Not everyone looks forward to the holidays.

When someone is grieving a loved one’s passing — whether it happened years ago or just last week — the holidays can be especially painful.

Friendship Baptist Church hopes to offer a lifeline to those who need support and encouragement through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

It is offering a two-hour seminar Saturday at the church at 1502 Friendship Lane NW.

The seminar, “Surviving the Holidays,” is free to attend. It begins at 9 a.m.

Rev. Chad Yarbrough, pastor at Friendship, said some people seem more melancholy during holiday time.

“A lot of issues seem to be worse,” he said. “It’s a traditional mindset that the holidays are a family tradition. Not being able to have those traditions (with loved ones) brings back the memories and stirs up feelings.”

At the seminar, attendees will see a short video and then break into small groups to talk.

He understands grieving family. He lost his grandmother a year ago this December. His grandfather died two years ago.

“Thanksgiving was a big time to go and get together with family,” he said. “Grandma and Grandpa was kind of the glue in the family. You miss those times and long for those times. I think it makes grief more intense during the holidays.”

Yarbrough said everyone goes though grief, or knows someone who has.

“Knowing that we’re not alone, that’s a real big thing,” he said. “Other people have gone through a similar road and they’ve made it. God is our comforter and he walks with us through our grief.”

Amanda Hodges, a member of Friendship, will facilitate the program. New Year’s Day will be the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death. Hodges’ stepmother held a grief support seminar and her father went through it.

“I’ve been able to see the good that it’s done. It’s something that has been on my heart for a while,” she said. “With everything that’s happened in our community, I just thought it would be a great outreach.”

She said holidays are always harder for people who are grieving friends and family.

“It reminds you of what all they’re missing, what they’re not a part of,” she said.

Friendship plans to also offer a 13-week grief series in January, Hodges said.

For more information about the seminar Saturday or the series next year, call Hodges at 601-695-1514.