The Birth of the AVA Initiative

By Ruth Hill, Executive Minister
Department of Women Ministries
Evangelical Covenant Church

Several years ago one of my closest girlfriends shared with me that she had been abused by her first husband. I was stunned, partly because I had known her a long time and never had a clue.

I sat with a woman after a retreat message, a nice, sweet grandmotherly type. Her question was whether she should accept her former husband’s plea to live with him again, separate bedrooms of course, and basically take care of him. Why had she left? He had abused her for 40 years.

I worked with a woman who was still recovering from her husband’s abuse. Her stories sent shivers through me. After ten years she was still working on restoring her self-esteem.

Twelve women participated in one of our Cross-cultural Opportunities. A speaker one evening began by saying statistically at least one of the women had been abused. I seriously doubted it. One pulled me aside the next day, sharing that she had been abused and wanted help to recover.

My journey was repeatedly intersecting with those whose journey involved abuse. I couldn’t see any of the clues. Still can’t. I was frightened by their stories. Still am. I was powerless to help. Or was I?

Then a friend introduced me to Elouise Spencer, Executive Director of WellSpring, Center for Hope, in Chicago, IL. Over lunch she gave me a mini course on the topic of abuse. At the end, she leaned across the table and said, “So, Ruth, what are you going to do about this?” Her very serious question required an equally serious response. What was I going to do? “I honestly don’t know,” I replied, “but whatever the Lord asks me to do, I will do it.”

In December 2002 the Lord showed me that he would use Women Ministries to bring it to the attention of the Covenant denomination. I shared with our leaders a vision of hiring a Project Manager to advocate for victims of abuse through sustained and informed leadership. It moved from the Board chair to the Compassion Mercy and Justice Ministry to the whole Board, and finally to our 2003 annual meeting. Project 2004 “Light for AVA – Advocacy for Victims of Abuse” was launched.

The response was immediate and enthusiastic. There was great eagerness for tools to minister to victims; there were numerous testimonies of those who walked or were still walking the journey of abuse. Hope for help was in sight. And there was also great anticipation to learn whom God had prepared to lead the initiative as Project Manager.

There was a woman in California finishing her doctoral thesis on a church model for responding to teenagers exposed to domestic violence. Community service and her role as associate pastor gave her many opportunities to use her knowledge to help victims. To people’s question as to what she wanted to do when she finished her studies, Rev. Aleese Moore-Orbih would reply, “I have this dream of how I would educate the whole church about abuse!”

In May 2004 Aleese picked up a newsletter from Covenant Offices. There in print was her own dream: to provide resources to bring healing to victims of abuse, to equip the church to minister to victims of abuse, to provide preventive measures against abuse. She was reading the goals of the AVA initiative in the Women Ministries’ portion of the President’s Newsletter.

In June 2004 Aleese was unanimously affirmed by the AVA Search Committee as the woman the Lord had prepared for the position. She was consecrated for service at Triennial XI August 2004 and began work in September. We discovered that the Lord gave her the same vision in the same month as he gave it to me. It is an awesome thing to move in the current of God’s will!