—My Experience as a Participant of a Sexual Abuse Bible Study on Zoom

Jesus + nothing = Everything!

My testimony begins with an unexpected invitation from Toni Weisz to join her in a special weekly Bible study. After praying about this invitation, I believed God in faith instead of trusting in my self-reliance. I decided to take the leap forward to be of service to the Lord and Toni. You see, I wasn’t a victim of abuse who had an abortion. However, I was a woman who was once told to have an abortion but said no and subsequently had to fight for my baby. I left a career to be a founding member and later, the executive director of a teen girls’ ranch where I then lived among many, many teen girls that suffered sexual abuse and needed a safe home. I explained how I adopted my daughter—a girl that arrived to our Colorado Girls Ranch mountain home at 13 years old after four previously failed adoptions following a high sexual abuse case outside of Denver. God put it on my heart to work on getting her out of the custody of the State of Colorado. When asked about adoption, my daughter said yes and so did her case worker! We then transferred her from Colorado to Texas Girls Ranch where my little girl joined me and where we both experienced Christ’s healing and salvation. Toni masterfully integrated my daughter’s and my experience into the group discussions that benefited the ladies in the group, including me.

I might add that by the end of the second meeting, this group naturally brought to my awareness how God has been healing the women leaning on Him. Some received healing over their adult life, which was in total contrast to my focus that specifically dealt with healing during the teenage years. The revelation God showed me was how He was able to heal many of these ladies from trauma as they overcame what happened to them in order to enjoy full lives. My prayer life became deeper–I could pray healing for the ladies and for myself—as I, too, suffered secondarily from witnessing the pain my daughter had to overcome. I also prayed for those teen girls that once lived with me still making their way through their life’s journey. In all, I grew to appreciate God more and stretched to be more wholly dependent on Him. God’s Word says He is no respecter of persons, and I pray to God because He strengthens me to fight the good fight of faith. Finishing up with the group, I acquired a few more goals, especially as it relates to my adopted daughter’s needs in future healing. I only hope that my daughter could access a group that would profoundly impact her as I testify to the impact made by our Bible study. Thank you for letting me share.