I’m exhausted. I’ve been in Dallas since Wednesday. I left at 5am on Wednesday morning to face a wall of fog amidst the pitch black of the late morning. For two hours I hunched over my wheel, no music, only the prayers in my head keeping me company as I maneuvered my way up 45N until the rising sun broke through the darkness to allow a reprieve.
I made a quick stop running (literally) into an interdenominational bible study to deliver a quick 10 minute message. In this message I had no time to think about what needed to be said. I just SPOKE what I felt God wanted them to hear. I reiterated the experience I had getting there that morning and how clear it was to me that I needed to rely on GOD to guide me in all moments of my day, even getting me through the dark fog along my journey.
After this message was delivered I ran to the recording studio to begin the audio taping of EXPOSED. For two days I spent a total of 11 hours of recorded audio getting EXPOSED into an audio book format (soon available to all of you commuters). How humbling an experience to read your personal story out loud, and have to create voices for the characters that in reality I’d much rather forget. Bill, the amazing gentleman who was heading this project for me, encouraged me to allow the emotions to flow. And so the tears flowed, once again, for the umpteenth time. It’ll be interesting to see how this translates once I hear it played back to me through the headphones.
Finally I’m here with the gift to deliver an informative workshop on the affects of abuse and the importance of being COMFORTABLE with talking about the effects of abuse and repercussions of abuse. I spoke to middle school and high school teachers plus youth ministers and other faith formation teachers. It opened up the discussion of what can be done and the reality of how simple it is to begin the demise of ignorance and refutal of acknowledging that this is a real epidemic that can be stopped by allowing victims realize they not only should TALK about what they might be going through but that those that are in these key positions are not afraid to hear a victim tell their story.
I have the pleasure of delivering this message for the second time tomorrow afternoon and then I’m headed home Sunday. It’s been a long week and I am blessed for it abundantly. Dialogue has been opened and it is a good thing.
Blessings
Shannon