After winding up the first session with nine girls
in December, volunteer group leaders Carl and Lorinda Bodiford are launching two new groups with 18 students this week.
The group that finished in December followed a Christian
curriculum that stresses everyone has a purpose in life and that the rough times the girls are going through are temporary.
The six weeks course, based on the life cycle of
a butterfly, uses scripture to emphasize that each person is created by God for a specific purpose.
The last and most powerful lesson centered on forgiveness
and the freedom that forgiveness brings.
The
class culminated with the release of balloons
on which each student had the opportunity to write the names of people
in their lives who needed forgiveness as well as actions of the students
which needed forgiveness.