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On Elisabeth Elliot and the Hidden Realities of our Mentors
“I want to be like Elisabeth Elliot,” I told my mother. I had just graduated from college and was contemplating my next steps. I picked Elliot because she was the only example I knew of a woman speaking publicly in my faith circles. “Really?” Mom’s eyebrow raised. “Then you need a story to tell like hers. Do you want to go as a missionary to an unchartered area, lose your husband to the spear of a tribesman, raise a daughter alone, labor in a village to share the gospel as a single mom? Then finally get married again, only to lose that husband to cancer and experience widowhood a second…
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Resource for Sexual Abuse/Harassment and Domestic Abuse
Today I'm grateful to host guest blogger Joy Pedrow Skarka, who has provided the following wonderful list of resources for helping victims of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence and other forms of abuse of power. Keep it handy. Hopefully you will never need it. Awareness & Organizations The Rape Foundation Ministry Safe RAINN Restored: Ending Violence Against Women The Rave Project G.R.A.C.E. Sexual Assault and Abuse Rid of My Disgrace,by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb Healing the Wounded Heart: The Heartache of Sexual Abuse and the Hope of Transformation by Dan B. Allender The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Child Sexual Abuse, by Dan B. Allender Abuse/Dating Violence Statistics Sexual…
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DOMESTIC ABUSE AND THE CHURCH: 7 Ways to Help
Kathryn* was a close friend. We met at church and spent hours ministering together. But she seemed guarded whenever the subject of her marriage came up. My husband and I knew her husband; we attended church together. And we sometimes shared meals with them. He baked me a cake once when I miscarried—he could be so kind. But he also sometimes made lewd comments that made me wonder if he had a porn addiction. Eventually Kathryn confided that her husband often raged at her and spewed abusive speech, and that he had dragged her across the room by her hair. Another time, he barred the door to keep her from…