Wendy Saxton was expected to come into the world January 11, 1968. Instead, she arrived early: on Christmas Eve 1967--"Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad." She was born the usual way, but there would be nothing normal about her childhood.
Her parents divorced when she was seven-years-old, and soon afterwards, she became a victim of child sexual abuse. What becomes of broken children, when they grow into adult bodies? Wendy knows all too well. Is it possible to be too damaged to heal? Her answer is an emphatic-no. "God's arm is not too short to ransom the oppressed."
Wendy began attending church at age thirteen and there embraced her first experience in a modest and secure enviroment. In the midst of a painful childhood, her heart was called to ministry. She didn't know when, but she felt special in God's eyes.
And then the bottom fell out.
Her pastor had a rigid view of a woman's role in the church; public speaking was out of the question. She felt shamed for expressing her desire to be in ministry, and her safe place was shattered. Too young to know the difference between "religion" and authentic Christianity, she left the church and vowed never to go back.
She began a long-distance run from God. Her life became filled with the pain that accompanies out-of-wed-lock pregnancies, infidelity, divorce, single-motherhood, alcohol abuse, and a co-dependent relationship with a drug addict.
Twenty-three years later, rock bottom arrived, gift wrapped in enough desperation to do something different. Childhood memories had resurfaced and she could no longer suppress them. She wouldn't survive without a miracle. The prodigal daughter returned to her Heavenly Father, broken and angry.
Wendy's healing began with her fists raised and her heart transparent before God. She quickly learned that it's okay to be mad at God. He's big and He can take it. And on an unlikely journey through fear, anger, and doubt, she discovered how beautifully her hand was created to fit in the Savior's.
God has written a message in Wendy's heart for those bound to perpetual heartache and trauma: "He never minimizes the events that break our hearts. We do; when we deny Him access to the pain".
Her memoir, The Jonah Chronicles A Memoir of Hope for the Hopless is practical, powerful, and biblically principled. What she describes as "thought provoking, and just plain useful--vintage Jesus storytelling."
Wendy is the founder of The Medicine Place, an on-line ministry purposed to encourage and equip women through personal hardships. A gifted storyteller, she combines warmth and wit to address issues such as rejection, betrayal, co-dependency, boundary setting with a drug-addicted loved one, healing from sexual abuse, teenage rebellion, and how to remain married through it all.
Wendy resides in Fort Worth, Texas, with her husband, Michael (now clean and sober), three sons--Christopher, Matthew, and Zachary; Jasmine, a black lab, and "Hannah Banana", a yellow lab; her long awaited girls.
For more information about the author, visit www.wendysaxton.authorweblog.com
