Today I’m going to be honored in Nashville Tennessee, (actually in the suburb community of Brentwood). Later this morning I’m being given the privilege and opportunity to give my testimony to all of the girls currently going through Nancy Alcorn’s Mercy Ministry Nashville rehabilitation center program.
So beginning as small children, most of these girls were abused and experienced repeated molestation, rape, and/or physical beatings. Their childhood was so bad that few can imagine the horror of living through it day after day, year after year.
So what’s a girl to do to in an effort to ease the pain and erase the terrible memories?
Some turned to alcohol and then drugs. Often they felt deep shame as though it was them that did something wrong and dirty. The result was that they turned to self-harm such as cutting themselves. Others developed eating disorders. Oddly many turned to the very thing that got most of them in this frame of mind, sex; the more perverted the better. They desperately tried to find something, anything, to ease the pain in their tortured minds. The problem is that those remedies just exacerbated the situation and made it much worse.
They need Jesus in their lives, but most were never exposed to going to church and have never even heard about Jesus. So as is so often the case, after they try all the world has to offer and cannot find a glimmer of hope, many look to suicide as their tantalizing final remedy to finding their peace.
Nancy tells me that she has a long waiting list for girls to get into one of her centers, but try as she might she simply doesn’t have enough space to treat them all, and unfortunately many commit suicide before an opening occurs. She told me it is always devastating to her to learn of these tragedies.
It is a long process for a girl to recover with the average stay being six months, but this ministry has a success rate of an astounding 94%. Nancy does not charge the girls for treatment and her facilities are first class in every aspect. She accepts no federal money, and relies 100% on private donations because she wants complete freedom in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She gives 10% of all donations made to her ministry to other ministries including a large donation to the Renewal of America. If you have a heart for supporting a terrific ministry that is accomplishing miracles daily, I can highly recommend this one.
Thus it is a tremendous honor to visit today. Hopefully my testimony can get through to these girls that what happened in the past should remain . . . well . . . in the past! I try to remind folks to think of an automobile. The rearview mirror is very small, but the front windshield is wide and large. In our lives we should spend our time looking ahead of us and not behind. I can tell you that when I look in the rear view mirror I don’t like what I see, and I much prefer to look to a bright future ahead of me and following Christ all of the way into heaven.
Most of these young people will listen to what I have to say because I’m one of them. I turned to alcohol, drugs, violent anti-social behavior, sex, and towards the end was planning my suicide. Just in the nick of time Jesus found me in a hospital bed in a charity hospital in Atlanta Georgia and though I drifted away from Him a couple of times and have made many mistakes, “He” never left me even for one second since that wonderful day.
My prayer this morning is that any of these girls that haven’t discovered Jesus will find him right here in Nashville this morning. Please say a gentle prayer for them right now . . . And hey if you are reliving your past and having a tough time with it, listen to the Apostle Paul’s sage advice this morning . . .
Phil. 3:13
but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
May 19, 2014 – Click here to listen