As an older foster child, Andrew longed for the day when he'd be adopted by a real family because they loved him and wanted him to be part of their family unit. Until that day dawned, like many other foster kids, he lived with the stigma that he was kept by his foster parents to generate income for them.

Of late, bad had gone to worse for 13 year old Andrew. He was being sexually abused by Blanche, his new single foster mom. Blanche had been abandoned by her husband and despised men. Although she used Andrew for her own depraved needs, she treated him poorly. To add to his pain, news of this sexual relationship leaked out to his peers at school and he was now enduring verbal torment at recesses and noon hour. Andrew couldn't bear the pain any longer when the only friend who'd stuck up for him at school turned against him. He felt totally alone, so unloved.

"Dear God, I have nothing left to live for," he sobbed one night when his foster mom left for a party. "Please forgive me for what I have to do, but I'm hurting so much."

Andrew headed to his foster mother's shed to get the rope. With the rope coiled up under his coat, he headed to the big black poplar tree in the Kinsman Park. Twelve feet off the ground was a large branch at right angles to the trunk. Andrew quickly fashioned a hangman's noose and shinnied up the tree. Bracing himself with his legs he slipped the noose over his head and tied the other end of the rope to the branch. Grasping the branch, he let himself down. As he hung there by his fingertips, his short life passed before him.......

Anger and hatred over past atrocities, if not resolved, often render an individual emotionally dysfunctional. Couple anger and hate with the refusal to forgive and you have a recipe for mental illness. Roger, a young nine-year old boy from the Ukraine experiences the horrors of Stalin's man-made famine of 1932-33 in which his baby sister starves to death and his dad is executed for stealing a small bag of wheat. Roger and his mother escape from the Ukraine into Poland. A few years later, the Second World War breaks out. Because of their Jewish blood, his mother, grandfather and he are placed in the Nazi slave labour camps. His mother dies in the work camp and Roger witnesses the horror of his grandfather being beaten to death by an evil guard. Roger survives the slave labour camp, but with the passage of time, his grief over his great losses turns to anger and hatred. He adamantly refuses to forgive those who have caused him pain. Will Roger find the peace that only forgiveness can bring or will the torturous trail he takes lead him to insanity? All of us can learn from Roger's life. In truth: WE MUST FORGIVE TO LIVE

Anger and hatred over past atrocities, if not resolved, often render an individual emotionally dysfunctional. Couple anger and hate with the refusal to forgive and you have a recipe for mental illness. Roger, a young nine-year old boy from the Ukraine experiences the horrors of Stalin's man-made famine of 1932-33 in which his baby sister starves to death and his dad is executed for stealing a small bag of wheat. Roger and his mother escape from the Ukraine into Poland. A few years later, the Second World War breaks out. Because of their Jewish blood, his mother, grandfather and he are placed in the Nazi slave labour camps. His mother dies in the work camp and Roger witnesses the horror of his grandfather being beaten to death by an evil guard. Roger survives the slave labour camp, but with the passage of time, his grief over his great losses turns to anger and hatred. He adamantly refuses to forgive those who have caused him pain. Will Roger find the peace that only forgiveness can bring or will the torturous trail he takes lead him to insanity? All of us can learn from Roger's life. In truth: WE MUST FORGIVE TO LIVE

As an older foster child, Andrew longed for the day when he'd be adopted by a real family because they loved him and wanted him to be part of their family unit. Until that day dawned, like many other foster kids, he lived with the stigma that he was kept by his foster parents to generate income for them.

Of late, bad had gone to worse for 13 year old Andrew. He was being sexually abused by Blanche, his new single foster mom. Blanche had been abandoned by her husband and despised men. Although she used Andrew for her own depraved needs, she treated him poorly. To add to his pain, news of this sexual relationship leaked out to his peers at school and he was now enduring verbal torment at recesses and noon hour. Andrew couldn't bear the pain any longer when the only friend who'd stuck up for him at school turned against him. He felt totally alone, so unloved.

"Dear God, I have nothing left to live for," he sobbed one night when his foster mom left for a party. "Please forgive me for what I have to do, but I'm hurting so much."

Andrew headed to his foster mother's shed to get the rope. With the rope coiled up under his coat, he headed to the big black poplar tree in the Kinsman Park. Twelve feet off the ground was a large branch at right angles to the trunk. Andrew quickly fashioned a hangman's noose and shinnied up the tree. Bracing himself with his legs he slipped the noose over his head and tied the other end of the rope to the branch. Grasping the branch, he let himself down. As he hung there by his fingertips, his short life passed before him.......