Olivia – From 2009 to 2012

One day, Olivia’s moth­er called in deep dis­tress. She had been pray­ing for a long time that her daugh­ter would get free from a very evil young man who was abus­ing her. She asked me if I could help her, so I sent an email to Olivia say­ing: “If you ever want to get free, give me a call.” On the next Mother’s Day she called and want­ed free­dom. The next day her moth­er flew her to the Headquarters. However, there was a strong emo­tion­al bond­ing with this abuser. This would take time and God’s pow­er to break.

To Whom it May Concern

Working at the Headquarters of IBLP with Bill Gothard was one of the most pos­i­tive and life-​changing ex­pe­ri­ences I have ever had. I have al­ways felt that Bill Gothard has a heart for those that oth­ers have dis­card­ed as use­less, dam­aged or help­less. Sadly, those were the words that many used to de­scribe me be­fore I had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be­gin the jour­ney of heal­ing and re­cov­ery with IBLP.

Before go­ing to hq my life was in a con­tin­u­ous down­ward spi­ral. I was sui­ci­dal, be­ing abused, and suf­fer­ing from se­vere post-​traumatic stress. I hat­ed my­self. I felt that there was no hope for my fu­ture, and I want­ed to end my life.

Any glim­mer of hope was drowned out by de­pres­sion, and the con­stant bom­bard­ment of neg­a­tive thoughts and self re­jec­tion that was ham­mered in­to my mind by my abuser. I found my­self re­turn­ing to my abuser over and over again as many vic­tims of abuse do, on­ly to have the sit­u­a­tion be­come so in­tense­ly worse that I was forced to leave for fear of be­ing mur­dered. Anyone who has dealt with abuse can un­der­stand the strug­gle that was con­stant­ly with­in me.

When I fi­nal­ly made a de­ci­sion with all the con­fi­dence and self-​preservation that I had with­in me to es­cape from the abuse, I called Bill Gothard. This was my first step to heal­ing and re­cov­ery. At this point in my life, no one ex­cept my par­ents be­lieved in me. Having a Godly fa­ther fig­ure ac­cept me and ded­i­cate his time and staff to my re­cov­ery was more won­der­ful than I can ex­plain. If it were not for Bill Gothard and his lov­ing staff, I most like­ly would not be here to­day, or sim­ply a shad­ow of who I am to­day.

I do know that there are thou­sands of peo­ple, in­clud­ing my­self, that would not be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the free­dom and hap­pi­ness I ex­pe­ri­ence every sin­gle day, if it were not for Bill Gothard and his ded­i­ca­tion to serv­ing God.

I love my life; I am no longer that sui­ci­dal, afraid, and de­stroyed youth I once was. A full re­cov­ery from the pain of the past took more years than I care to say, but the first two years were sparked by the de­ter­mi­na­tion and love that Bill Gothard and his staff showed to­ward help­ing me. When I think back to the time that I spent with IBLP and es­pe­cial­ly Bill Gothard, I am left with a smile. I still keep in con­tact with Bill and feel that he will al­ways be a spir­i­tu­al fa­ther fig­ure to me. All that he has done for me will nev­er be for­got­ten.

Gratefully,

Olivia