Hi ~

Not long ago someone asked me to tell my story of how I got into the work of exposing spiritual abuse and helping those who have experienced it.

So I told her my story, which I have told in bits and pieces in emails, on blog posts, and in podcast interviews, so I won’t go over all that again.

But there was one piece I mentioned to her that I haven’t written about yet.

My missionary books.

In 2007, at almost the exact same time I was coming into the world of abuse (through the experiences of a friend who, with her children, had lived under terrible abuse for 25 years) I also heard a different friend tell an amazing true missionary story, off the cuff, in my kitchen.

“Oh my word,” I thought. “I want to write a book.”

I found the missionary this friend was describing and eventually wrote the first in the Hidden Heroes series, With Two Hands: True Stories of God at Work in Ethiopia.

My plan was to keep writing sets of stories about God’s work in different areas around the world, till there were 20, 30, 40 in the series. As long as I lived.

But God had different plans.

By the time I had written six of them, I was deep into the world of advocating for those who had been abused. I told my publisher I would have to stop so I could focus my attention more fully on my new calling. She knew what was happening and was very understanding. “Six is a good series,” she said.

For those first 7 or 8 years of being immersed in horror—hearing about abuses that I didn’t even know the human mind could conceive—people would sometimes ask me, “How are you managing with all this?”

“Well,” I would say, “it’s really hard. And I need God to increase my capacity. But in this other space in my life . . .

. . . in this other space, I’m writing these missionary books. I get to research and write about how the light of God is shining all over the world and transforming lives all over the world. That research and study and writing is buoying me up. The stories remind me of how bright His light really is, even when I’m working in dark places.”

Those are good memories. The Lord led me in so gently. When it was time to be done with that particular work, He made it clear, and He provided other sources of solace.

But I loved writing those missionary books. I loved knowing that through them I was helping others see the glory, joy, and love of God spread into the darkest corners of the world.

With you for seeing the great work of God wherever He is working,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

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