A Season of Thanksgiving and Looking Ahead
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Dear Friend,
As we prepare to celebrating Thanksgiving, we at Reconciliation Ministries want to thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support during 2019. You have touched many lives in our recovery programs, as well as through licensed professional counseling and prayer ministry. Although our suggested donation for counseling and prayer ministry is well below the average price at most clinics, many of our clients are unable to contribute the full suggested donation for each session. Some are unable to contribute at all. Others are unable to afford the low tuition rates for the Living Waters and Mending the Soul programs. It is the generosity of support of team members like you that make it possible for these precious hearts to receive the healing that they need through scholarships and financial assistance. You are making a tremendous impact in the hearts of sexual abuse survivors and those struggling with sexual sin. You are saving marriages and lives. You are helping to set the captives free.
Your investment in Reconciliation Ministries during 2019 has helped to strengthen the foundations of the ministry. It’s been a year of recalibration and equipping for me after returning from Thailand and getting resettled back here in Metro Detroit. I was blessed to see the growth in the ministry team during the preparation for ministry in Thailand, during the six months I was away, and continuing to this day. The Lord is equipping and empowering the Living Waters team members and therapists here at the ministry.
Your support during 2019 has made it possible for us to reinforce the original calling of Reconciliation Ministries to help men, women and adolescents overcome unwanted same-sex attraction, and live a life of Biblical sexual integrity. Reconciliation Ministries was founded in 1984 to offer pastoral care, seminars, and equipping for the local church to minister to the sexually broken. The Lord has expanded that calling through the years as we’ve added ministry to those who are bound by heterosexual sin and pornography. We began to offer the Living Waters program in the early 1990s, and licensed professional counseling in 2008. About four years ago, the Lord began to speak to us to deepen our ministry to those who have endured childhood sexual abuse and trauma. We recognized this included serving many people who were far more wounded than those we’ve served in the past. That led to a search for an effective recovery group for sexual abuse survivors, and we began offering Mending the Soul.
This year we recognized the need to learn more about ministering to those who were struggling with gender identity confusion. As we learn more about each of these challenges, we pass much of that information on to you through our newsletters and website.
As we look ahead to 2020, we’re excited to see how the Lord will use each of you on the support team to touch even more lives. The percentage of those who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and trauma among those who are sexually and relationally broken is mind boggling. When the pain of past trauma is overwhelming, most people don’t know what to do. Many turn to sin to numb the pain. As a member of the Reconciliation Ministries support team, you can offer them hope. Your donations can help provide additional resources for healing. In the past few months, the Lord inspired me to get better equipped to work with trauma survivors and I recently became a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional [CCTP]. This has given us even more tools to reach out and help others. In the beginning of 2020 I’ll be receiving training in a form of therapy called EMDR. EMDR is one of the most valuable therapeutic techniques for trauma recovery available today. Most importantly, whatever pastoral care and clinical offerings we provide at Reconciliation Ministries will always be presented within Biblical parameters. True healing doesn’t happen without Jesus, and He has created a wide variety of tools to help people receive the healing that He provides. Your donations can provide more ministry services to those who are emotionally wounded, and to those who don’t have the financial ability to cover the cost of the help that they need.
If you are already a Reconciliation Ministries support team member, you are fulfilling a critical role in our mission. We cannot do what we do without men and women like you who pray regularly for this ministry and our participants. We cannot do what we do without the men and women who invest financially in this ministry to cover the cost of touching lives. On behalf of the people whose lives you’ve touched through your generosity, thank you. We invite you to continue touching lives as a support team member in 2020 and beyond.
If you aren’t yet a member of the Reconciliation Ministries support team, now is a great time to join us in touching hearts with an end of the year tax-deductible gift, and monthly giving. You can donate online securely online by clicking here. We also invite you to join us as an intercessor and pray for the ministry participants and our leadership team. Join our intercessory team by emailing me at dhitz@recmin.org. No financial gift is too small to change a life. Every prayer is valued.
In Christ,
Dan Hitz, Director, Reconciliation Ministries of Michigan, Inc.
P.S. If you would like to meet with me in person to find out more about how you can become a Reconciliation Ministries support team member, or if Reconciliation Ministries can help you in any way, please feel free to contact me personally at 586.739.5114 or via email at dhitz@recmin.org. We are here for you.
Photos used with permission from www.unsplash.com.