The theme for the 2010 Living Free International Training Conference is Breaking Down the Walls.

Our speakers this year will focus on breaking down the walls that divide us.Through the word of God, the Spirit of God, and the people of God ministering in small groups, Living Free seeks to break down the walls that have been built up in everyone's life. At the conference there will be plenary sessions with all the speakers listed below, along with small group interaction and training in more specific areas of interest including addictions and the ministry of Lifeline, a ministry that brings the faith-based community together so that there can be healing from the devastation of addictions.

Before and after the Ruth Graham and Friends conference that Grace Fellowship Church in Latham, New York, hosted in February, Pastor Rex Keener preached a series of six sermons entitled Living Free. These sermons are available on the church's website in the sermon archives.

I'd like to think that in 20 years we've heard all the different variations on the theme of transformation through Christ, but I was amazed at the uniformity of the transformations people were experiencing. It didn't make any difference who we were talking to, they were speaking of the genuineness of this experience.

Paul Franklin, the founder of IMS Productions and producer of the Living Free Video Training Series, made this comment in 1992 after interviewing 16 leaders and participants in New York City and 12 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The interviews featured a broad spectrum of people, from Wall Street executives and suburban homemakers to former heroin addicts and gang members, yet all whose lives were touched through the ministry of Turning Point.

Paul continues by saying,

In one culture overeating is the drug of choice, in another culture heroin may be the drug of choice, in another culture alcohol may be the drug of choice. But when you get past all of those substances, you are left with human beings that look very, very much alike. They are dealing with fear, resentment, and anger. They are also dealing with their hurts and loneliness. Through Turning Point all these people, each from their own different backgrounds, can come together and see how very much the same they are once they get rid of their drug of choice. That's what I saw.

Those early testimonies were strong. There was the father, a Vietnam vet, who was an alcoholic and a barroom brawler with $16,000 worth of reconstructive surgery on his nose from fights. He could not relate to his daughter, who was headed for an uncertain future feeling no one loved her. But after he completed a group, he has been able to tell her every day that he loves her.

A new curriculum from Living Free, Where is the Image of God in You? Expressing Character Traits in Godly Ways, is now available. The author is Brad Rymer, who is actively involved in leading Living Free groups and serves on the Turning Point Board of Directors. Trained in conflict mediation, Brad is a marriage and family mediator.

The purpose of this study is for us to see how some of the different character traits we have can be used in constructive rather than destructive ways in our lives and relationships so that we are operating more and more in the image of God according to the way He created us. Also, this study can help us better understand others as we build godly relationships.

It has twelve sessions and includes:

Florida Integrity Training (FIT) is an extremely effective ministry in prisons across the state of Florida. The FIT newsletter for March 2010 gives a report of the ministry's activity in the Okaloosa Correctional Institution in North Florida. If you are considering following a ministry model for work in jails and prisons, you should look at FIT and what is happening in this state.

Dr. Don Pratt, the president of FIT and a former university professor, has developed a series of studies relevant to the needs of incarcerated men and women. His 3 curriculums and 5 of the Living Free curriculums are used in the 100-hour program for the inmates. The Living Free titles are Godly Parenting, Insight, Free to Grow, Anger Our Master or Our Servant, and Handling Loss and Grief. Dr. Pratt’s titles are Dating and Marriage, Parenting 101, and Financial Recovery from Scratch. For more information, take a look at the FIT Newsletter on the FIT website.

Scott County Lifeline Connection launched its community ministry in the spring of 2008 with a handful of faithful volunteers. Throughout the remainder of our first year we had 46 people register for our small groups.

In 2009 we continued to work with the courts and we began to see referrals from outside the courts come our way. People in the community responded favorably to the work Lifeline Connection is doing for individuals and families with life-controlling problems. Registrations for small groups climbed to 192 for 2009. Several Human Resources people at local companies began to express interest in sending at risk employees with substance or anger problems to Scott County Lifeline Connection as a remedial step in keeping their jobs.

We at Living Free are pleased to be associated with the ministry Ruth Graham and Friends. Many churches have been strengthened by her ministry, and we recommend her to churches who offer or are planning to offer Living Free groups.

Ruth is a daughter of an internationally recognized and respected evangelist, but even with such a heritage, she has not been exempt from the struggles of life that affect us all.

As she states on her website:

I have been there, done that, fought against my own personal demons in the darkness – and almost lost everything. I’ve heard it said that “we are as sick as our secrets”. There is no good ground to be gained by keeping one’s problems to one’s self, while acting as if we have it all together – wearing a mask. Such behavior only leads to more frustration and failure.

Her life experiences have motivated the development of the Ruth Graham and Friends Conferences. These are special gatherings that can help raise awareness among church people and those in the surrounding community that church can be a safe and healing place where broken-hearted people may experience love, acceptance and the healing that only God can provide.

To learn more, visit Ruth Graham and Friends.