Who's That Girl Wednesday

DIANE HAWKINS

Hi. I am Diane Hawkins. I am delighted to write my first ever blog and have it be to the Women of Grace Covenant Church. Let me begin by saying that I am very disappointed that my extensive traveling with our ministry has not allowed me to attend many WOG events and to get to know many of you as much as I would like. I did make the Crazy Hat party. That was fun!!! I even won a prize!

If I had one thing I would want you to know about me, it would be that from the age of eleven, I have wanted to be everything that God wants me to be. HOW GRATEFUL I am that I met God early in life! I sure have needed Him—and I have found Him faithful in every situation—even if I had to wrestle hard with Him at times to understand why He allowed certain things to happen.
If you heard me speak on Palm Sunday several years ago, you know that my childhood was marked by significant abuse. Through what I believe is God’s gift of dissociation, I was able to escape the full thrust of its debilitating effects, graduating from college and grad school and spending 4½ wonderful years as a missionary medical technologist in Zimbabwe. Only when I got married, in 1977, were the buried emotions from my childhood abuse triggered to the surface. These were eventually followed by the memories and a l-o-n-g journey of healing.
In the process of assisting me to find the help I needed, my husband, Tom, learned much about ministering to people coming out of such a background as mine. In 1994, he left the pastorate after 24 years, and we launched Restoration in Christ Ministries, which is devoted to bringing God’s healing to adults who were severely abused as children. By God’s grace we have touched the lives of multitudes of abuse “survivors” in the last 15 years in addition to producing an extensive line of materials, holding training seminars throughout the United States and abroad, and providing consultations for hundreds of therapists, prayer ministers, and pastors seeking insight and guidance.

While I wouldn’t wish my history on anyone, I feel extremely blessed to see my Heavenly Father take what Satan meant for evil in my life and turn it around for good in the lives of many others. I can also see how many of the challenges I faced made me wrestle all the harder with God for answers, which led me to experience Him and His love and faithfulness at a level I could never have imagined possible. I am very grateful for all that He has taught me.

While that seems to be a good place to end, I was instructed to tell you about the books I have written, so I will do that. Writing is one of my joys, so I am delighted to have three books in print at this time. The one I had the most fun writing is Ordinary People in God’s Hands: A Tribute to God by TEAM Zimbabwe Missionaries. This book is a compilation of stories of God’s work in and through the lives of 60 missionaries serving with TEAM in Zimbabwe. In addition, I have written Multiple Identities: Understanding and Supporting the Severely Abused and, with my husband, have co-authored Dissociative Identity Disorder: Recognizing and Restoring the Severely Abused; Volume 1: Psychological Dynamics. We are currently working on volume 2.

Diane