Healing

[Stillwater]

Hello, everyone,

  I hope there's not already a thread on this that I've missed. I was wondering if people would be interested in sharing stories of people and things that have helped them heal. I can think of SOOO many people and things I'm thanking God for. Here's just one:

   Libby Seymoure, who had the courage to leave the Assembly and then demonstrated to me that leaving the Assembly wasn't the same as leaving the Lord. Her kindness and hospitality, as well as her true walk with Jesus helped me to realize that the Assembly wasn't God's only "house."

  I hope the rest of you will share some of your stories!

  Heather

[Heide]

When I first left I didn't want to go to church, I had enough doctrine to last me a lifetime. I didn't want to hear about the do's and don'ts of being a christian. What I really wanted was to see Jesus. As a little kid who grew up in a church I always loved to hear about Jesus. A friend (non-assembly) suggested we start trying out churches, if we didn't like them, we would just leave. It reminded me that I had control over what I listened to. It might sound kinda dorky but I didn't have to sit there and disagree, I could actually leave....

People who helped me: Brent & Suzi for encouraging me to write about what happened. Aaron & Tanya who didn't push. There were others. Writing and talking has helped me to heal, especially to hear what others went thru, it pulls the pieces together.

Heide

[Stillwater]

Thanks for sharing, Heide.

Here's another one for me:

My fitness instructors. They accepted me and were kind to me. They treated me like a regular human being and helped me to get used to normal human emotions and interactions, rather than polished, proper Assembly ones. They also motivated me and encouraged me to take care of myself. There's a perception out there that all aerobics instructors are skinny, twiggy snobs out to give all of us unfit peons a heart attack to jazzy music. I've found just the opposite to be true. I've known these women to be incredibly compassionate and understanding with very overweight men and women. I've seen people whose weight was a serious health risk completely change under the gentle (if sometimes bubbly) touch of these women. I wasn't overweight when I started, but I definitely lost a lot of emotional weight as my instructors cheered me on to a higher level of achievement.  

You'll probably never see this, but thanks to Sarah, Katrina, Jenn, Rene, Elizabeth, Megan and Shelley! Are you feeling it? Whooo-hooo!  

[Matt]

Heather,
Kannst du Deutsch? Ich habe ihr Profile gesehen und du hast ein deutsches Mail. Bist du aus Deutschland? If you can't speak German, I just asked if you were from Germany and if you can speak German.

[Stillwater]

  Ja, Matt, ich kann deutsch. Ich habe dir eine private Email geschickt, denn ich denke, es bringt den anderen wenig, unsere deutschen Gespräche zu lesen.  
  Frage mich gerade, was sie denken werden, wenn sie das zwinkern sehen.   Vielleicht sagen Heather und Matt was geheimes!!    

Viel Spaß!
Heather

[al Hartman]

                                        Uh-oh!


                   They haff vays to make us talk!!!

[Stillwater]

  Well, gee, I guess no one else wants to talk about this stuff.  

  I can still think of lots more people and things I'm grateful for.   Here's one: my friend Linda. Linda was in a similar group when she was my age. Now, she's about my mom's age. She shared her story with me. It took her something like twelve years of running from God before she had experienced enough healing to return to the active pursuit of Christ. Now, she is one of the most seeking people I know, constantly studying to know more of Him.
  She helped me to give myself time to heal. She told me it was OK if I didn't go to church for a while, wasn't able to read the Bible without hearing GG, etc. She gave me permission to be human again, and I must say it is a joy to know God as a human being rather than having to be a "saint" to know God.

  Peace and love,

  Heather

[jessicalopez]

 

Healing happens over time, you take the good from the assembly, like the fellowship of the brethren, the ministry that was honest and thought provoking from other brethren than the Geftakys clan and not to mention the ability to turn to any book in the Bible in turbo time thanks to Mr. inconsiderate George G. Since alot of you are going through the same thing, you can talk and grieve together, It was different leaving alone, I found unconditional love in people that left before me and we have remained close friends since then. Finally you get a hold of other ministries, I listen to a lot of Christian Radio, so I hear all views, the Calvary Chapel station So. Ca. The Wave 107.9 and Focus on The Family was a great gift to me and brought on a lot of healing.  welcome to a normal life.

[jessicalopez]

  Just one more thing, start living again! Get over it, move on. You have to see your time in the assembly as though you were on a trip and you accidently landed in Iraq, so you talked like they do, ate like the Iraqies, drank like them, and had coffee enema's like they do, but now you are where you are supposed to be so do what you had planned! Be yourself(not a cookie cutter Christian) be who God made you to be. make new friends! Go after your goals and achieve them, dreams are a gift from the Lord he is for you. Some of you may think it is to late. Its not, Ella Fitzgerald received her Bachelors Degree at age 74, I know a Doctor that graduated med school at age 45. Life is to short to keep crying over this.  "Get busy Living or get busy dying" (the Shawshank Redemption" movie)

[MGov]

I was listening to oldies today, and this song hapenned to be playing.  It's a love song, but if you kind of spiritualize it, it has a lot of meaning to a lot of us.

"Lotta Love" by Neil Young

It's gonna take a lotta love
To change the way things are.
It's gonna take a lotta love
Or we won't get too far.

So if you look in my direction
And we don't see eye to eye,
My heart needs protection
And so do I.

It's gonna take a lotta love
To get us thru the night.
It's gonna take a lotta love
To make things work out right.

So if you are out there waitin'
I hope you show up soon,
'Cause my heart needs relatin'
Not solitude.

Gotta lotta love
Gotta lotta love.

It's gonna take a lotta love
To change the way things are.
It's gonna take a lotta love
Or we won't get too far.

It's gonna take a lotta love
To change the way things are.
It's gonna take a lotta love
Or we won't get too far.


M.

[Arlene]

jessica;
I agree.  
I've concluded that to get over what has happened and to go on with life is a step of faith.  To believe God is bigger and greater than all this world or people has to through at us is to walk by faith.
God has not played any tricks on us or lied to us.
He can be trusted .  
Yes, "it's gonna take a lotta love," Gods love!

[Matt]

                                        Uh-oh!


                   They haff vays to make us talk!!!

hmmm....Heather....wie sollen wir ihn (Al hartman) zwingen, mit uns zu sprechen?

[moonflower]

Ugh!!
Isn't it correctly spelled: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
 

[Matt]

Ugh!!
Isn't it correctly spelled: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
 

Ja, Frau Thonen...das is rite. Danke für korrekting Herr Hartman!

[Matt]

¿De qué hablan ellos?

О чем они говорят?

When I first left the assembly in 1981, I made a special effort to forget everything I learned there.  When I would read the Bible, I would always assume that I didn't know what it meant unless it was something perfectly obvious.  I was reconstructing from scratch what it was that I believed.

FANTASTIC!