CBN News covered our work in Turkey this week, interviewing Wave 2 team lead and long-time responder, Jarod.
“These people are hurting in a way that most of us don’t understand,” said one volunteer named Jarod with Crisis Response International. “The amount of trauma in the land doesn’t go away overnight. And the longer we can be here to love and care for these people, being aware and stepping back in these organizations as we go.”
“They’re wounded with trauma and heartbroken,” Jarod said.
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“I experienced a week of Pure Heart in Kona, Hawaii, back in 2012. This was the most transformational week of my DTS with YWAM. Pure Heart week was great because it created a safe place for students to get real about the wounds we were still carrying and also the tools to move forward into the freedom God has for us! I think the most transformational day for me was True Femininity. I remember all of the women at the altar, mourning and weeping over what had been stolen from us - and then the men in the room began declaring life and truth over all of the women, and it was like something broke in my spirit and in the women around me. There was so much freedom and peace after that session. All of us walked away feeling validated and loved and cherished, and all of our brothers walked away realizing how precious we women are and how we need them to fight for and protect us. It was a really beautiful and powerful day!
“I had already been through a lot of inner healing ministry. All of it was great and brought different levels of freedom, but Pure Heart went deeper than any other. It allowed me to release pain that I didn't even know I was holding deep inside and broke down walls that I was still hiding behind in my Heart. I used to hear God through a filter where it seemed like He was slightly annoyed with me. After dealing with the pain, the filter is gone and now when I hear God's voice, it is dripping with love for me!
“The significant wound that the Lord touched through Pure Heart was a father wound. I thought I hated him but realized how much he loved me, but could not overcome his own brokenness so he kind of ditched me/us. When I realized this during Pure Heart, I just wept and kept saying, 'You sweet broken old man.' As love and forgiveness washed over me.
“I remember on the day of healing the Mother Wound. I hadn't realized, for years, I had carried disappointment from my mother into my relationship with the Father. As soon as I recognized the feeling of disappointment crashing over me, Donna rushed over, literally the second I was identifying what Holy Spirit was bringing up, and she held me while I wept and just spoke gentle truth over the wounds I hadn't even realized I had covered. That morning completely changed how I relate to the Father even on an emotional level, and brought so much freedom. Like a HUGE weight had been lifted.
“I had a pretty touchy relationship with my dad. I always thought it was based on his action (or inaction and passivity) towards me. Then through the Pure Heart ministry, Tom and Donna gave the Lord the space to bring some conviction about my treatment of my Dad during my insecure, unhappy teenage years and how my blame of him halted him from pursuing a deep relationship with me. When I went home, I repented to him, and a deep wound was healed in both of our hearts. I felt the intimacy of my childhood was restored. We now walk in openness and affection towards each other.
“I went into Pure heart week in DTS (FF Jan 2012), thinking I'd need the Father's Heart of God healing. That day came and went, and surprisingly....it wasn't the pain that gripped me. It was the mother's Heart. Pure Heart exposed a deep wound I was oblivious to. I spent so long feeling my mom's hurt from my Dad....that I lost a mother who saw me. After pure Heart, I learned God cares for me like a 'mother'....not just a father. My testimony is one about being open to Pure Heart and letting go of where we expect to be hurt. Sometimes it's the very place we think we're 'good,' that we're actually hurting.
“I took part in a Pure Heart seminar in 2013 led by Tom and Donna. There were a lot of traumatic events both from childhood and early adulthood that I did not realize how heavily had impacted my psyche and stagnated my growth as a person. The nurturing Maternal and Paternal love and genuineness that radiate from Donna and Tom allowed me to feel loved and accepted enough to be vulnerable and honest with myself about things that were far repressed. The techniques that are used in pure Heart get to the core of your Heart and psychology, forcing you to recall both the hurts that you have endured as well as the damage you have rendered unto others. Pure Heart was, for me, in many ways the beginning of my self-discovery and inner healing journey. The tools that I was given in pure Heart inspired me to take massive action towards pursuing inner healing and creating a psychology / Heart of love, forgiveness, understanding, gratitude, etc. I cannot emphasize the difference that the Cole's (AKA Pure Heart) have made on my journey. Every single one of us is wounded and broken somewhere deep within; most of us have repressed the memories themselves and only carry the anxieties, depression, self-deprivation, anger etc. from these events. Pure Heart is an incredibly powerful tool for helping you to unearth these issues and find a way to move forward.
“I had a powerful encounter with the Father Heart of God. I was in search of my identity and found it not to be the super manly, strong warrior dude that toughs his way through life but actually lives as the beloved of God. I experienced powerful healing through the ministry. Tom and Donna have powerful testimonies of their own healing and create such a safe and free space to encounter God.
“I have seen first hand the powerful ministry of Pure Heart. Tom and Donna held their conference in Fairbanks, Alaska at the church where I was pastoring. The ministry of the Holy Spirit uses Pure Heart to go to the depths of the soul to bring up, out, and into the Cross the darkness and pain that only Christ can heal. This ministry has touched and changed 100's, maybe 1000's of lives. Do you dare give it a chance to change yours?
“Pure Heart is a unique ministry aimed at filling a huge gap that resides in the American Church - Christianity is historically good at Spiritual things and good at practical things... there has been massive oversight in the emotional things - handled Biblically. Tom & Donna Cole I have had many moments of lasting breakthrough in my emotional and mental wellbeing and deepening my connection to Jesus and others through their ministry. I love, love, love this ministry and the Coles!!
“
“Hi! My name is Matt. I am writing this story from a small bus in the middle of Asia. This is a true story about how 2 years ago, God turned my life upside down. I was in the January 2013 Fire and Fragrance DTS, and it was Pure Heart week- a week dedicated to the healing of the students' hearts from any past wounds so that they can move forward in freedom. That morning, Donna Cole was leading the women in our school to receive healing from any wounds they had received from men. Most of the things they were dealing with had to do with fathers or past boyfriends not valuing them properly. As the girls were facing their pasts of being mistreated, most of them were crying. Some were screaming, some were angry, many were weeping. Seeing how hurt these woman were - almost all them - close friends of mine - disturbed me to the core. God was using it to disturb me. I was at the back of the room, remembering the times that I had mistreated girls in the past and praying to God that instead of viewing women as objects, men would start loving them as human beings. I started saying to God, 'raise me up as one who will make a difference in such a perverted world. Raise me up.' I was overwhelmed with anger, and I knew that it was righteous anger. And then came His voice. It was one of the few times that I knew for sure that God was speaking to me. 'Then rise up' So I looked up, and standing in front of me was Jesus wearing full knight armor. I knew it was Jesus but could not see his face through His helmet. I felt pure before Him. I knelt down, and His sword touched my shoulders and my head. I knew that He was knighting me into purity. Everything in my life turned around at that moment. I could never go back to a 'normal' life, ignoring the massive issues in the world. I couldn't believe what just happened. I knew that He was inviting me to give my life for the sake of purity in my generation. As if He was saying, 'if you give your life for this, I will lead you to make a difference in the world.' After the vision ended, I continued to pray and talk to Jesus. I dwelt on the experience for about half an hour. I made sure I remembered every detail, though I didn't tell anybody about my knighting experience yet. Then Tom Cole called all the men to the front. He had us all line up across the front. The next thing that happened solidified the change in my life that had taken place. Tom walked around the corner with a sword in his hand. He asked us all to kneel and said he was going to knight all of the men to make a difference and to live for purity. Though it was a seemingly small prophetic act he did, God used this confirmation to reinforce what He was doing. So after being knighted by Jesus, I was also knighted by a physical sword. As we were being knighted, the girls, fresh from their healing experiences, erupted behind us. They all started screaming and shouting for the men to take a stand for them. It was a surreal moment, but I can remember it so clearly. That day I knew that my life would be given to see purity replace perversion and lust in the world, for women who are being mistreated, and for men who are in bondage to lust. Pure heart week set me on a wild journey. Later on in my school, I heard about sex trafficking. As I learned what sex trafficking was, I felt such compassion to help those involved in it. In my heart I knew that I wanted to do something to see sex trafficking come to an end, to bring the pure light of Christ into the darkest places. I am now living in Nepal. My fiancé and I own a guesthouse to employ girls from prostitution and brothels as we disciple them. The life we are leading is beautiful and carries its fair share of 'hard'; the good kind of hard. The hard that produces perseverance, character, and ultimately, hope. For example, last Saturday, we had a teenage girl move in after being kicked out of a brothel, eight months pregnant, and with HIV positive test results from three hospitals. She was the fourth pregnant girl to come. Two of the girls, despite our pleading, aborted their children. The other two chose to birth their children. Today, that teenage girl has a healthy baby boy and has been healed of HIV. (With the test results from three hospitals saying 'HIV negative'). I don't mean to send the details of my life to sound as though I have somehow succeeded. The only success I claim is my desperate need for Him. But I wanted to tell you how my life has been so affected by how God is moving through you guys and your ministry. I have found my calling!
