Suitcases and Seeds: The Story of an Incredible Journey

By Diane Werling

"While this is a story of an incredible journey, it is also a gift and a blessing for each fortunate reader." *

- Art Gorman, Elementary School teacher, Christian youth leader, *

Join an 11 year old boy, a 7 year old girl and a teen named Nell on an unexpected journey full of adventure led by Jesus and an angel named willow

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637695876

Diane Werling

The author attended Concordia University in Nebraska where she majored in theology and minored in psychology. She served in the Prince of Peace Corps in the inner city of Chicago. She is a Rainbows Facilitator for hurting children and a trained Stephen Minister. She was director of music and elementary school choirs at parochial schools in Michigan and in Indiana.

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Suitcases and Seeds

The Story of an Incredible Journey

Suitcases and Seeds: The Story of an Incredible Journey

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2022 by Diane Werling

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-63769-586-9

E-ISBN: 978-1-63769-587-6

Dedication

To all children and adults who have been abused and can’t believe they are lovable or have any value. I hope this book will help you begin to know how very precious you are and how very important you are to the Lord and to us all.

And to my beloved husband and son, who not only lovingly endured but provided strength and encouragement throughout my healing process.

Preface

The primary purpose of this story is to serve as a tool to help in the healing process for children and youth who have been deeply, emotionally scarred through abuse.

For others, it can help them to reach out to someone who has been abused with a little more understanding and confidence.

The story is written from the eyes of a child; however, for those of you who are older, please don’t put it aside thinking it is only for children. It is also for the child within who has been hurt, for that is where the healing must begin.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of compassion is the God of all comfort

who comforts us in all our troubles,

so that we can comfort those in any trouble

with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives

so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

II Corinthians 1: 3

Chapter 1

Let Me Introduce Myself

Having served as an elementary school teacher, I hold children of all ages very close to my heart. Naturally my flower garden, which I also dearly love, had to include a special place for children. One day while I was working among the flowers in this part of the garden, I was reminded of when I was a child. We had a nice backyard with flowers and a white picket fence, and there were lots of children in the neighborhood to play with.

But in spite of this, I was never really very happy. In fact, I spent most of my childhood very sad and withdrawn. You see, although everyone thought my father was a wonderful man, I had learned to know a very hurtful side of him.

From the time I was a toddler until well into my teens, he would take me to secret places and hurt me in terrible ways that made me feel dirty inside. Even though he tried to tell me those times were special, they were definitely not special at all. I hated them. And by the time I was five I hated myself as well. He made me promise never to tell anyone about these times or he would hurt my mother or someone else that I loved.

When I was about seven, he began taking me to places where he would let other people hurt me in even more terrible ways. That made me even more convinced that it must be my fault, and that I was a very bad person who could do nothing good. Otherwise, I thought, why would these things be happening to me?

At that time any kind of abuse was very seldom talked about, so it continued until I was able to leave home for college. Some years later, the Lord led me to a Christian counselor who was able to guide me from the darkness that had enshrouded me into the sunshine. I came to learn that, much to my amazement, I actually had positive things to contribute to others.

The following adventure is woven together as vignettes based on a story that evolved while using an approach in counseling that enabled me to tell my story as if it had happened to someone else. This approach helped me to sort through the traumas of childhood that were more difficult to shed. It felt safer to confide deeply rooted feelings through fictional characters, and at the same time provided opportunity to heal within as the story progressed. It took a long time and was hard work, but it was definitely worth it. In the following story, healing progresses much more quickly than in real life in order to make it more readable.

Suitcases and Seeds is written from the eyes of a child because it is the child within that must begin the healing process. It is my prayer that the following tale about the incredible journey of three friends, two girls and a boy, may in some way be helpful to a child or even to an adult who is hurting and leave them with feelings of hope, direction, and, most importantly, value.

As you read you will see an asterisk * and a little hedgehog now and then. The hedgehog is a symbol of wisdom and understanding. What is written in the boxes is very important for you to know, so please be sure to read what is in each box.

Chapter 2

Three Friends

Do you know what it means to stuff your feelings? It’s when you keep them inside and don’t tell anyone how you feel. It may be because you’re afraid no one will care anyway or maybe not even believe you. Or it may be you’re afraid to tell anyone because you’ve been told not to. Please don’t stuff your feelings. When you do you will just hurt more and more inside. So please don’t give up trying to find someone you can trust to share your feelings with. Your feelings won’t hurt them, and you’ll begin to feel better. It’s okay to share your feelings. In fact, it’s a very good thing.

This is a story about two girls and a boy who live not far from one another. Though they are different in age they had become friends. They are wonderful young people, but each of them has experienced terrible things and doesn’t feel they are wonderful at all. They have never told anyone about these things, not even one another, because they are afraid to. On