Where Crushed Faith is Still Living, and Healing Takes Root
This was the sanctuary’s first welcome — written in the earliest days of freedom, before resurrection fully bloomed. Every word still holds. May you feel the breath of healing in each mustard seed.
This is a soft landing — a gentle beginning for survivors who need warmth before words.
We are returning to the field of our faith —
Where even crushed seeds hold life, and nothing planted
in love is wasted.
This is sacred ground for slow restoration —
a space to catch your breath,
to let your roots go deep,
and to rise again — not in performance,
but in the quiet presence of Real Jesus,
who still meets us in the dirt and calls us His.
You are not behind.
You are not forgotten.
We till these mustard seeds together.
“For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
Even a crushed up one will do. Hold fast, dear friend, and watch it grow. There is Life post trauma. There is Hope post trauma. There is New Life Creation post trauma. Trauma does not define us. Trauma does not get the last word. Real Jesus does. We do. Our stories are still being written, and they are etched in the palm of His hands. Love poured out.
Jesus lifts us from the mud and mire and gives us a new name. Mine, He whispered to me as He beckoned me into the Light, Raya. It means Companion in Hebrew. We are not alone. Jesus walks with us in our healing journey as we learn to attach to ourselves and to Him maybe for the first time in our lives, rooted next to His Living Water quenching our thirst.
Gradually, gently over time, we rise no longer bent over under the weight of all that ties and binds. We stretch and sway our growing limbs reaching to the sky. The ash our fertilizer under our feet, the compost for the Beauty that now blossoms. A new song springs forth as we learn to praise in new ways we never thought possible while cocooned now free.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43: 18-19
Remember, baby steps are still steps. Let’s take them together. To the river. We grow.
With Love,
Raya
The Gentle Rise 