Hope for Survivors are pages from my journals, prayers, and meditations on the value of suffering in the Christian life. Most of these were written during my escape to freedom, not only from sociopathic abuse but from spiritual abuse in church.
I hope they encourage you as you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death!
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘WOW WHAT A RIDE!’” ~ Hunter S Thompson Do you ever feel like you […]
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Plunging into the Heart of Love By: Susan Deborah Schiller I’m deep below the surface again, down under the threatening waves of anger, hurt, depression, and the seemingly endless stream of bad news. But it’s not my battle this time around. I’m here with a sister plunging below the surface to find the heart of love. I know she’s going […]
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Crossing Over By: White Dove What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open." – Poet Muriel Rukeyser Speaking out has become a cure for many women who have silenced their voices due to a patriarchal church "authority" that has devalued our role across the board, […]
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The Saving, Preserving Side of a Fiery Trial By: White Dove As our truck wound up the dirt path to the watch tower, my daughter and I had an up close encounter with a controlled burn. The fire and smoke may appear intense but only the ground is lit with fire. A controlled burn protects […]
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In Case of Sudden Disaster, Grin! By: White Dove “I’m grooming you to grin in the face of disaster,” said Papa God as I made my daily fear-dump in a worn out leather journal. Escaping a cult-church and an abusive husband at the same time had left me isolated, wrestling the growing pack of fear […]
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Where I Am Today By: White Dove I’ve been quiet for a few years, but it feels good to be back in our sacred space again… this place where I have simply shared my very intense, chaotic and intimate story and where I have been honored to hear your stories. To keep it short and […]
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Finding Beauty in the Dark Places By: White Dove I remember the day my husband abandoned me alongside the road in a desert, and it felt like a grenade had exploded in my abdomen. The pain cut from my neck to my belly, both physically and emotionally, ripping my gut wide open, even taking my voice away. […]
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God's Ways & Means are Far Beyond Human Imagination By: White Dove Your enemy's first strategy is to isolate you. Smear campaigns, gaslighting, or even moving you to a remote location away from family and friends are predictable patterns of an abuser. Sometimes your friends and family are quite near, even in your home, but […]
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Love Never Fails By: White Dove In the series, "Love from Papa" My daughter, I see you. I see you peering into the mist, as if through a fog of twisted notions: Half-truths, false-beliefs, and shattered illusions that block you from seeing your full inheritance. I see you tentatively stepping out of the shadowlands of […]
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In the Event of Sudden Disaster, Grin By: White Dove Bone-shaking tremors of impending disaster erupt from the deepest seat of my soul – the place where my controlling beliefs create my circumstances – threatening to throw me into the tumultuous sea. Resisting the stormy undercurrent of my limiting beliefs is something I’ve learned to do only […]
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Create Your Own Jail Break By: Susan Deborah Schiller Standing up to Sociopaths – A Collection of Essays Telling your story is important, on many levels. First, for your own freedom. The second is because it lights up the darkness around you. The third is that your story becomes a portal for Heaven to invade the darkness on […]
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To Stand in the Shock Waves and Shine By: White Dove Photo Source “I’m grooming you to grin in the face of disaster,” I heard Papa God say as I was listening in prayer one day. You see, part of my family legacy is to worry. I tend to worry about things as tenaciously as […]
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A prayer meditation by White Dove I want to see beyond despair to what is accessible only by faith… In the stillness of pre-dawn moonlight an airplane flies directly overhead in Northwestern Montana. The skies have been filled with aircraft this week spraying forest fires which have grown beyond human control to manage. Home owners race to […]
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A Dream Parable on Handling Conflict By: White Dove "In troubled families, abuse, neglect are permitted; it's the talking about them that is forbidden." – Marcia Sirota An area I've not been good at (conflict resolution) appeared in a dream, in a series of parables about how God wants us to handle conflict, separation, and even […]
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Harnessing the Energy of Chaos by White Dove Who is this God who hovered over the waters, as we read in the book of Genesis…. a waste dump that was "formless and void". "Darkness covered the abyss…" In this wild and scary place, a wind blew. God's Spirit is most often described as a wind, – which can […]
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A Meditation for Those who Feel Lost in the Darkest Night of their Soul By: Kimberly Dimick We all hope at the darkest moments of our life that our faith would shine or this strength would come so we could smack some demons around. I have found that our faith shines AFTER we get to […]
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Beauty in Adversity Part 2 of "I Will Follow You" in the series, "Letters to Readers and Love from Papa" "Where you lead me, I will follow," I responded, my feet bloody and my body bruised. It was the Valley of the Shadow of Death – the shadowlands. The winds of change are merciless and I'm falling down. […]
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Praying into the Abyss of Despair By: Dr. Stephen R. Crosby Sometimes our circumstances make us feel like we are standing on the edge of a dark and bottomless abyss of hopelessness. We pray, do all the things we know to do, have been told to do, trained to do (and then some), and nothing […]
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Sent in by a friend… who has passed through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and fears no evil… The Father says today that you think you are on your last gasp and Loss is inevitable. I say to you that your dream,your vision is still Viable and living. You are going to have […]
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"Lord, I'm not going to ask for a job, any money or anything in regards to my needs. You already know I have those needs. I am going to ask you to fill me with your Love. A Love that is there no matter. That is a given. I will let you Love me today […]
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