Groups
If you would like to participate in an upcoming group, contact Trish at the Church Office (559)683-2254.
This group is for women (18+) who have been sexually violated or dishonored in any way as a child or adult and wishes to start or complete their healing journey with God from their heart and soul damage.
If you know someone who could benefit from being in this group, a family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor or an acquaintance, please share this information.
Research indicates that 1 in every 3 females have been sexually violated.
These are startling facts. The pain of having been sexually violated is often concealed by those who carry its scars. Chained as prisoners of the past, many hide in secrecy, afraid of the consequences of revealing the horrors of childhood and adult experiences. On the surface, they may seem carefree and happy, yet inside a festering wound exists.
This group provides a safe and caring environment where you can be heard with confidentiality and not be judged… a place where your pain can be brought into the light of Jesus’ healing power and restoration can begin. Recovery includes healing from the traumas done to us at sometime in our past, as well as healing from the influence these past experiences continue to have on our lives.
Participants work through a 12-week curriculum in a small group of women with discussion led by a facilitator who has experienced healing from sexual abuse. Participants are encouraged to share their struggles at their own pace.
What is Sexual Abuse?
“Sexual abuse is any sexual activity, either verbal or physical, engaged in without consent, which may be emotionally or physically harmful and which exploits a person in order to meet another person’s sexual or emotional needs. The person does not consent if he or she cannot reasonably choose to consent or refuse because of age, circumstances, level or understanding and dependency or relationship to the offender.”
Sexual abuse includes both children and adults. It encompasses a wide range of behavior, from fondling and exhibitionism to forcible rape and commercial exploitation through prostitution or pornography. Sexual abuse takes many forms and involves varying degrees of violence and emotional trauma.
The world offers surviving, but the LORD Jesus Christ offers overcoming … there is a way out of the rage, fear and confusion. With Christ, there is indeed hope for the wounded heart.
Healing can begin when we face the hard reality of truth, even when the truth is ugly and we don’t want to face it. Recovery includes healing from the traumas done to us at sometime in our past, as well as healing from the effects – such as denial, anger, fear and unforgiveness – that these past experiences continue to have on our lives today.
Sexual abuse has no religious or social boundaries and it is probably the most “soul-deadening” trauma there is.
Our goal is to see women experience freedom in Jesus Christ as John 10:10 states,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
What a few past Renew participants are saying:
- “Sexual abuse brings a lot of baggage with it and my heaviest bag was filled with no self-worth. I felt like garbage so I acted like I was garbage. Laughter became my defense mechanism and I would insult myself to beat others to the punch so they couldn’t hurt me. One of the best truths the Holy Spirit revealed to me was that my worth is found in my Creator, and I was and am the daughter of the King of Kings. Knowing who Jesus is and who I am in Him, changed my life profoundly. All of my life I was a survivor, barley hanging on by the skin of my teeth, but since Renew I am now a thrive-or, set free by God’s healing power.”
- “I am no longer a slave to fear.”
- “God’s healing through Renew started by revealing my denial to me. When I started TRUSTING God with my sexual abuse, He broke me down and rebuilt me in His loving way. God set me free from anger and people pleasing, 2 major things that set me back from realizing my true identity in Christ. “God helped me bring my secrets out into His healing light and they no longer control me.”
- “I no longer walk in shame.”
- “Renew is where God’s healing in my life began.”
Events
2023 Calendar of meeting dates
For more Information call:
Trish at the church office, 683-2254. We look forward to hearing from you.
Remember everything is kept the STRICTEST confidence.
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Equipping the Saints,
Edifying the Body,
Evangelizing the World.
