Spiritual Abuse: My Healing Journey

January 27, 2023.Reading time 19 minutes.

Eight months after my former pastors were removed because of spiritual abuse, I left that church. In fact, I moved countries. I realized I needed separation in order to gain clarity. After over seven years of living in South Korea, I returned to the States, hoping to leave my traumatic experiences behind me. But I […]

Spiritual Abuse: Truth, Lies, and Manipulation

December 7, 2022.Reading time 27 minutes.

In spiritually abusive environments, some form of truth is present. And some good things might be happening. This makes it harder to identify what is off. The Bible is quoted. God might be moving in some powerful ways. So what exactly is wrong? As I have tried to mentally untangle my own experience of spiritual […]

Spiritual Abuse: When Church Becomes a Damaging, Dangerous Place

November 16, 2022.Reading time 21 minutes.

Four years ago, the co-lead pastors of my church at the time were asked to resign because of spiritual abuse. That church had become my family, my community, my home. The news was shocking, but I was also deeply grateful the dysfunction was finally being named. While I am still unpacking the realities and consequences […]

More than My Trauma

May 20, 2020.Reading time 13 minutes.

The past year and a half, it has been hard for me not to define myself by my trauma. I have been through some things. I have had some long, complicated experiences that have been arduous to process. Years worth of mess to sort through. And it has been hard not to stay stuck. I’m […]

Accepting the Good

January 25, 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’ll be the first one to admit that I think platitudes about gratitude are lame. (Though I’m sure I’ve made plenty on this blog . . .) Gratitude cannot be the solution to everything, and besides, some problems need to be wallowed in and solved that way. Right? Waiting In the middle of 2019, I […]

When It Costs Everything You Have

September 29, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Tomorrow also happens to be the day I start seminary. It’s a new season for me, a very significant one. And tonight, I realized this season needs to start with surrender. Everything is shifting around me. I just moved across the country to a […]

Transition, Weightlessness & Restoration

August 28, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

At the beginning of the year, I left the home I had built in Korea. I left my closest friends, my job, my routines, and all the futures I had envisioned for myself on that peninsula, and I returned to the States. I was excited, but I was also heartbroken. In one hand, I held hopeful excitement about my new beginning; but in the other, my whole world seemed to be slipping away like sand through my fingers […]

2019: Moving Back to the US

January 1, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

I have now been living in South Korea for over SEVEN years. That seems crazy-long, but also far shorter than I expected. Part of me thought I would stay here forever. But for now, I’m departing. In a few short weeks, I will be moving back to the States! Despite the fact that I grew […]