Abuse Awareness Day

Sabbath, August 24, 2002 is going to be a very special day in the Seventh-day Adventist church.  It has been dedicated to Abuse Awareness.

There is a complete program to be presented which will contain education and information as to resources for the abused.  There is far too much of this happening today and too many people are being driven away from not only the church but also from God by it.

I have been very privileged to be affiliated with a group known as Survivors ~N~ Thrivers (S~N~T) which provides a safe place for those who have been abused to address their issues of abuse via computer, in a circle of friendship.  Survivors are welcome to share as much or as little about their experience as they desire and this is all done in an atmosphere of anonymity (if one desires) and complete confidentiality.

With the friendship are included resource materials, who to contact, your rights and obligations, where to find books and magazines that address your needs, links to programs or facilities in your area that address the needs of the abused.

S~N~T began several months ago with just a small group of people who discovered each other through the Internet.  It was gratifying to them to realize that they were not alone.  So often victims of abuse feel as though there is no one who shares their feelings or who can experience their pain and their lives become very lonely.

Recognizing the need, this small group of people had a dream:  A dream that included others in the same situation.  That dream brought them to establish a small Yahoo mail list that eventually grew to 30 members.  As their friendships grew, so did the volume of e-mails that went out from that group and soon each participant was receiving up to 200 emails a day just from this one group.

Not only is S~N~T a place to develop friendships but on the practical side, there were families helped through the holiday season and at other times when the need arose.  Prayers ascended and the answers to those prayers were seen.  They worked on establishing themselves as a viable group and became affiliated with the W.A.S.H. (Women and Men Against Sexual Harassment) site: www.tagnet.org/wash

Peggy Harris, the Chair of W.A.S.H also became a member of S~N~T.  The little group was becoming viable and now began to speak with a voice.

When the Seventh-day Adventist church announced the dedication of Sabbath, August 24, 2002 to the awareness of abuse, the little group at S~N~T realized that it would not be long until they would need to expand their services.  It was possible that the number of participants could jump from 30 to 1000 or more overnight and the leaders of S~N~T visualized how many e-mails that jump would generate.

If S~N~T was going to remain a viable voice in stemming abuse within the peoples of the Seventh-day Adventist church, it would need a new home, preferably a bulletin board system such as has been utilized by Seventh-day Adventist chat groups, which can tolerate thousands of members.

But the little group had no money and no means to generate monies and Sabbath, August 24, 2002 was only a little over eight months away.  Their leaders went to their knees and put their supplication before the Lord, asking Him to guide them and to provide a way for them to provide help for their hurting brothers and sisters.

Less than a week later, a new member of the group stepped forward and gave as a donation a bulletin board, complete with set-up and annual maintenance. This new member was unaware of the request that had been placed before the Lord and only was acting upon the stirrings of the Holy Spirit in the person's heart as they viewed the daily 200 plus e-mail messages.

The leaders of S~N~T praised the Lord for His marvelous blessing to them and realized that God has a need and use for S~N~T in serving Him.

In less than 48 hours, the bulletin board was on-line and running.  Its operation was limited but it was there.  The little group began to move into their new home.

As this was an entirely new venture, they had no template to follow and no advice on how they should set up the new system.  They decided that they needed to close their doors for new members until such time as they were ready to present their new face to the world; and the hard work began.

It was determined that admission to S~N~T would be by approved application only.  This would prevent curiosity seekers from viewing the intimacy of the bulletin board.  Areas were set up within the system to address specific areas of abuse.  A logo needed to be chosen, areas named and moderators for those areas chosen.  The new home began to look lived in.

The work continues on the S~N~T Bulletin Board.  It will be fully operational and receiving new members long before the August 24 deadline.

We want to take this opportunity to bring S~N~T and W.A.S.H to your attention and to make you aware of Sabbath, August 24, 2002.

We ask that you will do your best to see that your local church presents the abuse awareness program on that day by speaking with your pastor, your elders and your deaconesses, we ask that you make people aware of S~N~T and that you offer up your prayers for us.

S~N~T is not a theological group and has no agenda other than stemming abuse and helping those who have suffered.  Among our members are a pastor and counselor though we offer no counselling services.  God is at the core of our ministry but we reach out to every hurting individual regardless of denominational affiliation.  S~N~T is Seventh-day Adventist oriented but is not affiliated with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Though we are not accepting new members at the moment, we will be in the very near future.  We ask that you keep this information for your own personal records in case you need it for yourself or someone else and that you forward this email to as many of your friends within the SDA church as you believe would have the slightest interest in our program.

We will be notifying you as soon as S~N~T is open to receive new members but realize that there may be some who receive this email who will not receive the update.  If you keep this information, you will be able to contact us and we will give you the updates as they occur.

Feel free to contact us at any time with your questions at bonnieeo@webtv.net  (Bonnie) or mamachic@digisys.net  (Del)

We are your hosts at S~N~T and look forward to serving you.

Bonnie and Del

This page last updated on Sunday January 29, 2006 11:23 AM

Disclaimer: We are not a counselling service.  We prepare materials to help church
members and church leaders better understand the problems abuse brings and prevention methods.

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