LEWISTON — Lifetree Cafe, 1919 Lisbon Road, will host two discussion groups next week.

How to cope with loneliness and isolation will be explored at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 25. Difficult adoption decisions and the search for birth parents will be discussed at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 1.

The first program, “Lonely: Secrets Learned in Solitary Confinement,” will feature a filmed interview with Tom Sutherland, who was kidnapped and held by Muslim radicals for nearly six and a half years.

“I was deprived of conversation and companionship, but there was very little I could do about it,” said Sutherland. “When there isn’t anyone else there, you simply have to resort to what’s in your own head.”

Lifetree participants will have the opportunity tell about times they’ve encountered feelings of loneliness in their own lives.

The March 1 program, “Finding the Family I Never Knew,” features filmed interviews with two women, one who searched for and connected with her birth mother and one who, after 35 years, still searches for the child she placed for adoption.

Advertisement

“I made the decision that there were people out there who could really love this child,” says the mother who placed her child for adoption. “I did it so that he could have an amazing childhood because he deserved it.”

Participants will have a chance to discuss their own personal connections to adoption.

Admission is free for the 60-minute events.

Questions about Lifetree may be directed to Travis Burleigh at 207-783-3316 or travisburleigh@gmail.com. The cafe is located in the South Lewiston Baptist Church.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.