We all need a team – a family – to help walk each other Home.
It's a New Day. We are awakening and living the adventure of freedom and fullness. Shalom!
Because of the storytellers on this page, I am here today. I could not have made it through the deep trauma and trials without this "family" of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers who have stepped into my life and held my hand. Their stories saved my life – literally, spiritually, and emotionally.
What did people do before we had such an extensive medical businesses? They sat together, ate together, and listened to each others stories.
There is tremendous power in storytelling! With each "me, too" the power of shame is broken and we can dare to become vulnerable, naked and unashamed. This intimacy opens our hearts for love to pour in, like liquid gold. We become enriched!
We can all do this! We can learn to listen attentively, repeating back what we've heard, and asking gentle questions. We can share our own stories vulnerably, daring to get naked and yet unashamed. We can email, call, or simply say "Hello, I'm thinking about you."
Storytelling, combined with empathetic listening, can save a survivor's life.
I believe you will see that ordinary people are the ones who save the day – these are God's heroes of the faith today – people who simply listen attentively, observe through God's eyes and ears, and vulnerably speak their own truth. Their stories invite you into the home of their hearts, and in that intimacy with God and our friends, we begin to find our own way Home.
My friend, Joyce Lagana, says, "I believe that only someone who has suffered the ravages of verbal and physical abuse can truly comprehend the life-giving power of words of love, acceptance, and encouragement. Sometimes all a victim needs in order to give them the strength to fight to gain back stolen ground is to know that someone is listening: that someone hears and cares about what they are saying and acknowledges that what happened was not right, nor was it their fault.
In order to lift a person from victim to victor we must enter into their arena with them, standing back-to-back, standing in the battle with them, and through empathy and compassion teaching them how to become the victor, leading them to higher ground with words. Words of life. Words of love. Words of encouragement. Words of compassion. Words of constructive advice. Words of hope. Our words have the ability to give life, to restore health to mind and body, or to destroy. We get to choose."
Amen, Joyce! Those are words of life spoken by a woman who walks closely with God and knows His Ways!
Below are more words, aptly spoken, by friends who helped walk me Home!
When you click on any member's bio you will be taken to a page where all their stories are archived! Enjoy 🙂
Kimberly Dimick and her husband, Joshua Dimick, know how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and careers, and so much more. Together and separately they have walked the path of Love, a narrow path, a path that is lonely and not well-used.
They intimately understand the soul-shattering pain of separation and divorce and they also know "The Way Home" to a life of choosing unconditional love.
The surprising answers to a happy marriage are shared in their posts, articles, and a book-in-progress.
As you venture on this journey with Kimberly and Josh you will experience how God shines His most brilliant light in their darkest hours. Today their mission is to provide a voice to women suffering in silence, shining the Light of Truth into the dark places of marital and spiritual abuse.
As you journey with Kimberly and Josh you will witness a true life transformation that will shatter the misinformation and lies commonly fed to women that keep them in false submission.
Read Kimberly and Joshua's Stories Here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For 20 years I called alcohol ‘The Hurt Healer’ It numbed me from being abandoned as a child by my mother and abused by my father. It gave me confidence to deal with the present and took away my fear of my future. But it also kept me trapped in depression and hopelessness.
It is nothing short of a miracle that I am alive today but I was given the opportunity to heal and I grabbed it. By reclaiming my life I have found the freedom to live life in sobriety and to recover from chronic depression.
Today it is faith, forgiveness, serenity and joy that make up ‘The Hurt Healer’… Join Carolyn on an inspirational journey to live life as the person you were meant to be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carolyn is the daughter of a misogynist father and a mother who abandoned her on a park bench at the age of three. Her father abused her every day of her childhood. Her story is raw, real, and rare. Journey through Carolyn's stories as she shows you what God did in her life to completely restore her!
The following articles have been published with gracious permission from the author, Carolyn Hughes, from The Hurt Healer website.
Carolyn's testimony has also been recorded at Monahan Elim, where you can listen to her beautiful, musical voice as she shares in her own words her story of amazing grace as God saved her from a mental and emotional hell that describes the lives of so many Christians today.
I have known Carolyn for a few years and although she lives in Ireland and I am here in the United States, we embrace each other through our stories. Distance and time are not the barriers they once used to be as we share our homes in our hearts. You'll see when you read Carolyn's words… she is a precious treasure!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Grant Apeaks on "Informal Theology" and Advocates Exposing Dangerous Ministries and Practices
David Grant has been a professionally paid pastor and teacher, but not anymore. Challenging the religious and education systems of today, David is helping us to return to the basic core message of the Gospel: Loving God and loving people.
Many good Christians, born and raised in the church, are feeling trapped by a system that has worn down their relationships, even divided families and marriages… the opposite of what Yeshua demonstrated.
David's heart is to be a champion for the widows, orphans, and misfits. By keeping his focus on "the one" in front of him, David is working toward relieving poverty and suffering in the world, one person at a time. He believes you can't just throw money at problems. It's about relationship.
Today David is a home-based business entrepreneur with a huge family vision to minister to the widows and orphans across the world, using his business to fund his ministry. In addition, David works with high levels of the Canadian government to create strategies in revitalizing the art community, increasing tourist capacity, while bringing a sustainable and profitable harvest to the indigenous community with the very real potential of reaching out to the global market.
His business model allows him to hang out with people online every day to talk about informal theology! If you would like to get to know David, he chats via Facebook live every day!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erv is French-American and Sally is Puerto Rican-American. Into their spicy gene pool grew four remarkable children, two of them adopted, who are producing wholehearted families of their own. Erv and Sally don't just believe in the "Power of One," they practice it on a daily basis.
Whether it's a single mother Sally and Erv employ to keep house or an orphan teenage mom who needs a mother to take her under her wing, Sally and Erv reach out to whoever is in front of them. Teaching midwives and helping deliver babies in rural Guatemala is Sally's lifelong dream, and Erv has found his greatest joy and a renewed zest for life in serving the poorest of the poor, alongside his wife. Together, they are like bacon and eggs… good in and of themselves, but even more spectacular when they are together.
Because Erv and Sally have learned over the years to live from their hearts, even when it runs counter-culturally, they are very sensitive to what is happening around them. They have what people call, the gift of discernment. They speak with wisdom, which is knowledge that has personally applied in their own lives before giving it to others.
Sally is one of the first people who SAW what was happening in my marriage, even before I did. She was there for me through it all, even from a distance of thousands of miles. Validation, along with mercy and grace, are the most incredible gifts you can give to a survivor of domestic and spiritual abuse.
Neither Sally nor Erv saw their role as "ministry" TO me, but as friendship WITH me. In other words, they didn't see me as a "mission" but as a person. We can learn a lot from a couple like this, who are not "big" ministry leaders and whose names may not ring a bell with most people. We can learn the "power of one"… that ministry is BEST accomplished in the ordinary day by ordinary people going about their ordinary lives. Bigger is usually not better, although when lots of these ordinary people come together, watch out!
For the York family, money and degrees are not as important as obedience, truth, love, loyalty, and humility. Those are the very values that are tested in "big" ministries and the pressure of management, maintenance, and and making everyone happy too often means that the least ones are pushed away. That's why I host Erv and Sally's stories – not so much for what they did for me – but because of who they are. We can emulate people like this, who are perfectly imperfect, who do not hide their faults, but instead thrive in a shame-free existence!
Read Erv & Sally's Stories here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda South Honea has been a pioneer her whole life. At 18 months she boldly went bra-less and diaper-less to follow the dog under the fence, out into the big world beyond the back yard. At 6-years-old she stole the neighbor boys’ baseball equipment because they wouldn’t let girls play. Linda was the first of her siblings to fly on a plane(remember Braniff Airlines?); and she has traveled the world many times since. As a PFC’s wife, she was awarded the Molly Pitcher Medal (highest honor of the U.S. Army Artillery given to a civilian woman), when she started one of the first family support organizations at Fort Sill, OK. While her family lived under terrorist threat in Germany, Linda and six other women led, served, and reassured 200+ women during Desert Storm.
2008 brought a battle that Linda didn’t have the “proper gear” for… betrayal, adultery, shunning, and a divorce that was worse than death. She has since learned to find her true identity in 'being' rather than 'doing.' Linda’s laughter and humor change the atmosphere! Many folks have said that her words, albeit in heavily accented TEXAN, propel them forward courageously, and, that Linda is an authentic, honest woman of God.
"My heart's desire is to see that people are set free to live out their dreams, that women serve alongside men on any and all battlefields, and that families be reunited and restored."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This page is under construction as I add more friends and their pages – Please come back soon!
{ 0 comments… add one now }
{ 3 trackbacks }