Near to the Brokenhearted

THE BOWDEN FAMILY HAS EXPERIENCED SEASONS marked by disaster, loss and medical crises. These moments left them feeling hopeless, but after seeking counseling, they discovered God was drawing near in those dark moments. What once felt like an unbearable weight from the past slowly gave way to healing, and now they are learning to step into the f uture with renewed hope. 

On the morning of November 8th, 2018, in Paradise, California, Kimberly Bowden looked out the window and noticed a strangely colored sunrise. Seeing nothing of concern on the news, she went about her usual morning routine, getting the family ready, taking her kids to school and driving to work. As she arrived at the office, she noticed ashes raining from the sky. This was the beginning of the infamous “Camp Fire,” which ravaged 153,336 acres in Butte County over two weeks, including the Bowden family’s hometown of Paradise, California. 

The Bowdens survived the fire but lost their home. “The fire destroyed everything we felt we had created and worked hard to get,” Kimberly said. “After this experience, it was hard to believe that good things could happen again.” 

Seeking a fresh start, Kimberly and her husband, Chase, moved their family to Port Lavaca, Texas, in 2021. At that time, Kimberly was unsure what she believed about God, as she and her husband were still recovering from the devastating loss. Shortly after moving, however, the Bowdens felt drawn to explore a relationship with God. They found themselves in a new church community when tragedy struck again. 

In 2023, the Bowden’s youngest son, Waylon, was injured in a four-wheeler accident. Doctors told his parents that he might not live through the procedures needed to heal him. Immediately, their new church family rallied around them in support. “The Pastor came to pray, the whole church was praying for us,” Kimberly recalled. Miraculously, Waylon recovered without the expected need for surgery. Kimberly attributed this outcome to the prayers of her church. Not only did Waylon experience physical healing, but the startling grace and love of their new community helped Kimberly realize God had been faithfully walking with them through their trials. 

After years of supporting their family through a series of stressful events, the couple found themselves struggling in their relationship. Chase called their pastor at First Baptist Church in Port Lavaca to seek advice, and he recommended marital counseling through STCH Ministries. The couple began counseling and quickly experienced the relief of healing and relational restoration. 

In counseling, Chase and Kimberly learned strategies for communicating, solving problems together and seeing God at work in their marriage. The uniquely Christian lens of the counseling helped the Bowdens view their relationship as an important part of their walk with the Lord. 

Through counseling, Kimberly learned, “When we are dealing with or processing something, we bring God into it. We see it as a part of how we grow together with God. We can go to the source and figure out together what we need to be doing and where our thoughts need to be. All those things make us better in our marriage and our relationship.” 

Their marriage was not the only area of their lives where God would use STCH Ministries to provide healing and transformation. As Kimberly and Chase gained a solid footing in their marital relationship, they grew in awareness of their family’s need to heal from the loss and fear they had endured in the fire and in Waylon’s four-wheeler accident. 

In personal sessions, Kimberly’s counselor helped validate the truly traumatic nature of the events her family had experienced. The Bowden’s counselors enabled them to identify false thoughts and beliefs they had adopted during these times, like “God must not see us,” or “good things must not happen to good people,” and to replace them with truth: God is with us and is protecting us, even in the midst of suffering. 

As she experienced the benefits of counseling, Kimberly began to understand that these traumatic experiences had also affected their children. She and Chase noticed that Waylon was struggling, and they longed to see their son experience the same wholeness they had gained through counseling. 

Because of his young age, Waylon’s counselor used sand tray therapy to help him begin to process his experiences. A form of expressive therapy, sand tray is often used by STCH Ministries counselors with children and those struggling to articulate their experiences with language. Lorraine Turner, MA, LPC-S, CCST and Regional Director of Counseling Ministries in Victoria, explained: 

In sand tray therapy, clients use a tray filled with sand and a collection of miniature figures, objects and natural items to create scenes or worlds. These scenes can reflect a person’s thoughts, feelings, memories or struggles – often things that might be hard to express with words. In working with both children and adults, sand tray is powerful because it helps integrate both hemispheres of the brain. The sand, figures and images are nonverbal and sensory-based, which stimulates the right hemisphere to process emotions, imagination, intuition and spatial awareness. When the therapist asks the client to describe or reflect on what they created in the tray, the left hemisphere is engaged. Talking about the symbols, naming feelings and making connections uses language, logic and sequencing. By building (right brain) and then reflecting (left brain), clients bridge emotional experience with cognitive understanding. This helps them process trauma, regulate emotions and gain insight because the two sides of the brain are working together instead of in isolation. For these reasons, sand tray often works when other forms of therapy do not. 

Kimberly and Chase were amazed at how quickly this form of therapy helped Waylon heal and regain his joyful personality. “Now that he has gone through counseling at STCH Ministries and experienced sand tray therapy, he has healed. He is just a completely different kid now,” Kimberly shared. Waylon moved from feeling fearful and wanting to avoid extracurricular activities to trying new things; he even asked to play football this year. 

Through this process, the couple gained more insight into the way their family responded to their experiences. Through her discussions with Waylon’s therapist, Kimberly realized that his difficulties were part of something bigger; their entire family had struggled to process the trauma of losing their home in the Paradise fires. “We were all struggling with the fact that we were part of the same trauma, but no one really had the proper help to get on top of it,” Kimberly shared. 

After Waylon’s success with sand tray, the counselor suggested the family meet for a group sand tray session. Together, Kimberly, her husband and their two sons built representations of what they experienced in the 2018 fires. They explored their grief and together came to see how God protected them even in their greatest hardship. Finally, the Bowden family began to experience freedom from the grip that this experience held in their life. “I can’t stop telling people about the benefits of sand tray therapy. I knew nothing about it before, and now I want the world to know about it!” Kimberly declared. 

When they look back, Chase and Kimberly are amazed at how God led them through trial and fire to healing and wholeness. “God used his church to bring us to faith,” Kimberly reflected, “but STCH Ministries counseling gave us the tools to connect our faith with what we had experienced and to grow from it.” They can now see that God has stayed near them through it all, bringing them to Himself and leading them to resources that allowed them to grow and heal.