STS training pictures

"Our Group" minus a few that left early

Amy and Tricia Heflin

Our Hostesses

My New Friends from Louisiana

Pat Layton Teaching

Me and Pat

Surrendering the Secret Leader Certification Training


What an amazing weekend this was. I am sorry it has been forever since I posted.

The weekend that Pat Layton was in Kirbyville Texas will be one I will never forget. The training day went well. All the ladies enjoyed their selves and lots of friends were made. We had 3 states represented and CPCs, churches, ministries and counselors in attendance.

Each lady there had a story to tell of why God wanted her there. I believe we were about 1/2 and 1/2 of post abortive/non post abortive.

We even had a mother/daughter team there. The mom is post abortive and because of the destructive lifestyle, God has put a calling on the daughter, who isn't post abortive, to start a ministry. Also her mom was in the first post abortive healing group she lead.

Oh the stories went around the table, It took us just over an hour, and none of us had a dry eye.

It was an amazing day!

almost here......

Well I think I am all geared up for this weekend. God has been so faithful.
2 1/2 weeks ago there were only 4 women signed up for the Surrendering the Secret leader certification training. I was fretting it but Pat Layton, in her Godly wisdom, told me God would provide. He is so faithful. (did i already say that?) There are 21 women attending, not including myself, the training on Sat. From 3 states, coming from churches, crisis pregnancy centers, post abortion ministries, and 3 Christian Counselors. I am so excited to finally meet the women I have been praying for all these months. God is going to bless our socks off at the training. Praying for the sweetest spirit that day.
Please Pray for Pat as she will also be speaking to our church in Sunday morning services. Lots of prayer has gone into this weekend. I know God is going to open doors, heal hearts, mend marriages, and save souls this weekend. To God Be the Glory!

Will the next Trainee please stand-up?

Trout Creek Baptist Church will host a one day

“Leader Certification Training” for Surrendering the Secret.

It will feature Pat Layton, author of Surrendering the Secret,

founder of A Women’s Place in Tampa, Florida.

Surrendering the Secret is a study published by LifeWay, designed to bring healing to women

who have abortion in their past. Although abortion is not a secret anymore and is freely

discussed in today’s society, many women still do not feel comfortable talking about their painful

experiences. In fact, there are millions of women who continue to hold this secret deep inside

and are suffering severe consequences. Surrendering the Secret will allow these women who

need help to connect with women who can help them.

Training will be held at:

Trout Creek Baptist Church, Kirbyville, Texas

Saturday, September 26, 2009

from 9 am to 4 pm

(Lunch will be provided.)

Register Online: http://www.surrenderingthesecret.com/

(Deadline for registration is September 12, 2009, 14 days prior to the event)

For coordinating, planning or directions contact:
Amy Sauls, founder of Finding Freedom Ministry at 409-423-0825

Stacy Spence, TCBC Women’s Ministry Director, at 409-656-4031
Certification will be given to those who complete the training.

Please join us on this journey to healing and restoration!

Don't Forget to Fight Like a Girl.....

Don't forget about the "Fight Like a Girl Contest"

WIN A FREE STS Certification Training Opportunity complete with airfare. Simply Join our Surrendering The Secret Group on Facebook and encourage others to join around the WORLD to be entered in our drawing!!

OR
How would you like to win a complete "Surrendering the Secret" Bible Study/DVD Kit for your church, local pregnancy center or counseling office?
Step on over to Pat's blog for a chance to win.

Pat has all the details over there and we would love for you to enter.

Contest will end on July 4th, so get over there quick to enter.

I fight like a girl, how about you?

My name is Amy Sauls and I am a post-abortive woman.

I faced an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 16 that resulted in abortion. The shame and guilt of ending the life of my unborn child overwhelmed me. Although I became a Christian when I was 22, I still felt as though the sin of my abortion could never be forgiven. For 15 years I lived in shame and secrecy, guilt overflowing into every area of my life.
While attending a retreat with my church in October of 2006, I realized that through Jesus’ death on the cross, I was truly forgiven of all my sins, including my abortion. The Lord Jesus Christ was my only source of healing and freedom. And finally, after many years of heartbreak, I was able to experience true freedom in Christ.
In October of 2008, after God dealt with my heart for 2 years, I surrendered to His call into post-abortion ministry. Since that time, God has consistently provided opportunities for this ministry to grow and opened doors for me to speak to the women and youth of my community.
Then in January of 2009, I attended a training conference for Surrendering the Secret, by Pat Layton. This bible study is a wonderful tool for healing the heartbreak of abortion.
In John 4:35, we are told to open our eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest. There are millions of women suffering the severe consequences of abortion and are in need of healing that only Christ can give them. Revelation 12:11 tells us, “They overcame him [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” These women need to know that they are not alone in this battle. They need to hear what Christ has done in our lives and that He can do the same for them.

Will you join us in the fight towards healing and restoration for Men and Women all over the World?

Pat Layton and her team will be in Kirbyville Texas at my church Trout Creek Baptist on Saturday, September 26, offering Leader Certification Training. You may register HERE.

WIN A FREE STS Certification Training Opportunity complete with airfare.
Simply Join our Surrendering The Secret Group on Facebook and encourage others to join around the WORLD to be entered in our drawing!!

OR

How would you like to win a complete "Surrendering the Secret" Bible Study/DVD Kit for your church, local pregnancy center or counseling office?

Step on over to Pat's blog for a chance to win.

*if you post on your website, blog, facebook or email, please link back to me for my chance at winning too, cause Pat is cool like that!*

New Study Available

Just the Facts:
· Half of all pregnancies of American women are unintended;
Half end in abortion.
· In 2002, 1.3 million abortions occurred
· Currently, 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion by age 45.
· 88% of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
· A broad cross-section of U.S. women has abortions:
* 56% are in their 20s
* 61% have other children
* 67% have never married
* 57% are economically disadvantaged
* 88% live in a metropolitan area
* 78% report a religious affiliation

*Source: AGI, agi-usa.org

Who suffers from Post -Abortion Trauma?
Common traits women most likely suffer from post-abortion trauma include:
· Hold strong moral beliefs against abortion
· Experience conflicting maternal desires
· Aborted during the second or third trimester
· Felt pressured or coerced
· Made their decision based on inaccurate, biased or inadequate information
· Were young or emotionally immature
· Had prior emotional or psychiatric issues
· Lacked social support
· Had prior abortions
· Experienced one or more miscarriages
· Were less educated

Source: www.afterabortion.org

Finding Freedom Ministry

We provide a safe place for women who have hidden behind their shame

and guilt of a past abortion. We offer women compassion, understanding,

hope for healing, a renewed joy and finding freedom in their lives.

Those who have experienced an abortion are able to understand the

pain you are going through.

Finding Freedom meets weekly and offers help through a Bible study

specific to post abortive women. You will find freedom from the

bondage of abortion and healing that only Jesus Christ can offer.

Study Starts March 30, for those in the SouthEast Texas Area.

Please contact me for registration.

findingfreedomministry@hotmail.com

Joy of the Lord

Joy of the Lord Women's Conference went great. God was there and so were about 200 ladies. It was amazing to be apart of such a great group of God Loving Women.

God worked in the hearts of many women yesterday. There were many broken women looking for the Joy of the Lord and Praise God many of them found it. I know of 1 soul that was saved yesterday and she just happened to be from my church. So it was a joyful morning today in our services when she announced it to her church family.

I gave my testimony about abortion and how God has healed me and set me free from the secrecy I kept for over 15 years. When I was done all the women were on their feet clapping and it was pretty overwhelming for me.

Here are some pictures.

My Ministry Table


My Sister Colleen and I

My #1 Prayer Warrior, Stacy and I

Ministry Flyers

Some Women from my Church

That is all the pictures that Blogger will let me put up for now.

Thank you for all of you prayed for me yesterday. God gave me peace.

Prayer and Praise

This evening I will head over to the local retreat camp for a women's prayer retreat with my SIL and her sister. A bittersweet time with my Lord. A much needed time of praise, and prayer. These last few weeks have been full of ministry busyness. Aside from my daily outside the home job, and my family I have been very busy getting ready for my first ever Conference where I will a guest speaker. That takes way more preparation than I realized. Not to mention speaking to our Celebrate Recovery Group at our Church right in the middle of it.

God has been preparing me for this next weeks conference for the last 4 weeks since I was invited. And my life has become a play ground for the enemy. He has tried to attack me every way he can. But I have stayed in Prayer, Worship and in the Word of God to find my strength to fight through this.

Other Big News in my life is that we have finally set a date for Pat Layton author of Surrendering The Secret to come to our Church for a Training Session and to give her testimony at our Church on Sunday. This is so awesome because we are centrally located in East Texas and close enough to Louisiana that this will cover a huge area. She has penciled us in on her calender for Sept. 26 and 27. We are so excited to see what God will do and the women that will surrender to this ministry.
Not much time left I have to pack my bags.

Patiences Please,

God is doing some amazing things right now. I have 2 more speaking arrangements scheduled. Gesh...... I don't like that part of ministry. I am really freaked out about getting infront of people to talk. but put me in the center of the women I could do it all day long.
I spoke to the youth group a couple of weeks ago and I survived it, so I am sure to survive the women groups right?
In 2 weeks I will be going to our Celebrate Recovery group and give testimony, The conference on Mar 7, and Our Women's Fellowship on April 17.
God is so up to something BIG....... the suspense kills me........ I want to see the big painted picture. Patience, I think He is teaching me a little of that through all of this too.

God Speaks

A real quick recap of my 4 days with an amazing group of ladies.
We headed out on Friday morning to New Bruensfel, Tx for a leadership conference and Surrendering the Secret training. It was a quick trip and not a quite moment it the car. That evening kicked off the conference. The Keynote speaker was Kelly Minter and we had an amazing time of worship. God was speaking to me from the beginning.
I went there for some serious time with the Lord and that is exactly what I did. He confirmed and loved on me through worship, scriptures, and testimony all weekend.
I have never been this close with the Lord, ever! It was truly amazing. By Saturday afternoon I was emotionally drained.
The conference was all day Saturday and Pat Layton was the Keynote speaker. She did a great job. This women Loves God and Women. And she is quit funny.
I got a chance to me her in person and get her autograph. As did I Kelly Minters too.
That evening back at our hotel, we spent some serious time with the Lord. We recapped the weekend, journaled about it, and had an amazing prayer time. We were all 4 down on our knees or laying flat on our faces before our Lord, just humbling ourselves before Him. We literally poured ourselves out to Him.
Sunday was a day of rest for us. We went to a near by town and did a little shopping and lurking around. We had a fabulous lunch on the Gruene River at the Gruene River Grill.
That evening we attended Church Services at Oakwood Baptist where the Surrendering the Secret training was held on Monday. WOW!!!!! it was unbelievable. God was there. The Holy Spirit was so thick in the room, you could feel it...... God was speaking to me so much that evening, I told one of the ladies I was with that if He spoke any louder He would be YELLING in my ear. I just can't explain it.....
Monday was our training day. And boy did the enemy have some tricks up his sleeve.... Nothing is too big for God though.
Pat used my computer for her power point presentation. We had a good lunch and the women there were so sweet. There were about 47 of us in the session. We took pictures together and discussed ideas.
Before going I had been praying for direction on getting into our area churches with the material for post abortive women to begin healing. It has been in Crisis Pregnancy Centers for years, but it is just now coming into the church and only few.
As we left that afternoon to head back home, not even 5 minutes into the ride home I got a phone call from an area church about a Women's Conference coming up in March. They have had their schedule worked out with the exception of a 35 min time slot before the breakout sessions. The director of the women's ministry felt the Lord telling her that should be for the Post Abortion Ministry.
She asked ME to be the speaker for this event. Hello????? Me, my first time to speak in front of a big crowd was this past week with our youth group...... which by the way went great.
I was just humble by what the Lord was doing and so quickly.
He had shown me over and over all weekend that The Harvest is Ripe...... He was not going to prepare me then send me out, He is going to prepare me along the journey. I don't have to go knocking on the Churches doors He is opening them up for me.
God is so good and this ministry is needed so badly.

One Amazing Weekend

I had a wonderful 4 days in God's presence. It was more than amazing and i don't have a lot of time to blog about it. I would like to post some pictures though.

Getting excited!

I am so excited to see what God has up his sleeve for this weekend. There are 8 of us going to the leadership conference and 5 of us will stay thru til Monday for the Surrendering the Secret Training. I am so thankful for these ladies and their desire to follow God. It is going to be one amazing weekend. There are some things that we are leaving open for the weekend plans, just want to see what God has in store for us....... Trying to follow His direction on what to do Sunday. Which Church to attend services at, and what to do that afternoon and evening....
I am so ready to get away from work, drama, family and all that can sometimes hinder you..... Don't get me wrong I love my family but I never have any "me" time and quit frankly I am in some great need of it......
I need to be refreshed in my spirit and fellowship with some great ladies in my life. I need to focus completely on my Lord and worship Him deeply. I am also depending on Him to give me complete clarity on Our new ministry.
We will have 2 to a room and I have been praying this week about who she will be. I don't mind sharing with any of the ladies as I know all of them pretty well. But whom ever we room with we will have a little extra alone time with and I want it to be the lady the Lord wants......
Please pray for us on our trip, it is about a 5.5 hour drive and we all have families we will be leaving for a few days....... We are set to leave town about 9am Friday morning.

prayers please

I have 2 prayer request tonight.
My husband is have a colonoscopy performed in the morning early. I am really anxious tonight to find out what has been going on with his stomach the last few months.

and

Jan 28 I will be speaking (giving my testimony) to our Youth Group at church. prob. a min. of 60 or so teens. All of which know me and my teenaged children. The timing is good because that will be 2 days after I get back from the Leadership Conference and Surrendering the Secret Training Session. God wants me to do this and I really want to do what He tells me to do, but I am so nervous I could throw up. I do not like to get up in front of alot of people. Please pray for me so I can be prayed up by the end of the month.

I am so thankful to have many prayer warriors out is bloggy land...... Love you Gals. God bless your sweet little hearts!!!!!

Knowing what is ahead

It has been a very busy year for my family. I am glad to see it come to an end and another great year ahead. God has alot planned for me next year and I am ready to see what all he has in store for me and our new ministry. I am excited to say I know what His plans are but I still don't know what all will be in store. At the end of Jan. myself and possibly 7 other ladies from my church will be attending this Conference and we can't wait for it to get here. Some of us will also be staying through till Monday for the Surrendering The Secret Training Session.

OK for me you are talking about 4 days away from work, busyness and my family (which isn't a bad thing, every mom needs a break Right?), and being with some ladies I love, fellowshiping, worshipping and learning all together....... I am so ready I could just scream!
What I am really excited about is I am following God's call. He has been calling me to this ministry for over 2 years and I am so happy and excited to finally be doing what he told me long ago to do.
I would love to ask all of you to please be praying for our trip, the conference and our families we will leave here. God's will be done.........
and also here coming up soon I will be giving my testimony to our youth group which most of them I know and have entertained in my home. We are talking close to 100 teens here. I know God is calling me to do this but I am starting to get a little nervous.

Waiting on the mail

While I am waiting on this to come in the mail, I am praying about a meeting with my Pastor and his wife on Wed. evening. I am excited about what God has been showing me these last few weeks on this ministy.

I was one of five lucky winners of the Surrendering the Secret leaders kit from Pat Layton. It is in the mail on it's way to me. I am already praying for the women whom this tool will touch and heal.
I would like to ask for prayer for me when I meet with my pastor tomorrow evening about 7 pm.

Randomness.......

Covering some random things in this post.
We won again Friday night.... Yeah Go Cats. 50-7
Saturday was our last day for pee-wee football...... AMEN!
Sunday I spent the day in the car going to get Dustin and Lauren from their dad's house.... If you follow my blog you would know that's 11 hours in the car for the whole day...... But I spent it with my Lord. I listened to Beth Moore's study Breaking Free on cd. WOW! It is amazing and I am not even finished. I still have 3 cds to go. Traffic was ok and we got home about 9:30.
I started working some in my new position this week. But it is a crazy week because I also am a backup dispatcher and our day time dispatcher is out from foot surgery.
I talked to a lady that is big into Women's Ministry for our district of the Southern Baptist Assoc. yesterday. Got some good feed back from her on my ministry. She wants to me with me soon and discuss some things. I was really excited that she was responsive and even better there is no church around here that offers that type of support group. She is putting together a network for area Churches and the ministry they have for women. She wants my info asap to put it in there. Anyway we are going to try to meet next week and talk about where God is taking me.
I am on Chapter 4 of my Healing Hearts Bible Study. This one is a tough one too. But I am getting through them and feel God doing a lot of healing in areas of my life that haven't been touched in years.
He is so precious and Good....... ALL THE TIME!
Not alot of time to really talk. Thanks for all the prayers.....
Oh and pray for my, I mean Chris's Dog. She chewed up Dustin's Letterman Jacket and I just about rang her neck this morning. I am so tired of coming home to something else chewed up......

Been Busy

I have spent the last week and a half in a lot of prayer and searching the internet. There is so much out there for post abortive women. I am continuing to pray for the direction the Lord wants me to go in this ministry. I am also doing my part by investigating a few possible avenues. One area I am checking on is getting some leadership training for Pat Layton's Bible Study, Surrendering the Secret. There is a training day in Jan. that I am interested in going to, followed by her speaking at a women's conference. The other one is Healing Hearts Ministry. The first step with them is completing their Bible study and since there is not a leader near me, I am doing it on line at Healing Hearts. I started it this weekend and my goodness it really digs deep inside and stirs around those feelings. I have not thought about those details in a long time. Some of them are gone because God has protected me from them. Then you have to go through interviewing and also training. It is alot of work, but for a good reason. And all the leaders have to be post abortive. I am really excited about it all.
I also was asked to be praying about speaking at another church. I work with a pastor and he said he would be delighted to have me speak to the women at his church. We are praying for that too. Thank you all whom have been praying for me.

another chance to win.

Here is another chance to win a Surrendering the Secret Kit. It is being given away at Pat Layton's Ministry Blog.

A big Giveaway Link

THERE IS HOPE AND FREEDOM IN SURRENDERING THE SECRET.


Did you know that one in every three women has had an abortion? In fact, 43% of women of child-bearing age have this secret. And I don't use the term "secret" lightly. While there is certainly a multitude of unbelieving women out there that tote this secret sadness in their hearts, there are as many BELIEVING women - FORGIVEN, SAVED WOMEN in YOUR CHURCH - who are walking around unhealed. Why? Because they are paralyzed by shame and fear at the thought of surrendering their secret.

Pat Layton, aurthor and the founder of A Woman's Place Ministries in Tampa, Florida. With first-hand experience, she intimately understands the fear and heartache that surrounds women, post-abortion. After she was saved, she looked for material to help her and others heal, but there was none. So, she and God wrote a study that was used for 20 years at her crisis pregnancy center. This year, Surrendering the Secret was released in DVD form by Lifeway, in response to the thousands of hurting women that flooded the altar for prayer in this area, after each of their large events.

There is a giveway being held over at Traveling the Road Home, from Melinda......

Five (5) Winners
One (1) DVD Leader Kit (including DVD study, leader guide and one member book) PER WINNER
Twelve (12) Member Books PER WINNER
Click HERE to watch the promo video of the study.
Giveaway will run through Sunday, October 12th - WINNERS ANNOUNCED MONDAY, OCTOBER 13TH (per random.org)

Get over there and get your name in for this.

You can make a difference for someone else who is hurting - maybe even for yourself.