·        Ninety-five percent of prostitutes were victims of child abuse.

·        Often abused victims marry abusers.

For those who survive, the damage includes: Brain injuries leading to changes in memory, emotion, and basic drives, STDs, mental retardation, speech problem, depression, low self-esteem, self-destructiveness, physical aggression, and adolescent pregnancy.[1]

We have an Advocate who understands. He’s been there, too. Despite the rawness of abuse, there’s healing and forgiveness bought through bloody redemption of our Savior.

Adapted from  Set Free: God’s Healing Power for Abuse Survivors and Those Who Love Them, copyright 2005 by Jan Coates.  Published by Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Minneapolis , Mn., www.bethanyhouse.com .
Jan Coates  has worked in sales, marketing, and creative writing for more than 25 years. She is a speaker, has appeared on television and radio, and owns her own sales and marketing consulting company (CC/MS). As a teen full of shame and guilt from child abuse, she turned her back on the Christian faith. Then in 1982 a drunk driver killed her only child. Jan rededicated her life to Jesus on Easter Sunday, 1983. Today Jan and her husband are the parents of two teenagers who were adopted as babies. She and her family live in College Station , Texas . www.jancoates.com .

[1]Please see: www.prevent-abuse-now.com/stats, www.preventchildabuse.org, www.childtrends.org, www.washtimes.com, www.safechild.org/abuse.htm