July 11, 2024 • 44 mins
Welcome to another heartfelt episode of The Treehouse Storyteller. Join us in the Treehouse for a compelling and courageous conversation about hope, redemption, love, and forgiveness.
In this episode, Hannah sits down with Serena, who bravely shares her story of facing unimaginable trauma at just 13 years old. Serena's journey took her through the painful experiences of rape, abortion, and the subsequent struggles that almost tore her life apart. But her story doesn't end there. Serena speaks about the transformative power of God's love and how she found hope and healing.
Through her testimony, Serena discusses the importance of addressing cultural issues head-on and understanding the biblical worldview to guide our children. She also sheds light on the role of the church in supporting individuals facing similar struggles and the need for abortion recovery ministries.
This episode is a powerful reminder of God's redemptive grace and the strength that comes from sharing our stories. Tune in to hear how Serena's life was turned around and how she now helps others find freedom and purpose through her ministry, She Found His Grace.
Don't miss this inspiring episode that promises to bring hope and healing to all who listen.
Find Serena Dyksen Here:
FB @She Found His Grace
Instagram @she_found_his_grace
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head on and finding a deeper
(00:24):
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of the juicy details.
Our children are being chased by the world and it is our job to be well-equipped
and know not only how to lead our flock, but successfully send our arrows out
into the world one day to build the kingdom.
(00:46):
So snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds in and
meet me in the tree house for some biblical storytelling.
Music.
Oh my goodness, today I think is going to be an amazing episode.
I have a very awesome, very bold, courageous guest with me.
(01:12):
At the age of 13 years old, Serena was raped, pregnant, and taken to an abortion clinic.
Abortion was supposed to be the answer after the trauma, but instead it tore
her family apart and nearly destroyed her life.
Guys, we're going to talk about hope today. We're going to talk about redemption,
(01:32):
love and forgiveness after abortion.
So stay with me. This one's going to be an awesome one.
Welcome to the Treehouse, Serena.
Thank you so much, Hannah. It's such an honor to be here. I'm excited about
our topic to bring hope and healing as people listen to the podcast. So thank you.
(01:54):
Absolutely. Okay. So first things first, we have to know more of the details.
I mean, this is such a story of your life, such a testament to God's goodness in the end.
And so let's hear kind of a rough timeline, how your story unfolded.
I just really want to hear your testimony and give you that time right off the
bat to just really let our listeners into hearing that full story and captivating us with that.
(02:18):
Yeah. So when I was 13 years old, I was sexually assaulted by a relative and
that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.
And as you can imagine, as a parent, you're just sucker punched.
And my mom had had some sexual trauma in her past. And so she worked really
(02:40):
hard to try to protect us.
And so when she heard that news, she was so devastated.
And I remember that her and her, my mom and my dad came to my middle school
and picked me up and we went to our family doctor, which when I wrote my book.
(03:02):
And one of the staff members from the doctor's office reached out to me and
said that this doctor still struggles with that decision till this day.
He was pro-life. He was Catholic, but had a misplaced compassion because of
the circumstances and my age.
(03:23):
And I had never heard the word abortion before in my life.
And so when he said the word abortion, I just was clueless. I had no idea what he was talking about.
And I remember my mom just shaking her head yes to that's what we would do.
(03:45):
And I remember them saying, when you get to the clinic, make sure you walk in
quickly because the people outside hate you guys.
And I remember that really just tripping, tripping my mom's trigger of her saying
they don't understand what we're going through.
(04:06):
The day of the abortion, we ended up going into the clinic.
They separated me from my parents as a 13-year-old, and I was taken to what
they called a counseling room. And...
They, the only thing they mentioned was a clump of cells.
(04:28):
And I still did not know what abortion was. I did not.
I had no clue. I thought, we're at a doctor's office, and they're just here to help.
And so I, when they asked if I was ready for the abortion, I said, yes.
And the first time I met George Crawford, he came in, he smiled,
(04:48):
he said, this won't take long.
And what ended up happening was it was the worst pain that I've ever experienced in my life.
My mom, she could hear me and she was told she couldn't help me.
So that resulted in her having a mental breakdown for two weeks.
I had to go to a mental hospital.
(05:11):
My dad carried me out of the clinic. I had hemorrhaged everywhere and the clinic
never offered any help or care.
My dad just picked me up, carried me out over his shoulder.
And we left that clinic that day and we never wanted to talk about what happened.
And eventually my dad, my dad never, you know, he didn't recover.
(05:33):
He eventually left our family. And so at 16, Planned Parenthood came into our school.
And to give you a background of my community, Amish community,
Christian community, and Planned Parenthood came in for sex education.
So at that time, I found myself pregnant again.
(05:57):
And so we still, I was still naive, went to Planned Parenthood.
And they said, you're young, you're in school, and you're poor,
you should abort your baby.
And kind of to back up a little bit, I always tell parents, Know who's coming into your schools.
Yeah. You know, ask some questions.
(06:19):
What I can tell you is Planned Parenthood is not necessarily coming in as Planned Parenthood anymore.
They're coming in under medical providers. So your little medical providers in your community,
probably the people you go to for when you have a cold, when you have your doctor's
(06:40):
checkups, they might be coming under their banner.
So just be aware of that. I like parents to know that. Yeah.
Yeah. And so, you know, Planned Parenthood had suggested an abortion.
And that day I went out to the car and my boyfriend, who is now my husband of
30 years, he looked at me. I know. Isn't it good?
(07:05):
Yeah. He looked at me and he said, what do you think about having an abortion?
And he grew up in the church, but they never talked about they never talked about abortion.
He was 17. you know, that was in his mind of what, you know, crossed his mind.
And I shared my story for the first time. And he said, I don't know how we'll
(07:26):
figure it out, but we'll figure it out. And we chose life that day.
And, you know, it really was, but I have to give a shout out to the testimony
of our church, his church.
I didn't come from a church background, but they loved us well.
They held our feet to the fire.
(07:47):
So we knew they made it very clear, the biblical standards of like,
you guys need to cut out what you're doing because God has such a better plan for you guys.
And so we took that very, very serious.
And so they helped, they gave us a baby shower and they helped us learn how to budget.
(08:08):
They helped us with our wedding. We, we did get married.
I was still, I was a junior in high school and my husband, he actually graduated
high school. We got married, we got married in the morning and he graduated high school that night.
I don't recommend that, but we pulled it off.
(08:29):
So yeah, and, and really just the support of the church.
And we, by the time we were 23, we had two little kids. We bought our first
house and we thought life was good.
We were beating the odds.
That's really where we were pretty proud of those accomplishments.
(08:51):
And what happened was I had a miscarriage. And what I didn't realize at the
time was it ended up triggering a double grief that neither one of us understood.
I never grieved the loss of my aborted child.
And now I have a miscarriage that I'm trying to walk through.
(09:14):
And so I, you know, as a mom, I was struggling with grief.
My husband, the way he processed that miscarriage was he actually just started working a lot.
He started to volunteer a lot. And I had shut down and didn't know,
(09:34):
we didn't know how to process that.
And so we started to have marital issues and just really struggling.
But no one in the church knew we were struggling.
You know, you sometimes go to church and you slap on a happy face and everything is fine.
And you get home and the week is crap all week long, you know,
(09:56):
or you start, you stop going to church on Sundays. You just kind of disappeared, you know?
And so for us, you know, that was kind of what was happening with us.
I ended up, one of my ovaries ruptured and I almost, I almost,
yeah, I almost lost my life.
And then eventually ended up having a complete hysterectomy,
(10:19):
which we now know is part of the abortion.
And we didn't know any of that at the time.
And then as our kids got older, middle school hit, and I really started to struggle
with feeling worthy enough to be a mother and a wife.
I was just so struggling with that.
(10:42):
And so one day I decided that I was going to bless my husband on.
I wanted him to find a new wife. I wanted him to find a new mother for our kids.
And so Serena's plan was to move out of the house and let him move on with his life.
And I found myself really partying. I started to drink a lot.
(11:05):
I started to use drugs and life was just out of control.
And one night after a heavy night drinking and I had used, I knew that if I
got behind the wheel of my car, there is a good possibility that I might get
pulled over and go to jail. And I didn't want to do that.
(11:26):
Looking back, it was really, really selfish because I was thinking about myself.
I wasn't really thinking about others.
And that night, one by one, people who would rescue me told me no,
that they were not going to come and get me.
It felt like the worst night of my life. But what I can tell you is it turned
(11:46):
out to be the best night of my life because of that.
That night, I ended up getting in my car and I said a simple prayer.
And my prayer was, God, I don't have anybody but you.
And what I love is that God saw a post-abortive woman who was high and drunk
(12:08):
and just called out to be rescued.
And he lavished me in a love that I'll never, ever forget.
And I knew that night I needed to go home both physically and spiritually.
Spiritually and that began our healing journey and
our healing journey was not easy it's it's
a layer after layer you know
(12:29):
i remember our counselor going to our
counselor and because my counselor went to my church i thought you know i'll
and and to give you some perspective and i see this all the time in what i do
a lot of times women will think that sexual abuse is worse than abortion It's
just how Planned Parenthood has marketed that.
(12:52):
And so I really did believe that and didn't identify until I started my healing process.
But it didn't start my healing process didn't start with the abortion.
It started with my sexual abuse because I thought if I told my counselor about
the abortion, he would go back and tell people in my church and people in my
(13:17):
church would cast me out.
That's that was the lie, I believed. Yeah.
Yeah. And so going through the process, you know, the sexual abuse healing,
I felt like I found so much freedom, so much healing.
God was restoring our marriage. It was beautiful what the Lord was doing.
(13:38):
We got back into church. We were serving.
We, you know, God was restoring so many things.
And then I got invited to see the movie Unplanned.
And talk about if you have not seen it, a movie about abortion.
And I had never seen that before. I had never heard anybody talk about that before.
(14:06):
So I was like, whoa, what in the world?
And I just remember sitting in the movie theater and hearing Holy Spirit say,
now is the time to tell the rest of your story.
That's awesome.
(14:37):
My plan, Serena's plan. Serena has lots of good plans.
Hannah, do you have that sometimes? Oh, yeah. I have lots of good plans.
Right, right. So, yeah. And so I was like, I'm going to go help women and choose life.
So I'm going to train as a sidewalk counselor because I love doing stuff like
(14:59):
that. That's just fun for me.
I love outreach. reach. And, and so I went through the training and have sweet
sister say, have you ever gone through abortion healing?
And I'm going to be real honest. Someone might be listening today and they might
be in the same place that I, that I was. I rolled her.
(15:22):
I was like, you know, in my head, I was like the audacity of this woman.
She'd know all the healing I've gone through.
But I heard Holy Spirit say, how do you expect to help others if you're not
willing to go there yourself?
And I was like, your own plank first, right?
(15:45):
Right. You know, we don't know what we don't know. We don't,
you know, we might have an idea, but we don't know what we don't know.
And so I went through healing and it changed my life.
For the first time, I felt like Like I was able to grieve the loss of my child, both of my children.
I was able to name Eliana Grace, who, you know, was lost to abortion and our
(16:11):
miscarried son, Malachi John.
And it was a beautiful, beautiful process.
And so I, after going through the healing, I continued to go out to the abortion clinic.
And once again, I heard the Lord asked me to do a memorial service for men and
women who were hurting from abortion.
(16:33):
And out of obedience, I was like, okay, God, I don't know what it looks like, but I'll do it.
And that whole week, I had planned a memorial service Friday night,
and I had stayed off social media on purpose.
I wanted to really just seek the Lord on what He wanted.
I didn't want my plan. And and and partly I didn't know what I was doing anyway.
(16:56):
So I needed help. I needed help.
And so that Friday, I ended up opening my social media.
And that's when I saw the news that the abortionist that had been taken to George
Clafford had passed away.
And they had found that he had hoarded two thousand four hundred and eleven
(17:17):
babies in his garage. Oh my gosh.
(17:48):
It was this powerful moment that I knew that God had a purpose.
What I didn't know was...
That my story was going to hit national news and the process of healing.
If I had not been obedient and gone through that healing, I don't think that
(18:09):
I know I would not have been prepared for what God had at that moment and beyond.
And really, even having us start the ministry, She Found This Grace to help
other men and women go through that healing and,
you know, be able to use their voice and their story to change the narrative of abortion.
(18:31):
Wow. Wow. So how, I don't even know where to start.
I have so many questions, so many thoughts. How old are your kids now?
So we have adult children now. And yeah.
So my question, I guess, is how did you communicate and address this with your kids, raising them?
(18:54):
Because I think that is like, you know, sticking to like, I have a lot of other
questions, but trying to stick to like the parenting concept of a lot of my
listeners, like, how do we address this?
And my daughter, who's 11, was asking me like, Oh, what's your podcast going
to be about tomorrow, mom?
And, you know, I'm telling her and I didn't even think about it.
And I just said, Well, she was raped.
(19:15):
And then she looks at me and she's like, Well, what the heck is that?
So I'm like, Oh, okay. How far do we go right before bedtime of,
you know, telling you this part of, of life, unfortunately, that,
you know, that happens to people.
And so that's really my question is like, where, where did you start?
(19:37):
Was it little by little? Did you set them down?
Like, how did you address that?
Yeah, looking back, I wish we would have done things way different than what we did. We all do.
We all do. Right. And I think for me, you know, kind of my root system was everything
was hush hush secret secret.
And so we didn't do, we didn't communicate a lot of that to our kids.
(20:05):
The one because of, you know, just a lot of on field stuff in our lives.
But I think, you know, honestly, that part of our story, we didn't share until our kids were older.
They didn't know all of that. And I, looking back, I wish that we would have
(20:26):
had those conversations, age appropriate conversations, right?
Yeah. And, And, and, you know, once again, just seeing God's grace and mercy
of other people that walked alongside of our kids when our lives are sideways.
And, and so I think, you know, one of the biggest fears, I think for me telling my kids.
(20:49):
Was how were they going to react to it? You know, that's a big,
pretty big bomb to give to your kids, you know, and our kids were so loving.
Of course, they had to process that.
And now they are very happy to help us behind the scenes with ministry stuff.
Awesome. Yeah. So they just know, yeah, because of our values and they want
(21:15):
to help others choose life. And they had a front row seat of what our lives
look like being unhealed. So, yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure they have a testimony from that standpoint, too.
And seeing what, you know, kind of the pivotal moment where mom wasn't okay.
And now she is like, this is, you know, a huge difference.
(21:35):
So when you kind of went through that, you know, really, I just I see a lot
of work of the enemy using shame to cripple you through the story over and over again.
And it's just this underlying, you know, shame that he kept putting on top of you to keep you down.
And that night that you said could have been your worst night,
(21:56):
but ended up being your best night. How old were your kids during that season?
Yeah. So that was high school when our kids. Okay. So they knew what it looked like.
You know, as mom is out of the house and dad is trying to keep things together,
you know, He was doing his best to try to, he kept pursuing our marriage.
(22:20):
He just wanted his wife to be fixed and he didn't know how to fix her. He was trying to parent.
And Bruce says his part of the story of one time just thinking,
man, he contemplated suicide because it was so painful.
But he's like, how do I do this in a way that my family's taken care of?
(22:41):
And, you know, meanwhile, the enemy is telling me all these lies.
And so, you know, it was just really this battle that was happening with both of us.
And we didn't know that at the time. We had no idea.
We were just so in the pit and we needed, you know, God to intervene in our lives and change it.
(23:03):
Yeah. Serena, it's such a domino effect of, you know, not choosing life that
first moment, which I feel like
is way beyond even your comprehension at that age of 13, first of all.
But just this domino effect of.
Then you not feeling good enough, your husband not feeling adequate,
(23:24):
and him wanting to end life is just one after another where everyone thinks
the lie is that, oh, go get an abortion and then you can move on with your life.
And story after story, you hear that is the opposite.
It stops you in your tracks and it snags you possibly for the rest of your life.
(23:45):
Life and so that's just that is the lie
that the enemy has put out there the lie that
the the medical community wrapped around that has put
out there and it is not it's not true i think jesus always chooses life he he
wants to bring us life to the fullness why would he ever counter that okay so
you mentioned something earlier you know really early on about your church or his church rather,
(24:12):
like really wrapping themselves around you and what was going on when you guys ended up pregnant.
Where do you think the church is falling short?
The big church, not your local church, but where is the big American church
falling short in this topic of abortion?
Yeah. So I think, you know, I speak in churches all the time and from someone
(24:37):
that had an abortion that was sitting in the pews broken for a long time,
I think we avoid talking about abortion from the pulpit.
And I think pastors, and hear me say this, I think pastors, one,
don't want to hurt their flock.
I really do believe that that's a, you know, they're trying to be tender in that.
(25:01):
And so one of the things that I recommend to pastors is, you know what,
if you're not comfortable because you know someone has an abortion in your queue,
invite someone that is in a healed place.
Let me repeat that again, a healed place that has gone through healing.
That's so, so important.
(25:22):
And have that share.
And also, you know, let abortion healing ministries be that resource for your church,
you know, Because sometimes I think pastors don't quite know it's going to rip something open.
And so one of the things that I hear women say is, if the church doesn't talk
(25:46):
about it, then it must be okay.
Or we hear on the other side, the men and women that are hurting from abortion say.
It must be a sin that's so bad that my pastor can't talk about it.
And so, you know, you have that. And so inviting abortion recovery ministries
(26:06):
into your church is huge.
Or if you don't know how to have that conversation, ask people that are having
the conversation to train you.
We're happy. Our ministry is happy to do that.
And also, you know, just recognizing abortion is a sin, just like every other
sin. Sin is sin and we need to, you know, it's a heart issue. Yeah.
(26:28):
That means heart transformation.
So that's what we need. And we need to talk about it.
No, that's great. That's really great. The other thing that I feel like,
I love that you have so much more compassion over the pastors that aren't saying it than I do.
Because I'm like, they're calling it political and they don't want to talk politics from the pulpit.
(26:54):
I think there are those as well happening, but I just, I'm encouraged by you
and, and convicted by you to give a little more compassion to their hearts really
in that like protection mode.
But I, I mean, obviously it needs, it needs addressed just like so many other
outward sins that we see, like the LGBTQ community, like all those other things
(27:16):
that, you know, we have to talk about as a church body.
Go ahead. Yeah. So something I was going to say about that is,
you know, I always say, don't look at it.
Don't look at abortion as a political issue, because I think that it holds people back.
It's a heart issue and it needs a gospel message. Right. Amen.
(27:39):
Yes. Yes. I think keeping the main thing, the main thing, even with the LGBTQ
stuff, you know, a funny story. And I just have to tell you this,
because God has such a sense of humor sometimes.
But when I first started to do pro-life work, I got invited to do some activism work.
(28:00):
And I call it evangelism. But the group that invited me, it was activism.
Sure. And they were atheist LGBTQ group.
And it sounds so weird. We don't agree on anything but life.
That's the only thing. They are pro-life.
And I remember them asking me to go. They paid for the whole trip, everything, right?
(28:24):
But my husband, I knew my husband was going to be like, what in the world?
You want to get on a plane?
You want to go to Washington, D.C. with what group?
And I love how God met him that morning and the word about God using pagans
to further the kingdom of God, right?
And so he said, you got to get on that plane.
(28:45):
And so I did. And by the end of the week, they looked at me and they said, Serena.
They said, the church has the answer. Why are they not talking about it?
And I always talk about that when I go and speak in churches.
I'm like, they're still lost, but God's opened that door.
(29:05):
And what I love about that is I've been able to share at their conferences.
I've been a speaker and I said, so what's off limits?
And they said nothing. They get the whole gospel message because you heard my story.
Yeah. Yeah, no, I tell it. I change nothing.
And I tell the same thing that I tell them and I wait for the Lord to woo them.
(29:29):
And that's, you know, and when life is falling apart, that's,
you know, I get the phone calls. I get so yeah, yeah.
That's funny. I've always had that happen in my life ever since really middle school.
And you know, I might get written off by a friend for a few years,
but then the second it hits the fan, that's who's calling me.
(29:50):
Like I'm the one that gets the phone call because I made it clear, like what I believe.
And we have to walk in that boldness and walk in just that faith.
Like we are called to share our testimony. And I love that God has given you
that door, that wide open door with them. That's amazing.
(30:10):
It's wide open. And I think, you know, like I said, the keeping the main thing,
the main thing, you know, even,
even our team will go to the women's march and we do it as evangelism.
We go and they're angry, they're mad.
And, and I just remember Holy Spirit saying, Serena, keep the main thing, the main thing.
And I remember, you know, one of these ladies, she's marching for the right to abort her child.
(30:36):
And she said, what about birth control? and the, I heard the Lord just say,
keep the main thing, the main thing.
And I said, you know, I said, I'm just here to give resources because,
you know, just in case someone's hurting from their abortion.
And I said, and you know, we have our testimony down to 30 seconds.
(30:57):
And so I hit on the things, you know, and by the end of the conversation,
she started connecting acting dots.
And she said, I wonder if my ex-husband is hurting as well.
And then it went, crazy story. It ends up going that she said,
I wonder if my pastor knows that this resource is available.
(31:20):
She ends up attending an LGBTQ crazy church that's not biblically sound.
And she says, I don't know.
Do you think that if my pastor invited you in to speak, you would come in and
speak? And I'm like, yes.
Bring it. Let's go. Please have her invite me in.
(31:42):
So, yeah, but it's just keeping the main thing, the main thing of like, man, abortion hurts.
And I'm not here to debate that. I'm not here. And, you know,
it's a sin issue that that needs a gospel, needs the gospel to change it. So, wow.
So what do you say when a Christian approaches you?
(32:05):
Because I'm guessing that this has happened a couple of times.
When a believer, I mean, you're talking about atheists that are pro-life and choosing life.
What do you say to the Christian that is pro-abortion?
Yeah. Right. So I start asking. So a lot of what I'll do is I'll start asking
(32:27):
some perspective questions because it always seems to be a misplaced compassion.
And so I will ask some questions to get them thinking, you know,
kind of draw out to what, where they're landing on that whole issue.
How, you know, why?
And as I ask the questions, I start really hearing why they're landing that way.
(32:52):
And then, you know, just helping them to see like, hey, you know,
that misplaced compassion.
And I think my story really hits on that misplaced compassion.
And I think when they start hearing the fallout, they're like,
whoa, okay, that makes more sense to me, you know, that the truth is the truth.
(33:15):
And God does not, He doesn't want abortion.
He's created life. He is not caught off guard by an unplanned pregnancy.
Pregnancy i don't know why we get caught off
guard but god's not so why should we be yeah you
know and so just having that conversation with them
and and pointing them back to the truth and i know just a couple weeks ago we
(33:37):
had a young lady reach out to us who was facing an unplanned pregnancy i'm super
proud of this girl because she did go to her pastor and her pastor heard her
story and he goes, man, maybe abortion is your best answer.
And she, I'm praising God that she had conversations with us first,
(33:57):
because she said, I wonder if he had abortion in his past, that he would come to that conclusion.
And we do see that quite a bit, that we see that quite a bit.
And I'll never forget a pastor telling me, it doesn't matter how many times I go to the altar, I.
(34:19):
Just can't, I can't seem to receive God's forgiveness.
And that breaks my heart as to hear a pastor who's never gone through healing,
still stuck in that spot, trying to lead his flock. Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. Yeah. That needs addressed first. Gosh.
(34:40):
Wow. So tell us about your ministry and how churches can connect with you and what all all that does?
Like what are, when you say you have resources, expand on that.
Yeah. So she found this grace as a ministry that helps men and women who have
abortion regret, find freedom in Christ.
And we believe that, you know, like I said, abortion is a heart issue. It's a spiritual issue.
(35:07):
And we take them through a biblical discipleship.
We, it's a deep dive. We take them through understanding what forgiveness is,
how to get rid of their bitter roots,
how to accept what's happened, and how to give dignity to their children.
(35:27):
And by the end of going through this biblical study, we see men and women that
are turning their pain into purpose.
They're using the power of their testimony and they're able to help others get
out of the pit that they were once in and also be able to speak truth to help women choose life.
(35:48):
And I think that's the powerful piece of it, because so many men and women,
when we go into churches, will share and they'll come up to us and they'll whisper,
that's my story, too. But I've had a touch of Jesus.
Well, you know what? You're whispering, so it's still an issue, right?
(36:08):
And so you haven't experienced freedom. There's a difference between a touch
of Jesus and the freedom in Christ.
And sometimes we get stuck and we need someone that's a few steps ahead in their
healing journey to help us navigate that process.
That's good. That's awesome. I think every church needs a program like yours and yours.
(36:31):
That is awesome. So I'll have all of her contact information and the ministry's
information in the show notes for anyone listening that wants to connect deeper with that.
I think that's a beautiful thing.
I think the churches, I really do think that there are a lot of churches that
just have kind of been in the dark with this topic.
And I think Roe v. Wade was a huge overturn in the, what was it, 2022?
(36:57):
It's almost two years now.
That kind of woke people up and got them scratching their heads again and realizing
like, oh, huh, interesting.
And you looked at the church and my brother's actually a pastor and he,
among a lot of other things, but he preached from the pulpit that day,
(37:17):
hey, if your church isn't talking about this, find another church.
The church needs to address this and needs to talk about it.
And I think providing more resources and getting more in the church's hand,
because maybe they just don't have someone staffed that's adequate on this level,
especially a smaller church might not have that pool to choose from.
(37:38):
And so I think pulling in a resource like yours is incredible and life-giving.
And I think that's incredible.
Yeah. And women and men who have abortion in their past, they might not even
feel comfortable going through something in their church.
And so the beauty of our resources is that it gives them a safe place outside of their church.
(38:00):
A lot of people that we serve are online and in person, but online, it's huge.
There's something about a screen and being in the comfort of your home. Yeah.
The other thing too, is men and women who have abortions in their past have
a hard time being referred to pregnancy centers because it reminds them of what they don't have.
(38:25):
Um, and so we need to be mindful of that and, and they're scared of who might
see them walking in those doors.
Also, we can't forget the men. So we had in particularly one class of six men
who acknowledged 16 babies lost to abortion.
(38:46):
Wow. And those men walk in one way and they leave another and we see their marriages transformed.
We had one particular class where
a guy, he only went through the class because his wife wanted him to.
And he did not want to go through it. And each week he was like,
I'm just doing this for her. I'm just doing this for her.
(39:08):
And we got to the end of the healing class and he ended up looking at his wife
and saying, I'm so sorry for the abortion.
He apologized to her. He apologized to his daughter and their lives have been
changed completely through this process.
And so I think people need to know that and hear that. And that's the beauty
(39:32):
of going through abortion healing.
Yeah yeah let me go back to the
miscarriage that you had and what did
your you know when you rolled your eyes at that lady that suggested some counseling
or whatever what did that look like for you when you actually decided to go
like what did that where did you actually find the healing like what kind of
(39:55):
things did you do that really brought you out of that yeah so it was the biblical study,
going through that biblical study and exchanging lies for God's truth that really
met me with grace and mercy.
And also just really processing that loss.
Through this study was so powerful for me.
(40:18):
And just having that moment of naming my children, I had never named my children.
And I think with men and women who have abortion in their past,
they don't feel like they deserve to grieve their children or they're allowed
to grieve their children because people will say, well, you did this.
(40:38):
So like, that's your fault. Like, that's your issue.
And so they hold on to that. I don't even deserve to give my children dignity.
And, you know, that's not the heart of our father, right? Like he wants us to
acknowledge those children.
And so that was powerful. And also, I think another thing for me is I didn't
(41:02):
understand abortion at the time.
But a powerful piece for me is, you know, people will hear my story and they'll
say, oh, you're a victim.
And I hate that. Don't ever tell me I'm a victim.
I am not a victim because God's word does not say that.
And I think the powerful piece for me was understanding that I didn't feel like
(41:27):
I had a voice when I was sexually assaulted,
but learning that I do have a voice and I can use my voice and I can use it
for good. And so I didn't understand.
And that was powerful and life changing for me. That's awesome.
Wow. Yay. All right, Serena, what is the best way on social media for everyone to connect with you?
(41:52):
Yeah. So if you go to SheFoundThisGrace on our Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, you can find us. Follow us.
Like and share our content to help people find us. It's Abortion Recovery Month.
So we need your help so that men and women can find resources.
Resources, go to shefounditsgrace.org.
(42:14):
You can, I have a book. I wrote a book. You can read the rest of the story.
You can get that. You can sign up for our classes for men and women's classes.
And, you know, if you're looking for training for us to come into your church
and help equip you, send us a message.
We are happy to travel. We're traveling to Ohio this weekend to put on events
(42:35):
for leaders and community.
And we would love to do that for you as well.
That's awesome. Serena, thank you so much for sharing your story,
for being vulnerable and for living out boldness and truth for the Lord.
And just for the sake of healing and helping others, I just think it's amazing.
I'm so thankful for what the Lord has done in your life, that it's such an incredible
(42:58):
testament of His faithfulness and His love for you and His redeeming power.
So just thank you for being in the Treehouse today. I look forward to talking
with you again soon. June. Yes. Thank you so much. It was an honor.
This is a perfect episode to let you know about my latest project in children's
book release called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
(43:24):
It is a compelling story of the rainbow personified as a feminine character
misunderstood, a refreshing retale of the true history of the rainbow and how its colors came to be.
Without rain, we don't have rainbows and without the rainbow,
we wouldn't have this special promise.
Turn every colorful page to
see how misunderstood gives the reader a
(43:47):
much needed reminder of who she really is she is a girl with a promise the world
forgot you can order now on the treehouse storyteller.com in paperback and hardcover
for the little ones in your life so go order and be prepared to pray over the
seeds of truth you are planting with misunderstood understood.
(44:07):
Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
artwork, photography, and encouragement. See you next time.
Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head on and finding a deeper
(00:24):
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of the juicy details.
Our children are being chased by the world and it is our job to be well-equipped
and know not only how to lead our flock, but successfully send our arrows out
into the world one day to build the kingdom.
(00:46):
So snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds in and
meet me in the tree house for some biblical storytelling.
Music.
Oh my goodness, today I think is going to be an amazing episode.
I have a very awesome, very bold, courageous guest with me.
(01:12):
At the age of 13 years old, Serena was raped, pregnant, and taken to an abortion clinic.
Abortion was supposed to be the answer after the trauma, but instead it tore
her family apart and nearly destroyed her life.
Guys, we're going to talk about hope today. We're going to talk about redemption,
(01:32):
love and forgiveness after abortion.
So stay with me. This one's going to be an awesome one.
Welcome to the Treehouse, Serena.
Thank you so much, Hannah. It's such an honor to be here. I'm excited about
our topic to bring hope and healing as people listen to the podcast. So thank you.
(01:54):
Absolutely. Okay. So first things first, we have to know more of the details.
I mean, this is such a story of your life, such a testament to God's goodness in the end.
And so let's hear kind of a rough timeline, how your story unfolded.
I just really want to hear your testimony and give you that time right off the
bat to just really let our listeners into hearing that full story and captivating us with that.
(02:18):
Yeah. So when I was 13 years old, I was sexually assaulted by a relative and
that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.
And as you can imagine, as a parent, you're just sucker punched.
And my mom had had some sexual trauma in her past. And so she worked really
(02:40):
hard to try to protect us.
And so when she heard that news, she was so devastated.
And I remember that her and her, my mom and my dad came to my middle school
and picked me up and we went to our family doctor, which when I wrote my book.
(03:02):
And one of the staff members from the doctor's office reached out to me and
said that this doctor still struggles with that decision till this day.
He was pro-life. He was Catholic, but had a misplaced compassion because of
the circumstances and my age.
(03:23):
And I had never heard the word abortion before in my life.
And so when he said the word abortion, I just was clueless. I had no idea what he was talking about.
And I remember my mom just shaking her head yes to that's what we would do.
(03:45):
And I remember them saying, when you get to the clinic, make sure you walk in
quickly because the people outside hate you guys.
And I remember that really just tripping, tripping my mom's trigger of her saying
they don't understand what we're going through.
(04:06):
The day of the abortion, we ended up going into the clinic.
They separated me from my parents as a 13-year-old, and I was taken to what
they called a counseling room. And...
They, the only thing they mentioned was a clump of cells.
(04:28):
And I still did not know what abortion was. I did not.
I had no clue. I thought, we're at a doctor's office, and they're just here to help.
And so I, when they asked if I was ready for the abortion, I said, yes.
And the first time I met George Crawford, he came in, he smiled,
(04:48):
he said, this won't take long.
And what ended up happening was it was the worst pain that I've ever experienced in my life.
My mom, she could hear me and she was told she couldn't help me.
So that resulted in her having a mental breakdown for two weeks.
I had to go to a mental hospital.
(05:11):
My dad carried me out of the clinic. I had hemorrhaged everywhere and the clinic
never offered any help or care.
My dad just picked me up, carried me out over his shoulder.
And we left that clinic that day and we never wanted to talk about what happened.
And eventually my dad, my dad never, you know, he didn't recover.
(05:33):
He eventually left our family. And so at 16, Planned Parenthood came into our school.
And to give you a background of my community, Amish community,
Christian community, and Planned Parenthood came in for sex education.
So at that time, I found myself pregnant again.
(05:57):
And so we still, I was still naive, went to Planned Parenthood.
And they said, you're young, you're in school, and you're poor,
you should abort your baby.
And kind of to back up a little bit, I always tell parents, Know who's coming into your schools.
Yeah. You know, ask some questions.
(06:19):
What I can tell you is Planned Parenthood is not necessarily coming in as Planned Parenthood anymore.
They're coming in under medical providers. So your little medical providers in your community,
probably the people you go to for when you have a cold, when you have your doctor's
(06:40):
checkups, they might be coming under their banner.
So just be aware of that. I like parents to know that. Yeah.
Yeah. And so, you know, Planned Parenthood had suggested an abortion.
And that day I went out to the car and my boyfriend, who is now my husband of
30 years, he looked at me. I know. Isn't it good?
(07:05):
Yeah. He looked at me and he said, what do you think about having an abortion?
And he grew up in the church, but they never talked about they never talked about abortion.
He was 17. you know, that was in his mind of what, you know, crossed his mind.
And I shared my story for the first time. And he said, I don't know how we'll
(07:26):
figure it out, but we'll figure it out. And we chose life that day.
And, you know, it really was, but I have to give a shout out to the testimony
of our church, his church.
I didn't come from a church background, but they loved us well.
They held our feet to the fire.
(07:47):
So we knew they made it very clear, the biblical standards of like,
you guys need to cut out what you're doing because God has such a better plan for you guys.
And so we took that very, very serious.
And so they helped, they gave us a baby shower and they helped us learn how to budget.
(08:08):
They helped us with our wedding. We, we did get married.
I was still, I was a junior in high school and my husband, he actually graduated
high school. We got married, we got married in the morning and he graduated high school that night.
I don't recommend that, but we pulled it off.
(08:29):
So yeah, and, and really just the support of the church.
And we, by the time we were 23, we had two little kids. We bought our first
house and we thought life was good.
We were beating the odds.
That's really where we were pretty proud of those accomplishments.
(08:51):
And what happened was I had a miscarriage. And what I didn't realize at the
time was it ended up triggering a double grief that neither one of us understood.
I never grieved the loss of my aborted child.
And now I have a miscarriage that I'm trying to walk through.
(09:14):
And so I, you know, as a mom, I was struggling with grief.
My husband, the way he processed that miscarriage was he actually just started working a lot.
He started to volunteer a lot. And I had shut down and didn't know,
(09:34):
we didn't know how to process that.
And so we started to have marital issues and just really struggling.
But no one in the church knew we were struggling.
You know, you sometimes go to church and you slap on a happy face and everything is fine.
And you get home and the week is crap all week long, you know,
(09:56):
or you start, you stop going to church on Sundays. You just kind of disappeared, you know?
And so for us, you know, that was kind of what was happening with us.
I ended up, one of my ovaries ruptured and I almost, I almost,
yeah, I almost lost my life.
And then eventually ended up having a complete hysterectomy,
(10:19):
which we now know is part of the abortion.
And we didn't know any of that at the time.
And then as our kids got older, middle school hit, and I really started to struggle
with feeling worthy enough to be a mother and a wife.
I was just so struggling with that.
(10:42):
And so one day I decided that I was going to bless my husband on.
I wanted him to find a new wife. I wanted him to find a new mother for our kids.
And so Serena's plan was to move out of the house and let him move on with his life.
And I found myself really partying. I started to drink a lot.
(11:05):
I started to use drugs and life was just out of control.
And one night after a heavy night drinking and I had used, I knew that if I
got behind the wheel of my car, there is a good possibility that I might get
pulled over and go to jail. And I didn't want to do that.
(11:26):
Looking back, it was really, really selfish because I was thinking about myself.
I wasn't really thinking about others.
And that night, one by one, people who would rescue me told me no,
that they were not going to come and get me.
It felt like the worst night of my life. But what I can tell you is it turned
(11:46):
out to be the best night of my life because of that.
That night, I ended up getting in my car and I said a simple prayer.
And my prayer was, God, I don't have anybody but you.
And what I love is that God saw a post-abortive woman who was high and drunk
(12:08):
and just called out to be rescued.
And he lavished me in a love that I'll never, ever forget.
And I knew that night I needed to go home both physically and spiritually.
Spiritually and that began our healing journey and
our healing journey was not easy it's it's
a layer after layer you know
(12:29):
i remember our counselor going to our
counselor and because my counselor went to my church i thought you know i'll
and and to give you some perspective and i see this all the time in what i do
a lot of times women will think that sexual abuse is worse than abortion It's
just how Planned Parenthood has marketed that.
(12:52):
And so I really did believe that and didn't identify until I started my healing process.
But it didn't start my healing process didn't start with the abortion.
It started with my sexual abuse because I thought if I told my counselor about
the abortion, he would go back and tell people in my church and people in my
(13:17):
church would cast me out.
That's that was the lie, I believed. Yeah.
Yeah. And so going through the process, you know, the sexual abuse healing,
I felt like I found so much freedom, so much healing.
God was restoring our marriage. It was beautiful what the Lord was doing.
(13:38):
We got back into church. We were serving.
We, you know, God was restoring so many things.
And then I got invited to see the movie Unplanned.
And talk about if you have not seen it, a movie about abortion.
And I had never seen that before. I had never heard anybody talk about that before.
(14:06):
So I was like, whoa, what in the world?
And I just remember sitting in the movie theater and hearing Holy Spirit say,
now is the time to tell the rest of your story.
That's awesome.
(14:37):
My plan, Serena's plan. Serena has lots of good plans.
Hannah, do you have that sometimes? Oh, yeah. I have lots of good plans.
Right, right. So, yeah. And so I was like, I'm going to go help women and choose life.
So I'm going to train as a sidewalk counselor because I love doing stuff like
(14:59):
that. That's just fun for me.
I love outreach. reach. And, and so I went through the training and have sweet
sister say, have you ever gone through abortion healing?
And I'm going to be real honest. Someone might be listening today and they might
be in the same place that I, that I was. I rolled her.
(15:22):
I was like, you know, in my head, I was like the audacity of this woman.
She'd know all the healing I've gone through.
But I heard Holy Spirit say, how do you expect to help others if you're not
willing to go there yourself?
And I was like, your own plank first, right?
(15:45):
Right. You know, we don't know what we don't know. We don't,
you know, we might have an idea, but we don't know what we don't know.
And so I went through healing and it changed my life.
For the first time, I felt like Like I was able to grieve the loss of my child, both of my children.
I was able to name Eliana Grace, who, you know, was lost to abortion and our
(16:11):
miscarried son, Malachi John.
And it was a beautiful, beautiful process.
And so I, after going through the healing, I continued to go out to the abortion clinic.
And once again, I heard the Lord asked me to do a memorial service for men and
women who were hurting from abortion.
(16:33):
And out of obedience, I was like, okay, God, I don't know what it looks like, but I'll do it.
And that whole week, I had planned a memorial service Friday night,
and I had stayed off social media on purpose.
I wanted to really just seek the Lord on what He wanted.
I didn't want my plan. And and and partly I didn't know what I was doing anyway.
(16:56):
So I needed help. I needed help.
And so that Friday, I ended up opening my social media.
And that's when I saw the news that the abortionist that had been taken to George
Clafford had passed away.
And they had found that he had hoarded two thousand four hundred and eleven
(17:17):
babies in his garage. Oh my gosh.
(17:48):
It was this powerful moment that I knew that God had a purpose.
What I didn't know was...
That my story was going to hit national news and the process of healing.
If I had not been obedient and gone through that healing, I don't think that
(18:09):
I know I would not have been prepared for what God had at that moment and beyond.
And really, even having us start the ministry, She Found This Grace to help
other men and women go through that healing and,
you know, be able to use their voice and their story to change the narrative of abortion.
(18:31):
Wow. Wow. So how, I don't even know where to start.
I have so many questions, so many thoughts. How old are your kids now?
So we have adult children now. And yeah.
So my question, I guess, is how did you communicate and address this with your kids, raising them?
(18:54):
Because I think that is like, you know, sticking to like, I have a lot of other
questions, but trying to stick to like the parenting concept of a lot of my
listeners, like, how do we address this?
And my daughter, who's 11, was asking me like, Oh, what's your podcast going
to be about tomorrow, mom?
And, you know, I'm telling her and I didn't even think about it.
And I just said, Well, she was raped.
(19:15):
And then she looks at me and she's like, Well, what the heck is that?
So I'm like, Oh, okay. How far do we go right before bedtime of,
you know, telling you this part of, of life, unfortunately, that,
you know, that happens to people.
And so that's really my question is like, where, where did you start?
(19:37):
Was it little by little? Did you set them down?
Like, how did you address that?
Yeah, looking back, I wish we would have done things way different than what we did. We all do.
We all do. Right. And I think for me, you know, kind of my root system was everything
was hush hush secret secret.
And so we didn't do, we didn't communicate a lot of that to our kids.
(20:05):
The one because of, you know, just a lot of on field stuff in our lives.
But I think, you know, honestly, that part of our story, we didn't share until our kids were older.
They didn't know all of that. And I, looking back, I wish that we would have
(20:26):
had those conversations, age appropriate conversations, right?
Yeah. And, And, and, you know, once again, just seeing God's grace and mercy
of other people that walked alongside of our kids when our lives are sideways.
And, and so I think, you know, one of the biggest fears, I think for me telling my kids.
(20:49):
Was how were they going to react to it? You know, that's a big,
pretty big bomb to give to your kids, you know, and our kids were so loving.
Of course, they had to process that.
And now they are very happy to help us behind the scenes with ministry stuff.
Awesome. Yeah. So they just know, yeah, because of our values and they want
(21:15):
to help others choose life. And they had a front row seat of what our lives
look like being unhealed. So, yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure they have a testimony from that standpoint, too.
And seeing what, you know, kind of the pivotal moment where mom wasn't okay.
And now she is like, this is, you know, a huge difference.
(21:35):
So when you kind of went through that, you know, really, I just I see a lot
of work of the enemy using shame to cripple you through the story over and over again.
And it's just this underlying, you know, shame that he kept putting on top of you to keep you down.
And that night that you said could have been your worst night,
(21:56):
but ended up being your best night. How old were your kids during that season?
Yeah. So that was high school when our kids. Okay. So they knew what it looked like.
You know, as mom is out of the house and dad is trying to keep things together,
you know, He was doing his best to try to, he kept pursuing our marriage.
(22:20):
He just wanted his wife to be fixed and he didn't know how to fix her. He was trying to parent.
And Bruce says his part of the story of one time just thinking,
man, he contemplated suicide because it was so painful.
But he's like, how do I do this in a way that my family's taken care of?
(22:41):
And, you know, meanwhile, the enemy is telling me all these lies.
And so, you know, it was just really this battle that was happening with both of us.
And we didn't know that at the time. We had no idea.
We were just so in the pit and we needed, you know, God to intervene in our lives and change it.
(23:03):
Yeah. Serena, it's such a domino effect of, you know, not choosing life that
first moment, which I feel like
is way beyond even your comprehension at that age of 13, first of all.
But just this domino effect of.
Then you not feeling good enough, your husband not feeling adequate,
(23:24):
and him wanting to end life is just one after another where everyone thinks
the lie is that, oh, go get an abortion and then you can move on with your life.
And story after story, you hear that is the opposite.
It stops you in your tracks and it snags you possibly for the rest of your life.
(23:45):
Life and so that's just that is the lie
that the enemy has put out there the lie that
the the medical community wrapped around that has put
out there and it is not it's not true i think jesus always chooses life he he
wants to bring us life to the fullness why would he ever counter that okay so
you mentioned something earlier you know really early on about your church or his church rather,
(24:12):
like really wrapping themselves around you and what was going on when you guys ended up pregnant.
Where do you think the church is falling short?
The big church, not your local church, but where is the big American church
falling short in this topic of abortion?
Yeah. So I think, you know, I speak in churches all the time and from someone
(24:37):
that had an abortion that was sitting in the pews broken for a long time,
I think we avoid talking about abortion from the pulpit.
And I think pastors, and hear me say this, I think pastors, one,
don't want to hurt their flock.
I really do believe that that's a, you know, they're trying to be tender in that.
(25:01):
And so one of the things that I recommend to pastors is, you know what,
if you're not comfortable because you know someone has an abortion in your queue,
invite someone that is in a healed place.
Let me repeat that again, a healed place that has gone through healing.
That's so, so important.
(25:22):
And have that share.
And also, you know, let abortion healing ministries be that resource for your church,
you know, Because sometimes I think pastors don't quite know it's going to rip something open.
And so one of the things that I hear women say is, if the church doesn't talk
(25:46):
about it, then it must be okay.
Or we hear on the other side, the men and women that are hurting from abortion say.
It must be a sin that's so bad that my pastor can't talk about it.
And so, you know, you have that. And so inviting abortion recovery ministries
(26:06):
into your church is huge.
Or if you don't know how to have that conversation, ask people that are having
the conversation to train you.
We're happy. Our ministry is happy to do that.
And also, you know, just recognizing abortion is a sin, just like every other
sin. Sin is sin and we need to, you know, it's a heart issue. Yeah.
(26:28):
That means heart transformation.
So that's what we need. And we need to talk about it.
No, that's great. That's really great. The other thing that I feel like,
I love that you have so much more compassion over the pastors that aren't saying it than I do.
Because I'm like, they're calling it political and they don't want to talk politics from the pulpit.
(26:54):
I think there are those as well happening, but I just, I'm encouraged by you
and, and convicted by you to give a little more compassion to their hearts really
in that like protection mode.
But I, I mean, obviously it needs, it needs addressed just like so many other
outward sins that we see, like the LGBTQ community, like all those other things
(27:16):
that, you know, we have to talk about as a church body.
Go ahead. Yeah. So something I was going to say about that is,
you know, I always say, don't look at it.
Don't look at abortion as a political issue, because I think that it holds people back.
It's a heart issue and it needs a gospel message. Right. Amen.
(27:39):
Yes. Yes. I think keeping the main thing, the main thing, even with the LGBTQ
stuff, you know, a funny story. And I just have to tell you this,
because God has such a sense of humor sometimes.
But when I first started to do pro-life work, I got invited to do some activism work.
(28:00):
And I call it evangelism. But the group that invited me, it was activism.
Sure. And they were atheist LGBTQ group.
And it sounds so weird. We don't agree on anything but life.
That's the only thing. They are pro-life.
And I remember them asking me to go. They paid for the whole trip, everything, right?
(28:24):
But my husband, I knew my husband was going to be like, what in the world?
You want to get on a plane?
You want to go to Washington, D.C. with what group?
And I love how God met him that morning and the word about God using pagans
to further the kingdom of God, right?
And so he said, you got to get on that plane.
(28:45):
And so I did. And by the end of the week, they looked at me and they said, Serena.
They said, the church has the answer. Why are they not talking about it?
And I always talk about that when I go and speak in churches.
I'm like, they're still lost, but God's opened that door.
(29:05):
And what I love about that is I've been able to share at their conferences.
I've been a speaker and I said, so what's off limits?
And they said nothing. They get the whole gospel message because you heard my story.
Yeah. Yeah, no, I tell it. I change nothing.
And I tell the same thing that I tell them and I wait for the Lord to woo them.
(29:29):
And that's, you know, and when life is falling apart, that's,
you know, I get the phone calls. I get so yeah, yeah.
That's funny. I've always had that happen in my life ever since really middle school.
And you know, I might get written off by a friend for a few years,
but then the second it hits the fan, that's who's calling me.
(29:50):
Like I'm the one that gets the phone call because I made it clear, like what I believe.
And we have to walk in that boldness and walk in just that faith.
Like we are called to share our testimony. And I love that God has given you
that door, that wide open door with them. That's amazing.
(30:10):
It's wide open. And I think, you know, like I said, the keeping the main thing,
the main thing, you know, even,
even our team will go to the women's march and we do it as evangelism.
We go and they're angry, they're mad.
And, and I just remember Holy Spirit saying, Serena, keep the main thing, the main thing.
And I remember, you know, one of these ladies, she's marching for the right to abort her child.
(30:36):
And she said, what about birth control? and the, I heard the Lord just say,
keep the main thing, the main thing.
And I said, you know, I said, I'm just here to give resources because,
you know, just in case someone's hurting from their abortion.
And I said, and you know, we have our testimony down to 30 seconds.
(30:57):
And so I hit on the things, you know, and by the end of the conversation,
she started connecting acting dots.
And she said, I wonder if my ex-husband is hurting as well.
And then it went, crazy story. It ends up going that she said,
I wonder if my pastor knows that this resource is available.
(31:20):
She ends up attending an LGBTQ crazy church that's not biblically sound.
And she says, I don't know.
Do you think that if my pastor invited you in to speak, you would come in and
speak? And I'm like, yes.
Bring it. Let's go. Please have her invite me in.
(31:42):
So, yeah, but it's just keeping the main thing, the main thing of like, man, abortion hurts.
And I'm not here to debate that. I'm not here. And, you know,
it's a sin issue that that needs a gospel, needs the gospel to change it. So, wow.
So what do you say when a Christian approaches you?
(32:05):
Because I'm guessing that this has happened a couple of times.
When a believer, I mean, you're talking about atheists that are pro-life and choosing life.
What do you say to the Christian that is pro-abortion?
Yeah. Right. So I start asking. So a lot of what I'll do is I'll start asking
(32:27):
some perspective questions because it always seems to be a misplaced compassion.
And so I will ask some questions to get them thinking, you know,
kind of draw out to what, where they're landing on that whole issue.
How, you know, why?
And as I ask the questions, I start really hearing why they're landing that way.
(32:52):
And then, you know, just helping them to see like, hey, you know,
that misplaced compassion.
And I think my story really hits on that misplaced compassion.
And I think when they start hearing the fallout, they're like,
whoa, okay, that makes more sense to me, you know, that the truth is the truth.
(33:15):
And God does not, He doesn't want abortion.
He's created life. He is not caught off guard by an unplanned pregnancy.
Pregnancy i don't know why we get caught off
guard but god's not so why should we be yeah you
know and so just having that conversation with them
and and pointing them back to the truth and i know just a couple weeks ago we
(33:37):
had a young lady reach out to us who was facing an unplanned pregnancy i'm super
proud of this girl because she did go to her pastor and her pastor heard her
story and he goes, man, maybe abortion is your best answer.
And she, I'm praising God that she had conversations with us first,
(33:57):
because she said, I wonder if he had abortion in his past, that he would come to that conclusion.
And we do see that quite a bit, that we see that quite a bit.
And I'll never forget a pastor telling me, it doesn't matter how many times I go to the altar, I.
(34:19):
Just can't, I can't seem to receive God's forgiveness.
And that breaks my heart as to hear a pastor who's never gone through healing,
still stuck in that spot, trying to lead his flock. Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. Yeah. That needs addressed first. Gosh.
(34:40):
Wow. So tell us about your ministry and how churches can connect with you and what all all that does?
Like what are, when you say you have resources, expand on that.
Yeah. So she found this grace as a ministry that helps men and women who have
abortion regret, find freedom in Christ.
And we believe that, you know, like I said, abortion is a heart issue. It's a spiritual issue.
(35:07):
And we take them through a biblical discipleship.
We, it's a deep dive. We take them through understanding what forgiveness is,
how to get rid of their bitter roots,
how to accept what's happened, and how to give dignity to their children.
(35:27):
And by the end of going through this biblical study, we see men and women that
are turning their pain into purpose.
They're using the power of their testimony and they're able to help others get
out of the pit that they were once in and also be able to speak truth to help women choose life.
(35:48):
And I think that's the powerful piece of it, because so many men and women,
when we go into churches, will share and they'll come up to us and they'll whisper,
that's my story, too. But I've had a touch of Jesus.
Well, you know what? You're whispering, so it's still an issue, right?
(36:08):
And so you haven't experienced freedom. There's a difference between a touch
of Jesus and the freedom in Christ.
And sometimes we get stuck and we need someone that's a few steps ahead in their
healing journey to help us navigate that process.
That's good. That's awesome. I think every church needs a program like yours and yours.
(36:31):
That is awesome. So I'll have all of her contact information and the ministry's
information in the show notes for anyone listening that wants to connect deeper with that.
I think that's a beautiful thing.
I think the churches, I really do think that there are a lot of churches that
just have kind of been in the dark with this topic.
And I think Roe v. Wade was a huge overturn in the, what was it, 2022?
(36:57):
It's almost two years now.
That kind of woke people up and got them scratching their heads again and realizing
like, oh, huh, interesting.
And you looked at the church and my brother's actually a pastor and he,
among a lot of other things, but he preached from the pulpit that day,
(37:17):
hey, if your church isn't talking about this, find another church.
The church needs to address this and needs to talk about it.
And I think providing more resources and getting more in the church's hand,
because maybe they just don't have someone staffed that's adequate on this level,
especially a smaller church might not have that pool to choose from.
(37:38):
And so I think pulling in a resource like yours is incredible and life-giving.
And I think that's incredible.
Yeah. And women and men who have abortion in their past, they might not even
feel comfortable going through something in their church.
And so the beauty of our resources is that it gives them a safe place outside of their church.
(38:00):
A lot of people that we serve are online and in person, but online, it's huge.
There's something about a screen and being in the comfort of your home. Yeah.
The other thing too, is men and women who have abortions in their past have
a hard time being referred to pregnancy centers because it reminds them of what they don't have.
(38:25):
Um, and so we need to be mindful of that and, and they're scared of who might
see them walking in those doors.
Also, we can't forget the men. So we had in particularly one class of six men
who acknowledged 16 babies lost to abortion.
(38:46):
Wow. And those men walk in one way and they leave another and we see their marriages transformed.
We had one particular class where
a guy, he only went through the class because his wife wanted him to.
And he did not want to go through it. And each week he was like,
I'm just doing this for her. I'm just doing this for her.
(39:08):
And we got to the end of the healing class and he ended up looking at his wife
and saying, I'm so sorry for the abortion.
He apologized to her. He apologized to his daughter and their lives have been
changed completely through this process.
And so I think people need to know that and hear that. And that's the beauty
(39:32):
of going through abortion healing.
Yeah yeah let me go back to the
miscarriage that you had and what did
your you know when you rolled your eyes at that lady that suggested some counseling
or whatever what did that look like for you when you actually decided to go
like what did that where did you actually find the healing like what kind of
(39:55):
things did you do that really brought you out of that yeah so it was the biblical study,
going through that biblical study and exchanging lies for God's truth that really
met me with grace and mercy.
And also just really processing that loss.
Through this study was so powerful for me.
(40:18):
And just having that moment of naming my children, I had never named my children.
And I think with men and women who have abortion in their past,
they don't feel like they deserve to grieve their children or they're allowed
to grieve their children because people will say, well, you did this.
(40:38):
So like, that's your fault. Like, that's your issue.
And so they hold on to that. I don't even deserve to give my children dignity.
And, you know, that's not the heart of our father, right? Like he wants us to
acknowledge those children.
And so that was powerful. And also, I think another thing for me is I didn't
(41:02):
understand abortion at the time.
But a powerful piece for me is, you know, people will hear my story and they'll
say, oh, you're a victim.
And I hate that. Don't ever tell me I'm a victim.
I am not a victim because God's word does not say that.
And I think the powerful piece for me was understanding that I didn't feel like
(41:27):
I had a voice when I was sexually assaulted,
but learning that I do have a voice and I can use my voice and I can use it
for good. And so I didn't understand.
And that was powerful and life changing for me. That's awesome.
Wow. Yay. All right, Serena, what is the best way on social media for everyone to connect with you?
(41:52):
Yeah. So if you go to SheFoundThisGrace on our Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, you can find us. Follow us.
Like and share our content to help people find us. It's Abortion Recovery Month.
So we need your help so that men and women can find resources.
Resources, go to shefounditsgrace.org.
(42:14):
You can, I have a book. I wrote a book. You can read the rest of the story.
You can get that. You can sign up for our classes for men and women's classes.
And, you know, if you're looking for training for us to come into your church
and help equip you, send us a message.
We are happy to travel. We're traveling to Ohio this weekend to put on events
(42:35):
for leaders and community.
And we would love to do that for you as well.
That's awesome. Serena, thank you so much for sharing your story,
for being vulnerable and for living out boldness and truth for the Lord.
And just for the sake of healing and helping others, I just think it's amazing.
I'm so thankful for what the Lord has done in your life, that it's such an incredible
(42:58):
testament of His faithfulness and His love for you and His redeeming power.
So just thank you for being in the Treehouse today. I look forward to talking
with you again soon. June. Yes. Thank you so much. It was an honor.
This is a perfect episode to let you know about my latest project in children's
book release called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
(43:24):
It is a compelling story of the rainbow personified as a feminine character
misunderstood, a refreshing retale of the true history of the rainbow and how its colors came to be.
Without rain, we don't have rainbows and without the rainbow,
we wouldn't have this special promise.
Turn every colorful page to
see how misunderstood gives the reader a
(43:47):
much needed reminder of who she really is she is a girl with a promise the world
forgot you can order now on the treehouse storyteller.com in paperback and hardcover
for the little ones in your life so go order and be prepared to pray over the
seeds of truth you are planting with misunderstood understood.
(44:07):
Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
artwork, photography, and encouragement. See you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!