Wonderful Retreat!!!

     This past weekend was our Spring Rachel's Vineyard Post-Abortion Healing retreat, and it was such an amazing experience!!  We had a small group of five, as we usually do, and it was so wonderful to share in the healing journeys of those who attended!  It is such a blessing to be a part of a ministry that touches lives in such a profound way!  All weekend I had the comforting feeling that I was in the right place at the right time doing exactly what God has asked me to do with my life, and believe me after years upon years of praying for a vision of what that would look like and be, it is an  indescribable feeling of deep contentment.

     The retreat weekends are such unique experiences of personal growth, spiritual healing and bonding on a deep level with others who have walked the same path.  If we didn't do anything all weekend other than talk about our experiences and get to know others who understand the deep and all consuming pain of abortion, we still would come away blessed and changed by the experience, but the weekend retreats encompass so much more than that!!  I believe Theresa Burke, the co-founder of Rachel's Vineyard and author of the retreats, did an outstanding job of incorporating opportunity after opportunity for the participants to invite healing into their lives through our personal Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is the spiritual healing that is received in the weekends that makes the difference in peoples' lives, it is Spirit ordained transformations that are lasting and life changing!!

     We have a group of facilitators who are all caring, Christian, non-judgmental women whose lives have been touched in some way by abortion.  One of our facilitators is an ordained, female minister who offers her wisdom and understanding of the Scriptures during our spiritually healing exercises.  We are blessed with a personal chef, who prepares each and every meal lovingly on site by hand just for our group.  We provide our retreats in a beautiful country estate that has been lovingly restored and rebuilt by people inspired by God to provide a warm, welcoming and cozy home away from home for those who are on healing journeys following all kinds of trauma and loss.  Every window you look out at the retreat center, you see pastures and mountains and rolling hills.  There are numerous places on the property designed for quiet contemplation and meditation as well.

     What a blessing to get away and be able to allow God to move and work in your life for an entire weekend with like minded individuals in need of the same help as you are, with experienced, caring facilitators to guide and support you throughout the weekend as you seek and receive God's gifts of grace and mercy!

Mark 6: 31 shares such a special message for those of us who are hurting and in need of His infinite love and comfort,   Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.'

      

      If you or someone you love are hurting and in need of healing due to pain and regret from an abortion experience, I pray you will reach out and call or register for our next weekend retreat.  We will be scheduling the next retreat in the next week, and it will take place in October of 2013, you may check back here on our website for an exact date, or visit www.rachelsvineyard.org for a list of retreats being offered in your area.  Please, remember that our site is Interdenominational and that all Christian religions are welcome to attend.  Call us at 828-919-8020 for more information or just to talk about your experiences and needs.

Surrender the Secret Episode 6

     Episode 6 of the Knock TV series, Surrender the Secret touches on some of the hardest and best parts of healing after an abortion.  The losses that occur with an abortion decision are numerous and broad in range and scope.  They are as varied as the people who make the choice to abort.  In contrast to the losses are the blessings that occur in our healing journeys as we discover the deeper purposes for our lives that God has planned, and those that we receive when we draw nearer to Him in our desperation for help and restoration.

     Jill talked about "exchanging our grief for grace," in this episode and I love this expression.  It is a tremendous relief, when we come to the place where we are able to recognize that our grief over the past is burdening us to the point that our present lives are being stifled and severely disabled.  We can spend years caught in the web of lies that our grief is what we deserve, or is somehow our penance for our sin.  There is even a subconscious belief that grieving for the rest of our lives is somehow a fair punishment for what we have done.  For many of us, our grief serves as a connection to our lost child, an almost tangible bond to keep our little ones alive in some sense of the word.  It is such a wonderful, welcomed relief to finally see that we don't have to grieve the rest of our lives for our mistakes, and can instead accept God's grace that freely flows from the cross and Jesus' sacrifice for our lives.  It takes courage to take this step, it takes faith that we won't lose ourselves in this process, as the grief defines who we are in so many ways.  It is indeed a leap of faith, an outright display of surrender and recognition of God's love and forgiveness and acceptance of us as His children--not because of anything we have or have not done, but because of who He is.

     The losses are still real, and they never go away.  My heart aches for women like Jane, and others, who are never able to be a mother because of the destruction of their abortions.  We all have suffered losses from our abortion decisions and choices, and those unfortunately never go away.  It takes us many years of maturing and seeking insights to realize in how many ways our lives are impacted by the losses from our abortions.  As Jill's emotions demonstrated in this episode, we realize it a little at a time how much we actually have lost in the act of abortion, and in living with the impacts that it has on our lives.  As by her example she shares that she has losses with her living children as well as a result of her abortion, due to her coping mechanism in living her daily life.  As she put it, she had to "wall off her emotions," which has tremendous effects on all of the other relationships in our lives.  I can see myself in this way in not being able to fully enjoy my oldest child, as looking at him in the fullness of who he was as a child would have brought forth the reality of the other child I had lost, and I was no where near ready to deal with that reality.  

     We all must deal with the complete voids in our lives where are children would have been, and those consequences never go away.  It is a blessing however, when we realize the fact that we do have a right to grieve our lost children.  We feel early on that we made the choice to abort, and by doing that we "forfeit" the right to grieve our lost child.  The truth is, we have every right to grieve our lost children, and why on earth would we not.  To say that we do not is cruelty and heartlessness.  I completely agree with Jill's statement that when we choose abortion we go against everything we were created to do as women.  I think this is the very crux of where my greatest pain came from for many years.  As I have said in other posts, when I made this choice, I went against every fiber of my being and committed the ultimate of sins within my own body, mind and spirit.  I did it against my own will, because I felt there was no other way.  This was the absolute hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  Then, when I was able to accept that God's grace covered even this sin, I have never felt more grateful for anything before then, or since.

     Only God can use something as awful and as damaging as abortion to help women to overcome and move forward to reach and minister to other women and men who are hurting as well, or hopefully, as in Vanessa's case, to be able to prevent an abortion from occurring in the first place.  In my own life, though I accepted Jesus as my savior at a young age, it has been through my abortion losses and other losses in my life, that my faith has been strengthened and my relationship with God made deeper and more meaningful!  I absolutely love the scripture that is shared in one part of this episode, as I am reminded of how precious I am, and you are, to our Heavenly Father, and how close He is at all times:  

Isaiah 43: 1-3 says, 

"I have called you by name; you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned...For I am the Lord your God." 

     Thank God!  Thank God He is always present, even in the deep waters, and the fires of life!  Thank God that He never leaves me or forsakes me!  He never leaves or forsakes you!