When
I was about 10, my parents had a birthday party for me. Several
children came & brought presents. After the party, I gathered up
all the gifts, gave them to my older brother Tom & said, “Here,
I don't want this junk! I want a puppy!”. It wasn't long after that
that my parents relented & bought our first family dog, Buttons.
Buttons
was a friendly dog & would even smile when you would talk to her.
We had a postman that would carry his bag of mail with him & give
Buttons a ride in his bag around the block. Buttons likes the postman
& would smile and sneeze when she would see him coming, happy to
see him.
One
day, there was a new postman. Buttons smiled as usual, but the new
postman took it as a snarl or threat & kicked Buttons. Buttons
would never trust a postman again & would bark & get agitated
if she saw one, or even a mail truck.
I
believe that most of the victims of abuse in YWAM were like Buttons in the beginning of
our YWAM experience. We looked upon the leaders as safe &
approachable since they were in the “service of the Lord”!
When
we were suddenly abused by one or more in leadership, it took away
our faith & trust in leaders. For a lot of us, there may always
be distrust when is comes to men & women who are in spiritual
leadership positions.
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