A Prayer Request is a Praise

My wonderful, intense, promising, encouraging, daunting upcoming week!

For the past … goodness … months and even years in some cases, I’ve been working on advocating for certain victims, equipping church leadership teams, and empowering survivors to recover and heal. This next week, I’m seeing the fruit of some of that work as I prepare to travel to West Virginia.

One church that is particularly dear to my heart is Covenant Church in Shepherdstown. Their pastors, Joel Rainey and Chris Walls, love their church kids so dearly. But most importantly, they love Jesus, and that shines through everything I know of them and their church leadership team.

Usually, when I work with a church leadership team, it’s because an abuse victim has called me in to make their elders and pastors see reason. Not so with Covenant. Their pastors and elders sought out a relationship with me proactively because they care about protecting kids, they care about ministering to the hurt, and I cannot tell you how much that has ministered to me. I didn’t know I needed this, but I did, and I do.

I’ve had the honor of speaking to the Covenant congregation before, and this coming Wednesday, I’ll be working with their youth group, which I’m really excited about. Ministering to kids and equipping them to identify and avoid predators has long been something I’ve dreamed of doing. During this event, our goal is to abuse-proof these kids (as much as is possible) and equip them to be aware, familiar with red flags, and know what to do if someone ever bothers them or makes them feel uncomfortable.

Then on Friday, I’m advocating for some victims in an opportunity that has been nearly three years in the making. It’s a really intense and complicated case that I’ve poured my tears, prayers, and energy into. I’d appreciate your prayers for my peace of mind and clarity of thought so I can do my best to communicate truth and pave the path for justice.

Finally, on Saturday (I told you this was a busy week!) I’m speaking at the You Are Not Alone Conference at Fellowship Baptist Church in Shenandoah Junction. There, I’ll be talking with abuse survivors about:

• Shame: How do we overcome it?

• Repentance: How do we know he’s really sorry?

• Anger: How do we process it?

• Forgiveness: When and how can we forgive? Or should we?

Those are some big questions, and extremely sensitive and personal ones for many abuse survivors. If you could, please pray that no matter what I say, my words would be received only in a way that helps these ladies recover and find peace.

So often, I fear that words can be understood (or misunderstood) based on a person’s background … what the words mean to them, and how their abuser weaponized those words. The upshot is, when we speak with abuse survivors, we’re sometimes walking through a psychological mine field. We can say something that seems completely safe to us, but to one survivor or another, it means something completely different. It means something hurtful, and I truly fear saying something that would inadvertently harm someone.

So, my hope for this conference is that God would work powerfully, overcome misconceptions, and communicate the love and care he has for his daughters.

If you could pray with me to that end, I’d be very grateful.

Much Love,

Jenn