Kayla Stoecklein, the widow of California pastor Andrew Stoecklein, has spoken out in the first interview given since her husband’s untimely death. Andrew, the senior pastor at Inland Hills Church in Chino, California, died Aug. 25 after attempting suicide the day before.
In the few months that have elapsed since Andrew’s death, Kayla has written candidly about her process of grief on her website, GodsGotThis.org. Openly describing her husband’s period of severe mental illness that preceded his death, Stoecklein has sought to shine a light on the epidemic of emotional distress that is prevalent in our churches and wider society.
“He was sick,” she wrote of her husband in a post to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day. “His mind was overtaken by mental illness, spiritual warfare and a series of unfortunate circumstances that caused him to lose control of his own thoughts and actions. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around what that must have felt like.” {eoa}
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