Barcelona. Charlottesville. Winnipeg.
These are beautiful cities with rich histories. They are filled with amazing people who are living through fantastic and jaw-dropping stories. Yet, these cities have been in news headlines this week for reasons other than their beauty.
When we, as humans, choose to focus more on our differences rather than our similarities, boundaries get crossed. This often results in abuse and violence. When we view fellow humans as inferior for any reason, we are insulting God, the Creator of mankind.
Abuse is not God’s ideal for us, His creation. Yet, sadly, we are not immune to abuse or its effects, even among believers.
Abuse is nasty!
Everyone is affected, whether directly or indirectly, by various forms of abuse and its long lasting effects. To help combat this issue, the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists has created the enditnow campaign. They are working to empower local churches and their respective communities to break the cycle of abuses around them. In addition to destroying these devastating cycles, they aim to strengthen the good and help with the restoration process.
Our Women’s Ministry team will be leading out in worship on August 26. They will focus on EndItNow, which occurs annually on the fourth Saturday in August. In addition to raising awareness to the issues of abuse and violence, the team wants to provide local support and resources for our church and surrounding community in Winnipeg.
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There is a free pastors’ summit on abuse which will be live-streamed on Monday, September 11. This event, intended for adult audiences, is scheduled for 11:00 am to 3:30 pm. Though pastors are the target audience, the information will be useful for leaders regardless of your platform. Some of the presentations include: Child-to-Child Bullying, Misapplied Scriptures, Teen Dating Violence and more.
