Index
AVA’s Beginning
Prevalence of Abuse
Vision, Mission and Goals
AVA’s Beginning
Prevalence of Abuse
Vision, Mission and Goals
To understand how AVA began
To understand why AVA is a ministry in the Covenant Church
To learn the vision, mission and goals of AVA
Healing Communities, Safe Sanctuaries.
To promote safety and healing for victims of abuse and help bring an end to violence against women and children.
Consider these familiar contexts from the perspective of abuse (emphasis added):
“Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. ‘What a huge harvest!’ he said to his disciples. ‘How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!’”
Matthew 9:35-37
The Message
“The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives.”
Matthew 10:1-2
The Message
1. Shannan Catalano. “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States,” (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007).
2. UN Study on the Status of Women, 2000.
3. Martin S. Lipsky, S. Mitchell, and B. King, B. Blueprints, Family Medicine, 2nd. Edition, Lippincott, Williams and Wilkens, 2006.
4. Women’s & Men’s Health Survey, Harris & Associates, 1998.
5. Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark, “When Terror Strikes the Christian Home”; Keynote Address at The Awakening Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; 10/07/2006, Coker AL, Smith PH, McKeown RE, Melissa KJ. Frequency and correlates of intimate partner violence by type: physical, sexual, and psychological battering. American Journal of Public Health 2000; 90(4):553-9.
6. Bureau of Justice Statistics as reported in Women’s Fund Newsletter July 2007.
7. Lee Bowker, “Religious Victims and Their Religious Leaders: Services Delivered to One Thousand Battered Women” by the Clergy in Abuse and Religion, 230-31.
8. The National Center for Victims of Crime.
9. Callie Marie Rennison, “Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim,” 1993-1999. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Washington DC: U.S. 2001.
10. National Victim Center.