NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDGRASS VALLEY, CA

PERMIT NO. 60

Christian Encounter MinistriesPO Box 1022Grass Valley, CA 95945CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Tending Lives…Training Leaders

Christian Encounter MinistriesAugust 2013

Since 1970

Contact us at:www.ChristianEncounter.orgcem@ChristianEncounter.org

530-268-0877

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Christian Encounter Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational, residential program helping 16- to 25-year-olds by providing love, spiritual guidance, high school education, counseling, and 24-hour supervision. Internships are offered to qualifying upper level college students and graduates.

Bring your group to CEM this fall!Challenge the ranch kids to a Frisbee or soccer game...

Tour the property and hear the “miracle stories”...

Put on your old clothes and come for Work Day,

October 12...You pick the one right for your group.

Phone 530-268-0877Ask for Marion

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Lovella knows what love isn’t!by Mike Petrillo

You can’t find love unless you know what it looks like, according to Lovella. She says that what the world passes off for love is just conditional love—it’s only good until somebody says they like someone better. The conditions change with what you wear; what you look like; how much money, drugs, or alcohol you have. Lovella knows what love is not. It’s not parents who leave you with a friend for months at a time. It’s not parents that don’t protect you from horrible abuse. It’s not friends who tell lies to get what they want. It’s not people who give up because you are angry and hurt by life, never stopping to assure you that you can tell the truth about what’s happened.

Addictions were her way to deal with all of that. Staying high long enough to ignore her pain became the goal of Lovella’s life. She didn’t care that she stole from family or church or embezzled from work. The goal was forgetting what love was not. She ended up on the streets when her influence on her younger siblings forced her family guardian to remove her from the house. By this time Mom had passed away after a short bout with lung cancer. Dad was trying to be gone by working long-haul trucking. A friend from college brought her home, and while in that family she started thinking about whether some other kind of life was possible. That led her to Christian Encounter Ranch.

Lovella reflects back on the family that intervened on her behalf and upon her guardian who sought to provide and protect her more than any other person. “Without his love, guidance, and efforts I don’t know if I’d even be alive today. I had blamed myself for everything bad that happened to me. It was all about finding love. If you don’t know what real love looks like, it’s like a blind man who has never seen light searching for light.” About three months into her stay at CEM, the discipline and structure of the ministry took on the shape and feel of real love. “The interns disciplined and corrected me and the staff set up consequences for me that I didn’t get out of. I knew that lack of correction and discipline meant people don’t care very much, and that I wasn’t worth very much. So when I realized that I was being corrected and not rejected, it surprised me; it felt like real love.” Lovella adds that it was then that she stopped resisting the structure and purposes of Christian Encounter. She found that truly there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. (Romans 8:1) The missing discipline from her childhood was being installed in her soul, one small piece at a time. It was a new kind of love, not dependent on what she did, but on her value as a person. Interns spoke truth to her about a God who could fill up her heart. Counselors went deep with her in her expression of a lifetime of feelings. Lovella was sure she had experienced all the grief and hurt the world had. Now, friendships are developing that are lasting and genuine. Her brain is recovering from years of damage. Biblical truth, added

to compassion, added to safety and structure, equals the real love antidote for grief.

As Lovella drinks in the grace of God in Christ, a surprising happiness is overtaking her. This joy is real, and it sends grief away. This joy is based on an unconditional gift that only Jesus can offer. This joy has Lovella laughing more than ever. “I laugh because I’m here and I have a second chance at life! What could be better than that!?” Sometimes, still, the laughs are a cover for what isn’t yet healed. But unmistakable bright smiles of true happiness fill Lovella’s countenance. Only Jesus can restore a broken heart. This truth cannot be suppressed! Another full-hearted laugh breaks through Lovella’s conversation.

It’s a lovely name, isn’t it? The name given her at birth is just one of God’s unlimited surprises. Now each time she hears “Lovella,” she hears “beloved by God”—she hears real love calling her by name.

“I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” Hebrews 10:17, New Living Translation