Friends,
I am so excited to be apart of this project!! I was asked to answer this question in 61 seconds: “If you could only share one thing with a victim of Childhood Sexual Abuse, what would it be?”
After typing as quickly as my little fingers would go [and a few edits after] my contribution was made on page 107! If you, or someone you know, is going through the life-long journey of recovery to childhood abuse please forward them this page!
I know God will use this book to heal many broken moments and heal some broken pieces.
– Rayne
A note from the Publisher:
Hi. I’m Mally.
I’m 33 years old, and I’m a wife and a mother of four…and pregnant with baby number 5 due in May 2015 (I’m 20-weeks pregnant!) I am also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, incest, C-PTSD, depression, PND (PPD), suicide attempts, loss, rape, mental abuse, emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse, suicide attempts, substance abuse and severe depression.
I’ve shared some of this on my blog called Think Speak Run. And on Sunday 19th October 2014 – a day after our sixth wedding anniversary – I stood up in front of a group of people at a local Welsh Baptist Church and shared my testimony about the things that God has brought me through as a CSA survivor.
But as liberating as it was to step out from behind the screen and share my real story with that room of people, the truth is that it wasn’t enough. All around the world, millions of men and women are silently suffering the devastating effects of sexual abuse experienced in their childhood. And one of the great tragedies of this is that as common an experience as childhood sexual abuse is…1 out of the next 4 women and 1 out of the next 6 men that you meet…each victim of CSA is left feeling isolated, voiceless, and asking themselves: “Is it just me?” or “Am I the only one going through this?”
So to answer this question, my husband David and I decided to put together a free ebook called It’s Not Just You. Our simple idea was to reach out to 365 CSA survivors, experts, and advocates all answering a single question that is the basis of this book. And the plan was to gather all 365 responses into a free ebook that we’d release by Christmas Day 2014, where the ebook would enable each CSA survivor to know that they’re not alone…that it’s not just them. We sent our first email out on Monday, 10th November 2014, at 8.53pm, with the simple heading: Please can I have a 61-second interview with you for our new book for CSA survivors?
And after sending out 1,452 individual emails, scheduling several Skype calls with people wanting to know more about the project…on top of looking after 4 kids (11, 5, 3, 2), attending hospital scans for the pregnancy, David working a full-time job and building an online business, PLUS having to suddenly pack up our entire house and move our family overseas to Uganda…the end result is this book that you’re reading right now.
It doesn’t have 365 entries as we’d hoped for, and we didn’t finish it in time for Christmas (we’re three days late). But what it does have is 100 immensely generous and powerful insights from CSA survivors and non-survivors from around the world, who have stepped forward to let you know that no matter what you’re going through right now…it’s not just you. You’re not alone, and this book has the names and contact details of 100 people who believe you, believe in you and are 100% looking for you to survive and thrive in spite of all that you’re going through right now.
Each contributor was asked the same question, and each one of them was given ’61-seconds’ to answer it. Some took that literally and melted their keyboards with the speed of their typing. Others used a ‘metaphorical 61-seconds’ and took a moment out of their extremely busy schedules to share valuable insights that you’ll read in this book.
We personally reached out to thousands of people that we believed would add value to this project, and whatever answer they provided to the question we asked them…that’s exactly what we’ve put in this book, exactly as it was emailed to us (complete with typos), in the exact chronological order that we received it.
Why? Because when it comes to sharing your story and your truth as a survivor, it doesn’t matter how you say it, or even what you say. All that matters is that you say it…because speaking it out – whatever your it might be – is the key to your freedom and destiny.
I’m sorry that we weren’t able to get 365 entries for you in this book. And I’m sorry that we weren’t able to get this book out to you in time for Christmas Day 2014. Hopefully what we were able to do will be of value to you and worth sharing to as many people as you can give it to. But if you do nothing else with it, we hope you really take to heart this one thing: it’s not just you, and we believe you.
Faithfully yours,
Mally & David
© Mally Tamale-Sali
You have permission to post this, email this, print this and pass it along for free to anyone you like, as long as you make no changes or edits to its contents or digital format. In fact, I’d love it if you’d make lots and lots of copies. The right to bind this and sell it as a book, however, is strictly reserved.
Rayne Whispers 