About 60 Baylor students, faculty and alumni gathered to pray for survivors of all types of abuse during A Space for Lament on Tuesday night at Elliston Chapel. Through prayer, songs, responsive reading and quiet time participants shared a time of ament.
Houston freshman, Setareh Sharafi, came to the service with a personal background of abuse and domestic violence.
“It is so important to have people around that love and care for you.” Sharafi said. “Patience heals, I came here for comfort and to seek patience.”
Sharafi plans to attend the remaining three services and is particularly looking forward to A Space for Hope.
“It is so difficult to find hope after tragedy,” Sharafi said. “It will be good for me to come and talk about searching for hope.”
Houston freshman Micah Johnson also comes from a background of abuse and sought healing during a time of self-reflection.
“I needed to come to a place where the people around me understand pain,” Johnson said. “I needed to know other people at Baylor are experiencing the same things I am.”
Johnson has dealt with a lot of anger in her pain and said she is glad there will be A Space for Anger service.
“Anger fuels violence,” Johnson said. “The church will often say it’s not OK to be angry at God, but sometimes that is the only feeling I have. It will be good to talk and think about that with others in a Christian setting.”
All services will be led by Baylor students, alumni, pastors and counselors and will last about 45 minutes. The chapel will be open following the service and pastors and counselors will be available for prayer and conversation. All services will be held at Elliston Chapel at 8 p.m. The other topics are “A Space for Silence” March 1, “A Space for Anger” March 15 and “A Space for Hope” March 29.
