Dear sisters,
Last year I attended a training seminar in Michigan called
SALTS – Survivors of Abuse Leadership Training Seminar. I’m writing to invite some other women
– and men, too – to consider attending this seminar
Sponsored by Open Hearts Ministry, this seminar offers
skills and expertise to people interested in learning to facilitate healing and
recovery groups for abuse survivors. Across the country, the groups go by different names – Grace Groups, Beauty
for Ashes, Abuse Recovery Support Groups – but their purpose and approach is
the same.
Although the focus is on sexual abuse survivors, SALTS – and
the group healing process it teaches – offers tools of healing and recovery for
survivors of other kinds of abuse as well.
The Church as a whole is woefully unaware and uninvolved in
addressing or bringing healing to people experiencing or recovering from abuse.
The Dane County support programs for battered women, rape crisis intervention,
and domestic abuse support groups and healing are all run by secular,
women-centered non-profit groups. I don’t object to any of that – what I do
find disturbing is the absence of the Body of Christ from that helping
equation.
It’s not enough to send sexual abuse survivors off to a
counselor. Even to a Christian counselor. It’s not enough to refer a battering husband to anger management
classes or to tell the battered
wife that prayer will help. The Body of Christ has been afraid to embrace abuse
survivors and afraid to admit the reality of survivors in our churches. The
reality of current abuse occurring in our churches is often denied or spoken
about in whispers.
As a result, people experiencing abuse and people
recovering from (or not recovering as the case may be) feel alone and
abandoned. The Church – and, it seems, Jesus himself – seems to have
little to offer.
Secular counseling – and many
Christian counselors, too – offer strategies for coping and
understanding. They help you get your mind around what happened and
figure out how to deal with the results. That’s good.
But,
they don’t bring healing. They don’t help you come into the presence
and heart of God to be healed and transformed. And, once you get to
church the next Sunday morning, you’re as alone as ever. The "elephant"
in your life isn’t talked about or given any voice.
When
did you ever hear someone preach about sexual abuse? Battering? verbal
abuse? emotional abuse? Does your church post contact information
about the women’s shelter or rape crisis help? Christians care
deeply. It’s just that structures don’t exist and it’s somehow not
okay to talk about these issues and needs.
The SALTS training is being offered again this fall, October
16-21 in Muskegon, Michigan. Information is available at www.openhearts.gospelcom.net
The sponsoring ministry, Open Hearts Ministry started in
Kalamazoo, Michigan with a few women seeking to recover and heal from sexual or
other abuse. Their program offers training and a tested approach to education,
understanding, support, and healing. The SALTS support group model can be led
by any mature Christian equipped with the training offered through Open Hearts.
Therapists and mental health professional, pastors and people involved in
pastoral care also benefit from and use this training.
It’s in my heart to start SALTS-inspired groups for healing
and recovery here in Madison. I’ve had dreams of groups on campus. Meeting at the Catacombs, in churches, or someone’s home.
What would it take? First, some other people with healing in their hearts to get themselves
to Michigan in October. Then, let’s talk. Because, if God guides you there,
He’ll provide what is needed to bring this dream to reality
Blessings,
Julia