Most of you will be familiar with the blossom flower we use as a logo for Christian Survivors (on our main forum theme & on the website, and on our favicon. This beautiful, delicate flower is actually an Almond Blossom, which symbolizes hope. They’re used in the bible to represent God’s care and to symbolize something precious. Part of the reason for this is that they’re one of the first flowers to bloom after the winter in the Middle East – a powerful symbol of hope! In addition it strikes us as important that almonds can be either sweet or bitter, like our lives as survivors.
The 5 Petals: Hope, Healing, Friendship, Speaking Out, & Safety! Beautiful Painting by Jo! Join us on Twitter #5petals
In honor of our 11th birthday in March 2011, we officially launched 5 Petals, alongside our Twitter page. At the heart of what we do here at CS are 5 concepts: Hope, Healing, Friendship, Speaking Out (breaking the silence forced on us by our abuse!) & Safety. Our almond blossom logo symbolizes these things – each petal representing one of them. We see them as the foundational supports of our organization, goals and forums.
We believe that recovery from abuse is possible and although this is usually a long process, it’s something that every survivor deserves! The abuse we have endured has taken far too much of our lives and we want to see every survivor encouraged to not give up hope, to find a way to claim back their lives and no longer be dictated to by their past. These 5 key concepts very much describe our beliefs at CS, and what we try to accomplish in terms of the kind of environment our community forums have – and the things we hope for, for our members:
Hope
Every survivor deserves to have hope for the future – that things will get better.
Healing
Every survivor deserves to heal from what they’ve been through – and this is achievable!
Friendship
No-one should have to be alone – survivors deserve to have friends & to be a friend to someone else!
Speak Out!
Abuse survivors have been silenced by violence, threats & shame, but every survivor deserves to speak out & be heard!
Safety
All survivors of abuse know what it’s like to not be safe, but every human has the right to live in safety, and to find support in a safe environment.
If you are a survivor of abuse, you deserve to find healing and to recover from what was done to you – don’t let anyone convince you otherwise! It will take time, and hard work… but it’ll be worth it to be able to increasingly live life in freedom and to no longer allow those who have taken so much already, to take any more of your life – in all its fullness!
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions
of people, can transform the world.”
Howard Zinn
If you’re a survivor support or activist organization & would like to partner with us, please email us. We’d love to discuss the ways we can work together to make this project work!!
