VIDEO TESTIMONIESRonda PelzerChris & Paula Ellefson
Niki Cornick
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freeing“Rich in Mercy did in 8 weeks, what 30 + years of meds and psychotherapy counseling couldn't do …” Ronda Pelzer
“Rich in Mercy has literally freed my soul. I hadn’t even realized how the abortion affected so many parts of my life. Guilt and shame were buried deep, not allowing me to be the person God had wanted me to be. I cannot thank you enough!” - Judy Johnson "[RIM gave me] so much freedom and the start of physical healing! God is restoring the years the locusts have taken. I was happy before. Now I feel like dancing!" - Linda Faatz |
Ronda Pelzer
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Sarah Quale
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stories of hope and healing
Amadi L. Swartz
From Amadi L. Swartz, Revs. Brian and Denise Walker’s eldest daughter:
“My family has been directly affected by the abortion choice. My parents specifically struggled with the choices they made twenty years prior. I have always remembered a tension between my parents when I was younger. I could not understand or explain it. I often remember my mom yelling at my dad for stupid reasons. These types of shouting matches escalated over the years. My mom did not seem to have much respect or love for my dad. And I wondered as a child, what had he done that was so bad that he deserved the verbal abuse? My siblings and I were constantly on edge, as we never knew what mood our folks might be in that particular day and we contemplated how much longer our parents could stand each other. I remember a day in which my sister and I were deciding who we would like to live with when our parents got divorced. I hated thinking about that and being really scared.
“Come to find out, it was not what my father had done, but what they had done together. Three abortions had taken its toll on my parents. Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and relentless guilt had damaged their relationship with each other. There was no peace or joy; only an atmosphere electrified with pain and hopelessness. It was unbearable.
“If my mom and dad had not received healing from all the emotional scars they endured, I am positive that I would be another number one might read in the headlines. We would be a broken home instead of one filled with love, laughter, joy and peace. Because my parents are whole, our household is whole.
“These wonderful attributes can be achieved only when truth is told and healing is accomplished. I encourage anyone and everyone who has either made the abortion choice or is experiencing the effects of it, to find help as soon as possible. The sooner it is found, the easier it will be to unwrap the layers and begin a life of complete freedom.”
“My family has been directly affected by the abortion choice. My parents specifically struggled with the choices they made twenty years prior. I have always remembered a tension between my parents when I was younger. I could not understand or explain it. I often remember my mom yelling at my dad for stupid reasons. These types of shouting matches escalated over the years. My mom did not seem to have much respect or love for my dad. And I wondered as a child, what had he done that was so bad that he deserved the verbal abuse? My siblings and I were constantly on edge, as we never knew what mood our folks might be in that particular day and we contemplated how much longer our parents could stand each other. I remember a day in which my sister and I were deciding who we would like to live with when our parents got divorced. I hated thinking about that and being really scared.
“Come to find out, it was not what my father had done, but what they had done together. Three abortions had taken its toll on my parents. Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and relentless guilt had damaged their relationship with each other. There was no peace or joy; only an atmosphere electrified with pain and hopelessness. It was unbearable.
“If my mom and dad had not received healing from all the emotional scars they endured, I am positive that I would be another number one might read in the headlines. We would be a broken home instead of one filled with love, laughter, joy and peace. Because my parents are whole, our household is whole.
“These wonderful attributes can be achieved only when truth is told and healing is accomplished. I encourage anyone and everyone who has either made the abortion choice or is experiencing the effects of it, to find help as soon as possible. The sooner it is found, the easier it will be to unwrap the layers and begin a life of complete freedom.”
Ronda Pelzer, former Rich in Mercy participant; Facilitator in Rochester, MN
There is no earthly reason I should be healed of my past traumas and the PTSD associated with them, nor is there any earthly reason I should know how to love others and care for people. Because of my past, I could be bitter, angry, unloving, untrusting, unforgiving, victimized, or even dead. But by the grace of God, by His undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor He gave me when I was saved, delivered, became a part of a loving church family, and then completed the Rich in Mercy group, I am healed. God is able to do so much more than we could ever imagine when we are willing to cry out to Him and allow Him to come in and radically transform us through His Word and His loving presence. Rich in Mercy has its foundation in the Word of God, and it was a purposeful, directed healing for my PTSD. RIM was able to do more for me in 8 weeks than 30+ years of conventional meds and psychotherapy ever did.
I had been saved for ten years, was very involved in my church, led many different ministries, and counseled several people over those years. I had a very wonderful, loving church family and my entire immediate family was saved and serving the Lord. I had a strong relationship with Jesus and read and knew the Word of God. I was a new creation in Christ. But I had a thirty year old secret I was holding onto, thinking that, in revealing that secret, my life would be over.
My childhood was filled with neglect, alcoholism, violence, and sexual abuse. At age 13, I became pregnant with my father’s baby. And my baby died at the hand of my father through miscarriage, after he beat me. I had never revealed that secret to anyone in my life. I buried it, so deeply in fact, that during the seven years I worked at a pregnancy resource center and medical clinic, I never once thought about it as I counseled women who had miscarriages and abortions. But Satan knew my name and he called me by my sin and the sins of those who had abused me. I still believed the enemy’s lies and did not function as a new creation, even though I knew the truths of the Bible. I had a lot of emotions, thoughts, behaviors and ways of relating to people that I knew needed to change, but I did not know how.
In finally telling my secret to my pastors and then doing the Rich in Mercy group, I learned that it was the keeping of the secret, not the secret itself, that was actually killing me. God knew my sin and the sins of those who had hurt me, but He called me by name, his Daughter. And He gave me loving people in my church and in the Rich in Mercy group to walk with me and to help me finally heal. Now I truly live as a redeemed, delivered, restored, newly created Daughter of the Most High God, and I have overflowing peace, love and joy. If you have a miscarriage or abortion in your past, please contact Rich in Mercy about joining a group. I want you too to hear the truth of Jesus’ victory speak louder to you than anything the enemy Satan can ever say about your past.
There is no earthly reason I should be healed of my past traumas and the PTSD associated with them, nor is there any earthly reason I should know how to love others and care for people. Because of my past, I could be bitter, angry, unloving, untrusting, unforgiving, victimized, or even dead. But by the grace of God, by His undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor He gave me when I was saved, delivered, became a part of a loving church family, and then completed the Rich in Mercy group, I am healed. God is able to do so much more than we could ever imagine when we are willing to cry out to Him and allow Him to come in and radically transform us through His Word and His loving presence. Rich in Mercy has its foundation in the Word of God, and it was a purposeful, directed healing for my PTSD. RIM was able to do more for me in 8 weeks than 30+ years of conventional meds and psychotherapy ever did.
I had been saved for ten years, was very involved in my church, led many different ministries, and counseled several people over those years. I had a very wonderful, loving church family and my entire immediate family was saved and serving the Lord. I had a strong relationship with Jesus and read and knew the Word of God. I was a new creation in Christ. But I had a thirty year old secret I was holding onto, thinking that, in revealing that secret, my life would be over.
My childhood was filled with neglect, alcoholism, violence, and sexual abuse. At age 13, I became pregnant with my father’s baby. And my baby died at the hand of my father through miscarriage, after he beat me. I had never revealed that secret to anyone in my life. I buried it, so deeply in fact, that during the seven years I worked at a pregnancy resource center and medical clinic, I never once thought about it as I counseled women who had miscarriages and abortions. But Satan knew my name and he called me by my sin and the sins of those who had abused me. I still believed the enemy’s lies and did not function as a new creation, even though I knew the truths of the Bible. I had a lot of emotions, thoughts, behaviors and ways of relating to people that I knew needed to change, but I did not know how.
In finally telling my secret to my pastors and then doing the Rich in Mercy group, I learned that it was the keeping of the secret, not the secret itself, that was actually killing me. God knew my sin and the sins of those who had hurt me, but He called me by name, his Daughter. And He gave me loving people in my church and in the Rich in Mercy group to walk with me and to help me finally heal. Now I truly live as a redeemed, delivered, restored, newly created Daughter of the Most High God, and I have overflowing peace, love and joy. If you have a miscarriage or abortion in your past, please contact Rich in Mercy about joining a group. I want you too to hear the truth of Jesus’ victory speak louder to you than anything the enemy Satan can ever say about your past.
Rene B.
“I had just turned 15 when I was 26-1/2 weeks pregnant and walking into the abortion clinic. I aborted my son Luke in Feb 1979. I didn’t realize at the time that the abortion was what they called a partial birth abortion. When I asked to see “it”, they placed the bloodied, decapitated, broken from limb-to-limb child in my arms. Luke was a fully developed little boy weighing about 2 pounds with a fully developed body, and not the blob of tissue they told me he was. The shock and deep anger I felt at being lied to and the horror of knowing that I killed a little baby was more than I could bear. Luke was my only son that I would never have the chance to know.
“I knew in my heart that what I was doing was wrong though; I didn’t feel like I had any other choice. No adult in my family or at school stepped up to the plate to offer an alternative solution, they pretended to see nothing. Almost immediately I was spiritually attacked by Satan, telling me what awful thing I had just done and that from this point on there was no going back I was going to hell.
“I acquired an eating disorder that left me weighing only 90 pounds at 5’8. I became addicted to drugs and alcohol, I engaged in very dangerous activities not caring if my life ended, I became involved with cult activity, I had several different sexually partners; I was a thief and a liar. I was an extremely angry person who often had explosive fits of rages; at one point I even planned on how I was going to kill a schoolmate. 2 years after the abortion I unsuccessfully attempted suicide. Life meant nothing. I merely existed. As the years went by I denied I ever had an abortion and I became pro-choice to try and justify what I had done. Misery truly loves company.
“Then there was a time in my life when I called out to God, and he answered. Although I had given up on me, he never did. I never told any one that I had an abortion until I attended a Women’s retreat in April 2002. At that point I thought that I had already dealt with the pain. I was wrong. When I first came to Rich in Mercy in August 2003, I was surprised to see how much pain and denial I had over the abortion. There were a lot of issues to work out. One of the scariest was to admit to my family that I had an abortion and to tell my daughter that she was not an only child, but that she had a brother named Luke who would have been 5 years her senior.
Through the ministry that God gave to Denise and Brian I have been set free. I am a living example of what God meant when he said, “Those that he sets free, are free indeed.” Praise God!! God has done a miracle in my life by restoring my sanity, taking away the pain and the shame and giving dignity to my son, Luke.
“I am thankful to Denise, and Brian, Linda, Lori and Julie for sharing their stories, showing support and for holding me up in prayer. I am also thankful for those of you who have been praying for us all these weeks and for each of you being here. I am most thankful for the calling that God has placed on Denise and Brian’s life, for the desire they have to see others set free and to receive healing. My Son Luke was a very important part in God’s perfect plan. Although my actions created a change in that plan, I believe that God still has a plan to use Luke’s short life to communicate the importance of sexual purity, to expose the truth of torment and devastation abortions create in a person’s soul, to bring healing to the hurting, and to honor to the other children that have been aborted.
“Today March 25th I give honor to my son Luke Raphael.
I love you Luke.
Love, mom”