Dear Friends,

I fumbled over many titles for you. Student. Voyager. Pilgrim. Advocate. Truth Seeker. Dear One Open to the Wild Ride of Redemption. Nothing seemed right. How do I refer to you? It is not merely the name given to you on a birth certificate. Your truest name includes all the above, and also speaks to your deepest desires as you begin your Healing the Wounded Heart journey.

As you begin this course I invite you to ponder: “What do you want from this process?” No one begins a course like this to merely gain information. Instead, I suspect you seek transformative wisdom in order to engage your past harm or the harm of those whom you love. You desire wisdom to live well in a broken, fallen world where it is inevitable we have all known some form of betrayal, powerlessness, and shame.

Throughout this course, as we unveil the shame and heartache that arises from sexual abuse, I am deeply aware that evil prefers for it to remain unnamed, unaddressed, and for you to give up on the hope of healing. It will take courage and intentionality to stay on the path. My encouragement to you is to take your time with the material, and enter this process knowing there will be disruption and difficult things to address. The healing path was never promised to be easy. Intend to finish. Take your time and bless your steps. You are a voyager and the journey ahead is worth it. Each and every step is precious and one never knows at what moment you will encounter God. God will show up. Know the investment you are making for yourself and for others will pay dividends long after you have finished.

Let me pray for you:

Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Power, glory, and honor are due to you. We are your servants and we struggle with you. We are your children and you confuse us. We are your creation and we love you. We consecrate this course and all that we do as we listen, reflect, and write. We long for you to make yourself known and for our hearts to be more deeply known by us and by you. We want change—deep, abiding, pervasive transformation. We ask in your name that we might enter far more your son’s life, death, and resurrection so that our story is more profoundly linked with yours. Work in us and through us to accomplish a redemption that we can barely imagine. We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

May your journey bring more freedom from shame, greater power to live your life for goodness, and unsurpassable joy.

In God’s Kindness,

Dan Allender