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John
|
is 45. He and his wife live with two of their
children in Virginia, and their oldest son is in the United
States Marine Corps....[more] |
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David
|
is 46, and more than 20 years ago he lost his son,
Matthew Peter, to abortion. As a result, his relationship
with Matthew's mother also came to an end....[more]
|
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Scott
|
is 45 years old is married and has one daughter.
He is an ordained minister with the Pentecostal Assemblies
and operates a soup kitchen on skid row...[more]
|
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Steve
|
is 45, married, managing two group homes for the
mentally retarded, a licensed chemical dependency counselor,
and currently working towards his Ph.D....[more]
|
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Fr. Jim |
is 50, a full time hospital
chaplain in Minneapolis, MN....[more] |
|
Graham |
is 56,
twice married, and lives near Portland, OR....[more] |
John is 45. He and his wife live with two of their children
in Virginia, and their oldest son is in the United States Marine
Corps. He is a regional vice president of service within the
office products industry. John and his wife have been married
for 25 years. They had an abortion together 28 years ago in
1975. After 25 years of silence between them about their
abortion experience (not one word of it spoken for 25 years),
John dared to break the silence after seeing a notice for a
Rachel's Vineyard retreat. They discovered a shared desire to
break the silence and to seek understanding of why. Together,
they experienced the healing Grace of God's reconciling love for
them and felt the love between them grow in the truth and
fullness of acknowledged life. Today, they share a vocation
together in post-abortion ministry.
top
David is 46, and more than 20 years ago he lost his son,
Matthew Peter, to abortion. As a result of the abortion, his
relationship with Matthew's mother, Emma (a pseudonym), also
came to an end. David kept this double loss silent for nearly 17
years before finally revealing it to his parish priest. David
attended a Rachel's Vineyard retreat in 2002 and gained much
needed emotional and spiritual healing with the help of the
loving members of a Rachel's Vineyard team. David is an attorney
in private practice, and he teaches subjects such as American
Constitutional Law, State and Local Government, American
Criminal Procedure, and the American Criminal Justice System.
"Men suffer when we lose our children, especially when it is as
a result of abortion. Despite what the culture says, these
children are ours, too, and we are entitled to find healing and
peace for the hole in our lives that their absence causes."
top
Scott is 45 years old is married and has one daughter. He is
an ordained minister with the Pentecostal Assemblies and
operates a soup kitchen on skid row in a major city. He does
some construction work on the side in the summer time. He
experienced an abortion in his life 25 years ago when he allowed
his girlfriend to abort their child without resistance. The
ensuing guilt, anxiety and grief drove him to seek healing from
the God of his fathers. The forgiveness and help he received
lead him to follow his God into the ministry. He enjoys going on
hikes with his daughter who is four years old.
top
Steve is 45, married, manages two group homes for the
mentally retarded, is a licensed chemical dependency counselor,
and is currently working towards his Ph.D. in marriage and
family therapy. He became involved in Rachel's Vineyard when his
wife attended a retreat and he supported her by attending the
memorial service. Although not post-abortive himself, he has
experienced the struggles of his wife's post-abortion aftermath
during the years prior to finding Rachel's Vineyard. Steve
attended a national leadership training conference where he felt
a calling to become more involved in post abortion ministry. He
and his wife now coordinate Rachel's Vineyard retreats in Fort
Worth, Texas. He believes that men also suffer after abortion,
and that their suffering manifests in a different way. The
retreats help men and couples to heal as much as it helps women.
In his free time, Steve enjoys writing and taking Kung Fu
classes.
top
Fr. Jim is
50, a full time hospital chaplain in Minneapolis, MN. He was
ordained in 1990 for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and
Minneapolis. Fr. Jim has served at several Rachel's Vineyard
weekend retreats in the Twin Cities. He is active in the
charismatic renewal, in the Secular Carmelites, and he is also
the primary chaplain for the Twin Cities "Courage" and
"Encourage" ministries to those with same sex attraction and
their families. Fr. Jim can especially help with questions you
may have about Church related and bio-ethics related issues.
top
Graham is 56 years old, twice married, and lives
near Portland, Oregon.
More than 30 years ago, he did not stop the abortion
that cost him his only biological child and eventually the
relationship with that child's mother.
After the abortion, Graham told no one, not family,
not friends, not his first wife, nor his current wife of 20
years. He
suffered alone in denial of the grief and shame caused by
the abortion.
Through God's Grace and Love, Graham was led, in mid-2006,
to Calvary Chapel, a non-denominational Christian
fellowship, where a series of events began that led him to a
Rachel's Vineyard retreat in 2007 where his healing journey
began in earnest.
Since that retreat, Graham has been active with the
Oregon Rachel's Vineyard team, and has participated in
several radio and television interviews discussing the
importance of a man's acknowledgement of his abortion and
the necessity for healing the grief and other emotions that
linger long after the event.
