as well as the non-combat experiences. Outposts are places for veterans to talk, share and listen to others who have walked in their shoes. All Vets are welcome regardless of what country they served with and gender is irrelevant as both men and women have served and sacrificed for their respective countries.

And the original Homefront

Homefront groups are lead by Christian mothers, wives and friends of both active duty military and veterans. They provide an understanding ear and caring heart that only those left behind at home can understand. They have experienced the stress of dealing with deployments and the effects of a loved one returning home from war. If you have someone you love deployed or having issues readjusting since coming home get connected with a local group or contact HQ for assistance.

So why hasn't everyone else? Is it because they do not have the ability to discover this or is it because they have more than we ever did to find what they are looking for, but settle for what is easy to find?

"So don't yield to the fortunes

You sometimes see as fate

It may have a new perspective

On a different day

And if you don't give up, and don't give in

You may just be okay"

In The Living Years

People keep saying they are looking for answers. Too many claim they want to reduce suicides. Many more claim to care. When it has all gotten worse, the answer to make it better has been there all along but when I talk to people about becoming leaders, they walk away.

They are not happy with the fact that this is usually supported financially by the leader of the group, simply because we're more about doing the work instead of getting money.

These groups are small groups, and often, one on one, with privacy instead of publicity. One of the reasons I find it impossible to support any of the "awareness raisers" out there, publicizing the heartache and obliterating any chance of someone finding hope again and giving them the power to change the ending.

I keep wondering where all the good Christians are in the Veterans Community and what they are doing when they could be doing this work for the sake of their brothers and families.

I have seen what is unimaginable suffering but also limitless healing to the point where it is actually proof of miracles still happening everyday. To see all these families needlessly suffering, is like a dagger to my soul. I always wonder how an average person like me managed to learn at the library when these families have not even searched for online in the palm of their hand and the cell phone they are never without.

So what exactly do you think you can add to their living years? Want to change the outcome? Then you better start by changing what you put into it!

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Mar 29, 2015

Vietnam veterans said they would never leave one generation behind. They fought for each other and for all generations but have been forgotten. Reporters just don't have time for them or reminding anyone that they waited longer, suffered longer, are the majority of the suicides, attempted suicides and those waiting for claims to be honored by the VA.

Had it not been for them, nothing would have been done on PTSD.

When you watch this video, you'll see that they deserve just as much attention as the newer veterans. The problem is, none of our veterans get enough of anything!

Community pulls together to send off TLC

A Gorge ‘Holiday for Heroes’
Dalles Chronicle
RaeLynn Ricarte
December 28, 2017

Dan Brophy, a Marine veteran and chaplain for Point Man, said the statement made by Miguel (last name withheld for security reasons) reflects how he felt when receiving care packages from home during a 1968-69 deployment to Vietnam.

Christmas boxes sent to Afghanistan by residents of Wasco and Hood River counties are shown with the team of defense contractors who received them. Other shipments arrived at the base of an Oregon National Guard unit and Marine Raiders in the Middle East. A total of 85 boxes were sent to the field and the Holiday for Heroes Committee, which organized the outreach effort, credits the generosity of community members for the success of the mission.

The Holiday for Heroes Committee received a photo Dec. 27 from a team of defense contractors in Afghanistan posing with 31 Christmas boxes they received from Gorge residents.

The photo was accompanied by these words from Miguel, one of the team members: “This isn't everyone but it's everyone I could muster right now. Had some guys working and others just dispersed around the camp.

“The guys descended on the gifts like locusts, laughing and giving thanks to the group that sent the packages. This was a gigantic morale builder, more so than I would have imagined. Thank you doesn't quite cut it but thank you so very much. Merry Christmas and God bless all of our supporters. Your efforts were greatly noticed and appreciated by the men here.”

He added, “believe it or not, the most popular items are the handmade letters and drawings from children.”

Area schools participated in the troop support effort by allowing students to write messages and send works of art to the defense team and 29 members of an Oregon National Guard military police unit who train in Hood River.

Capt. Rich Smith of that unit said Tuesday the tempo of operations has been too high for a Christmas party, so pictures of his soldiers opening their care packages were not yet available.
read more here

Time to Join the Fight for Survivors to Take Lives Back

With all the time we've been talking about healing PTSD the stigma is still too strong. It is time to change the conversation and Combat PTSD Wounded Times needs your help to do that.

We gave them the facts. We fought against rumors. Above all else, we showed them how to heal. 

The only thing they have to be ashamed of is the rest of us not fighting to make sure they knew they could take their lives back before it was too late for too many.

There is no cure for PTSD but it can be defeated!

Combat PTSD Wounded Times

And if you have PTSD, show that you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Help PTSD Survivors take back life! 

You never know who you may encourage to talk to you about it.

Needing Help for Combat PTSD But Won't Seek It?

Waiting For Help Without Asking?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 29, 2017

There is a huge difference between needing help and asking for it. My Mom was a great example of that. She was a proud woman, used to taking care of herself until she reached her 70's. 

After that, the usual argument was about what she needed her "kids" to do but we didn't guess she needed it. Yes, that twisted up. She figured since we knew her all our lives, we should just know what she needed and she shouldn't have to ask for it.

When we know someone needs help, it is never easy to guess what it is they need and even harder to figure out what they want from others.

Pride often gets in the way but then there is something else trapping people from help. They see others getting help while no one is helping them. The question is, if they do not ask for help they need, how can they receive it?

Pool of Bethesda

Jesus Heals a Man at a Pool (John 5)
5 Later Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special feast. 

2 In Jerusalem there is a pool with five covered porches, which is called Bethesda in the Hebrew language. This pool is near the Sheep Gate.  

3 Many sick people were lying on the porches beside the pool. Some were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed, and they waited for the water to move.  

4 Sometimes an angel of the Lord came down to the pool and stirred up the water. After the angel did this, the first person to go into the pool was healed from any sickness he had. 

5 A man was lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.  

6 When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for such a long time, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?” 

7 The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. While I am coming to the water, someone else always gets in before me.” 

8 Then Jesus said, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was well; he picked up his mat and began to walk.

That story always gets to me. The first question I have is how the man got there in the first place? Someone must have brought him there. Why didn't they stay to make sure he got into the pool? After all, the first part of the help getting there was only part of what he needed. What about the other part?

Then I wonder if he ever asked anyone else to help him? Did he try to do it on his own? Did he watch as the others got help to get into the healing waters and simply sit there with the soul crushing feeling of not mattering as much as others?

It is also a great example of it never being too late to get help to heal!

Most of the phone calls and email requests for help, are from family members asking for help for their veteran. They want me to contact the veteran. I tried that many years ago and it failed. When they are not ready to ask for help, they are not ready to receive it. Sometimes it is pride. Sometimes it is because they do not think they deserve it. Most of the time it is because they do not understand what is going on inside of them.

If they think the wrong thing about PTSD, like it has more to do with being weak than the strength of their emotional core, they won't ask for help.

At that point, I'll do what I can for the family to understand it and give them enough knowledge to minimize turmoil in the home. Every now and then, the veteran ends up calling because he/she no longer feels it is their fault.

Too many veterans have no one to help them get to the healing they need because others get in the way. They tell them things that are simply not true. Then there is a lot of judgment going on much like what Jesus healed the man at the pool on the Sabbath. 

He got into trouble for doing it on that day when no one was supposed to work. I'd love to hear the explanation from the people working at the temple how it was ok for them but no one else. Still seems to me that Jesus was in fact doing more than they were with something that was actually on behalf of God and not raising funds for their pockets.

41 “I don’t need praise from people.  

42 But I know you—I know that you don’t have God’s love in you.  

43 I have come from my Father and speak for him, but you don’t accept me. But when another person comes, speaking only for himself, you will accept him.  

44 You try to get praise from each other, but you do not try to get the praise that comes from the only God.

If you need help, ask for it. If you do not get what you need, then ask someone else. Sooner or later you'll find the help that has been there all along just waiting for you to seek it.

Point Man International Ministries 
Hotline: 1-800-877-VETS (8387)