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Sexual abuse prevention and intervention services.

Pastor to Pastor

Dear Pastor,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I am Pastor Ron Bontrager of Lakeview Christian Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

I am writing this as a pastor who, at a previous church I led, discovered, much to my dismay, that our Youth Pastor had been molesting one of the boys in the youth group for over a year and a half.  Our immediate reaction was to call other Pastors for advice and direction.  Those I spoke with had never been in this particular type of situation before, and what worked with the usual cases of Pastoral moral failure simply did not apply.   I knew there could be legal ramifications, and I was scared.

The Lord graciously directed our pathway (as He promised He would) to the Tree of Rest, Inc. under the guidance of Jan Morrison.  Jan is a genuine blessing to the Body of Christ, His wonderful Church.  Her expertise and compassion gave us all a sense of great relief and trust.  Jam simply moved in, "set up shop," and decisively began to lay out for all the parties involved what to expect.  She focused first on the victim and his family, confronted the perpetrator, developed a plan with the full knowledge of the District Attorney, and trained the entire church body concerning sexual abuse.

When the Body is wounded and bleeding, it very often does not know how to respond.  In the natural body when a wound invades, all of the attention and energy is focused upon the pain.   So often this happens in the Spiritual Body of Christ as well, and a great deal of inertia can set in.  This hinders us from moving forward in the work of the Lord.  Sexual abuse certainly inflicts deep spiritual wounds on a congregation.
    

However, our Lord is a God of redemption.  He promised that He would take what Satan intended for evil and work it for good, and He used the Tree of Rest to keep that promise for our church.  Once the crisis had been diffused and healing had come to our congregation, Jan returned and helped us establish SARAH (for women) and R&R (for men) ministries, to minister to the people in our congregation and community who had been sexually abused.

When I came to Lakeview, I made the SARAH and R&R ministries a part of our church.  We currently have over a dozen people involved in running four programs a year.  I have a thick file of cards, letters, and notes and am consistently hearing testimonials from people both in and outside our congregation who have received healing through these programs.  

I recommend this ministry to you without reservation.

If you would like to contact me, please feel free to: e-mail 
ronbontrager@lakeviewchurch.org  or phone at 317-243-9396 (church)  or 317-273-8080 (home).

God bless you.

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