For 2 years, of which 6 months I was pregnant with my son Sam and a year and a half after he was born, I worked at a domestic violence/sexual assault agency. I was the Children and Youth Advocate for Island County in the state of Washington. Some days, I was able to meet with survivors of violence and felt like our conversations might have made a .1% impact. Other days, I felt complete defeat and utter desperation for some of the violence the children had endured. There’s a reason positions like these have such high turnover rates. The things I saw and witnessed are forever ingrained on my heart. And after having my son, it all became too personal to me and I couldn’t emotionally stay in that job. I continue to work with children and youth in ministry, and because there is violence everywhere, I still see some that have been violated. Between us, my husband and I have 5 kids, with our youngest being 10 years old. We are surrounded with teens and children in our home, schools, neighborhood, and church on a daily basis. All kids are at risk. All kids are around people. And people sin. And some of those people sin against children.
Jesus is the ultimate healer and provider. He works through his followers for His good, and one of the ways we can praise our Lord is by giving. When we were creating Nurture Her Soul, we knew as part of it we would continually give money to a charity. We chose Thorn, whose co-founder is fellow Cedar Rapids, Iowan, Ashton Kutcher. Thorn does such great work to put an end to child exploitation. They are doing things that I can’t do, and they are doing important work that is near and dear to my heart. Please explore the Thorn site, and read about the work they are doing.
“He heals the broken hearted and bandages their wounds.”
– Psalm 147:3
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