Are you tormented by fear? Does it permeate every part of your life, forcing its way into your relationships, career, home life and your walk with God? I know what that fear can do, for it once had its talons in me . . . deeply and unmercifully..

My name is Kathryn, and I'd like to share a part of my story with you. It is merely a small tidbit of the fear and suffering that I experienced as a result of being traumatized as a child. I was sexually abused by seven adults before the age of five, and was also abducted from near my school and taken out of town for many hours by a pedophile when I was only in kindergarten. I had a parent who was mentally ill (and untreated, caused by a brain injury), and I lived in real fear every single day as a child. Fear is an old companion of mine--but the good news is that Jesus reached into my fear stricken life and brought not only love and peace, but faith and trust

When I was five years old, my father was in a tragic car accident, which left him with severe brain injuries. If only I had known then what I do now--that my father's rage, thinking disorders and mental illness were caused by this trauma (Organic Brain Syndrome), I would have been better able to understand him and his behavior toward me. But, that was not the will of my heavenly Father. I grew up thinking that my father hated me--detested me--so intensely because there was something wrong with ME. I thought I was just a "bad seed"

As a result of this accident, my father was left unable to work. He drew unemployment pay each month, but I never understood why. I just thought it was because he couldn't smell or taste (which was a result of the trauma to his brain). My mother worked as head cook in our local hospital, putting in long, tedious hours on her feet each day. Often, after my mother came home at 2:00 p.m., exhausted from work, my father would want to drive the sixty-plus miles to Kansas City to shop. I know now that he had a serious disturbance that caused him to be obsessive and have compulsive behavior. No one ever knew when the urge to shop would hit him; thus I would repeatedly come home to an empty house after school.