Hope & Healing Conference

Below are comments we’ve received about our Hope & Healing conference for victims and their families:

“I am so glad I was there today. Thanks to you and Steve and Martin and the rest of the board for the good work you do.”—CA

“What a blessed time for me and my husband! Thank you for the hope and healing you’ve given to me and countless others who were pursued, used, and abused by spiritual leaders. It was definitely worth the drive and the vacation day we both took! :-)”—NY

“What an amazing day! Thank you all for sharing your time and energy! What a blessing you all are to us! Thank you with all my heart!”—IN

“Thank you to everyone who works at The Hope Of Survivors. The Hope & Healing Conference is a blessing!”—IN

“I so much appreciated the time we shared yesterday. I definitely came away much more clear on the line of abuse vs. adultery. I think this was one area that truly was torturing my heart… The seminar was very helpful…”—MI

“Thank you for coming, for your time, for the giving of yourselves.”—IN

“Thank you to all of you who helped and presented!! I feel refreshed, blessed, encouraged and HOPE-ful!”—MI

“Great! Real stories bring others into understanding on so many levels. I feel balanced.”—WA

“Everything was great. Thank you for your ministry! We both have been blessed in coming!”—NY

“All information was very helpful. Being a husband, I could really connect with Steve’s story.”—NY

“Amazing weekend for us! God again did more than we asked or imagined….”—NY

“We were both pleasantly surprised at how encouraging it was, not depressing, but a blessing! It was so great meeting everyone! Although it is unfortunate we experienced clergy sexual abuse, we are extremely fortunate to find hope and healing in our God! Thank you THOS for this conference and for speaking the truth!”—NY

“I appreciated the conference a great deal. I especially liked hearing the male pastors say what happens was wrong. That’s the first time I’ve actually heard someone in that position say that flat out. It’s not the same thing as saying, “we’ll deal with it,” or moving someone to a different congregation. It was also interesting to me to hear from so many stories that, although our individual circumstances were different, the outcomes were pretty much the same—how we were affected by it, people we thought were our friends dumping us, etc. Thank you for your work.”—MN

“Thank you for a conference full of hope, support and Christ-centeredness. It was indeed a blessing for us.”—MN

“Thanks Samantha & Steve for everything! I really mean that.”—Survivor

“Everything was great!”—CA

“Thank you so much. I feel this has been monumental in my healing.”—Survivor

“You have no idea how much this conference and the ministry of The Hope of Survivors has helped us. You’ll never know this side of Heaven. Thank you.”—MO

“First of all, THANK YOU!!!!! for coming here and for spending the time to share and educate, counsel and bring healing. You and your husband are awesome for doing what you do.”—S., Michigan

“Your program was excellent and I learned a lot.”—C., Michigan

“Good conference!”—F., Ohio

“It was our pleasure to have attended the Hope & Healing conference. We believe it was an essential step in our healing journey…A huge leap forward in our healing…sharing with others that know and feel our pain. Thanks again for your unselfish, love-filled ministry. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYBODY—husbands and wives—to all victims of pastoral/clergy sexual abuse. You two are true children of God. Your rewards in the Kingdom are awaiting you.”—M. & D., Ohio

“Thanks to both of you, Samantha and Steve, for providing me the opportunity to attend your Hope & Healing Conference in Ohio. It was the first time I’d been around anyone who had gone through the experience of clergy sexual abuse as I had and it was bittersweet for me. I thank you for your compassion and your true love that you showed all of us. I applaud you for your willingness to address this issue in a forthright manner and for allowing God to guide you in providing this much-needed ministry. I also want to thank you for the support you have given and continue to give me. It was a true blessing being around everyone and sharing our experiences. I also want to thank you for letting your emotions flow when speaking of your own experience. My hope is to one day join your ministry and provide hope to others, as you have, through my own experience, and I pray to God to one day bring an end to CSA through all of us in speaking out, standing up, educating churches and congregations, and for all to do as God would have us do to clean up what needs to be cleaned up so that churches may be a truly safe haven…what God had intended. God Bless You and all in the continued healing journey.”—K., Virginia

“Great job! Your ministry is of God. Thanks! 1 John 3:16-24.”—M., Ohio

“You both did a wonderful job. Your message of hope, understanding, compassion and healing was very well demonstrated and received. I feel very encouraged. Thank you for your ministry and I will pray for its continued success.”—D., Ohio

“The things shared today are things I need to hear often. I still struggle with transferring knowledge from my head to my heart.”—V., Ohio

To read a letter of recommendation for the Hope & Healing conference by a pastor who attended, please click here.

Below are comments we’ve received about our Trust & Truth conference for church members and the community:

“THANK YOU with all my heart! I was very let down by the fact that even people who told me they were coming didn’t make it, but I am feeling better now. My thanks to you both for all the great information! It was wonderful and even though there were only a few people, I believe God did a mighty work! I know He is still working on me. …You both did the greatest job with the conference and I am forever changed….” D.—Illinois

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be there from the start, but what I experienced was excellent.”—Pastor J. Pollard, MD

To read a letter of recommendation for the Trust & Truth conference, please click here.