Do Something

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES</U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-748/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#66FFCC" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="247f4ae0.png" border=0 width="244" height="174" ALT="Object Image, replacement for Object that CuteSITE Builder was unable to create from RTF." ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Chapter Twenty Seven</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I've Got To</B></div> <div> <B> Do Something</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#330000" FACE="Columbo" ><B>  </B></FONT><B>Why did I survive?  Why am I alive?  For so long, I struggled to go on amidst the pain and the abandonment and the fear.  But I made it.  Why?  I'm glad I did, but what good was all the pain if all I did was survive?  I want to do more than survive.  There </B><I><B>has </B></I><B>to be more.</B></div> <div> <B>   </B></div> <div> <B>Maybe I started to know at 17 when I met Johnny, who was 13.  Trust came slowly, and so did the story about his Boy Scout leader molesting him.  I've never forgotten that shy, fragile hurting boy.  I never will.</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B> Only in the last seven years did I understand.  I've walked through crowds and gatherings and youth groups and congregations for years, and I sensed them there, the 1 in 6, I saw flashes of painfilled eyes, longing to reach another but bound by crippling fear.</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B>Then came the children, injured children with no visible scars but a hollow echo of a child's laughter like a ghost in their hearts followed by a scream of desperation no one could hear.</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B> Then I knew, I had to do something.  No matter what the cost.  No matter what people thought.</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B> I longed for years for a Voice of my own kind to speak, to say, "You're not alone, I've been there too", but no one came, so I knew I'd have to be a voice for others.  I saw myself in each one, felt their sorrow and held their trust as sacred.  I always will.  They are the bravest company I know.</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B> So I'll keep speaking because there are more.  I had to do something.  Because God wastes nothing, not even our loneliest sorrows and worst devastations.</B></div> <div> <B>   </B></div> <div> <B>Wouldn't you have to do something, too?</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Epilog"><U><B>Epilog</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>