If someone asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ he will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’ Zech 13 v 6

Thursday, May 21, 2009

My Mom

My mother became a Christian while we were attending this church and then started attending with us. It's interesting to me, now that I think about the fact that she was personally involved with the Rojas family and both of the elders' families. My mom did laundry for the Cameron family who at the time had 10 children. She regularly went over to the Barrueto household to help them organize, and my mom really loved the Rojas children and would try and bless them in different ways. My mom felt loved and very comfortable attending this church and became personally attached to many of the families. This was significant, because my mom was normally kind of a recluse and typically only fellowshiped with her family.

Not unlike many of the adults, my mom didn't want to believe that the worst was possible in what was going on. For many months, my mom continued to fellowship with the church. This was certainly a strain on our relationship. At the time, my mom didn't understand the raw emotions inside of me.

I can remember my mom and stepfather coming over to my house and talking to me about my anger. It was during this conversation that I finally revealed to my mom that I too was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She was devastated. My mom is an avid reader and did some reading on the subject matter to try and understand more. She felt bad that I never told her.

In June when we received the devastating news from Patrick's psycho-sexual evaluation, I called my mom and stepfather over so I could tell them the news.This was shocking! Unbelievable! But my mom never questioned my word. My mom attended the church less and less,but like so many others didn't want to lose the fellowship.

My mom and stepfather played a key roll in the release of information at the August 20th Heads of Household meeting where the elders finally revealed that they did indeed know the details of Patrick's crime all along. Although my mother wasn't really welcomed at the meeting,she showed up with the express mission of making sure everyone in attendance knew that Eddie and Kathy knew of Patrick's pedophile behavior prior to the crime against our child and that Patrick had additional victims and other sexual deviant behaviors. No one knew until this meeting that the elders also were privy to incriminating information that they withheld.

The ripple effect extended to my mother. She has yet to attend another church. I am grateful that she does still have faith and still loves God.

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