WELCOME

 

We are blessed to be in our 50th year of full-time ministry (as of  2014), and are excited about what lies ahead. We've had many wonderful years of pastoring people who showed us far more grace than we deserved, and only a few years that showed us why, at some point, every pastor needs a pastor.

 

At one of those rare but very dark low points I said to my dear wife, Marcia, “If I knew someone who had just a little clinical knowledge and a WHOLE LOT of understanding of how badly a pastor can hurt, I'd drive 500 miles to get his help.”

 

With Marcia’s help I found that person, and by God’s grace I have now become what Henry Nouwen calls a “wounded healer,” who would gladly go 500 miles to help a fellow pastor or priest going through your own Gethsemane.

 

If you have survived ministry burnout or the trauma of severe sheepbite, and feel a possible calling to be a part of God's plan to heal his hurting shepherds, let’s talk. Somewhere between your heartbreak and heaven “some work of noble note may yet be done” (from Tennyson’s “Ulysses”).

 

Helping the helpers, 

Caring for the caregivers, 

 

John & Marcia Gifford

Great Plains & Western Plains PastorCare