GLOBAL Forgiveness Day was celebrated in Victoria August 27, with volunteers giving treats and balloons to passersby.

The founder of the event is David Schramm, a financial consultant who attends Colwood Pentecostal Church. He has very personal reasons for establishing the initiative.

“God would not let me rest,” he says, until he dealt with his own unforgiveness toward his father.

He was raised in a Christian environment. But the home was shattered by infidelity; his father left Schramm and his mother to cope with divorce and financial difficulties. 

After 11 years of resentment, Schramm began to feel God gently challenging him. ”For years, even though I was a Christian, I never really thought about needing to forgive my father. I saw him as an evil and selfish man that God would deal with. But God started dealing with me instead. 

“I knew I wasn’t perfect.  But I was a Christian, and I thought I was trying to live like one. If my father wanted to ask my forgiveness for all that he had done I might listen to him. But in truth, I wanted him to suffer and grovel.” 

After exhausting all his excuses, Schramm realized he needed to totally forgive his father – and tell him so. He also needed to ask his father’s forgiveness for his bitterness. He wrote a letter; after a month, his father phoned.

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After some mutual nervousness, they were able to talk.    “ I know we both felt a huge burden lifted,” says Schramm.

He felt a driving need to share the message of forgiveness. “I borrowed $600 from my mom to purchase a one sided banner and had it hung in downtown Victoria for a week.”

Since then, Global Forgiveness Day volunteers have given out tens of thousands of free balloons, lollipops and apples  – all as ‘ice breakers’ to start conversations about forgiveness.

There have been several occasions, Schramm says, where people have wept openly as they shared their own stories of their need to forgive or be forgiven. 

He concludes: “No matter who you are, whether  you’re rich or poor, no matter what colour your skin is, we all have at least one thing in common: we have all hurt someone and we have all been hurt by someone.

“True forgiveness is a miraculous gift that offers freedom from guilt and shame – and hope for a better future.”       

globalforgivenessday.org

October 2007