Shine a Light on Domestic Violence Ministry

Home
United States
Seminole, FL
Shine a Light on Domestic Violence Ministry

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

SHINE A LIGHT on Domestic Violence is a Ministry designed to share the truth of Jesus with those experiencing abuse.

The purpose of the SHINE A LIGHT on Domestic Violence Ministry is to do just that...to shine the light of truth on a secret that only survives in the dark. The ministry provides support groups for women. It also hosts education and awareness events at churches in the community in an effort to reach church leaders, counselors, social workers, community leaders, and anyone interested in learning more about DV and how to respond.. For more information, email [email protected]. If you are experiencing abuse and are in immediate danger, call 911. If you're experiencing abuse, but are not in immediate danger, please call 1-800-799-7233 or go to http://www.thehotline.org/ for more information for help in your area.

10/15/2026

💖 Exploring Love, Peace & Support Through Art 🎨

This week in our support groups, we used art therapy to explore where we experience love and peace in our lives and where we may need additional support. 💜

Through creativity and reflection, we made space to recognize the people, places, and moments that help us feel safe, loved, and grounded, while also acknowledging the areas where we may be longing for connection, encouragement, or care. Self-portraits can reveal deep longings and spur us along to gain those connections we need.

Healing doesn’t mean we have to have everything figured out. Sometimes, it begins with simply noticing what is present in our lives, honoring what we need, and allowing ourselves to receive support from others. 🌿

As survivors, we deserve spaces where we can be honest about our struggles, celebrate the love and peace we experience, and feel supported as we continue our healing journeys.

✨ May we continue to create space for love, nurture peace, and remind one another that we don’t have to walk this journey alone.

✨If you are in need of a loving support community, contact us at shinealingondv.org/connect

10/11/2026

💜 Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Suffering Is Not a Command to Stay 💜

During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we need to be careful about how we use Scripture when a woman courageously discloses abuse.

One passage that can be misused is James 1:2–4. Sometimes survivors are told to “suffer well,” remain in their marriages, and endure abuse because their suffering will produce perseverance and make them more faithful believers.

But this is not what James is teaching.

📖 James 1:2–4 (ESV)
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

James is encouraging believers who encounter trials to remain steadfast in their faith. He is not commanding victims of abuse to remain in situations where someone is intentionally harming, controlling, or terrorizing them.

There is a profound difference between experiencing suffering and being told to stay where someone is causing you harm.

A woman does not become a more faithful Christian by enduring more violence.
She does not prove her faith by remaining accessible to an abuser.
She does not need to stay in danger so that God can make her “complete.”

💜Telling a survivor to return to an unsafe marriage can place a spiritual burden on her that Scripture never intended.

Jesus calls His followers to faithfulness, but He also cares deeply about the vulnerable, the oppressed, and those who are suffering. Scripture repeatedly calls God's people to protect the vulnerable, pursue justice, and confront wrongdoing.

When a woman discloses abuse, our first response should not be, “How can we help you endure this better?”

It should be:

“I believe you.”
“This is not your fault.”
“You do not deserve to be abused.”
“How can we help you be safe?”

💜 To the woman who has been told that leaving abuse means you are giving up on your marriage or failing God:

Choosing safety is not a failure of faith.

Seeking help is not a failure of faith.

Setting boundaries is not a failure of faith.

Leaving an abusive situation does not mean you have failed to “suffer well.”

God does not need you to remain in harm's way to prove that you belong to Him.

⛪ To the church: When a survivor reaches out, let us not use Scripture to send her back into danger. Let us listen. Let us believe. Let us protect. Let us walk alongside her without shame or condemnation.

✨ If you or someone you know needs a faith-based support community, connect with us at shinealightondv.org/connect.

10/09/2026

This week our support groups met to simply connect with one another. We opened up about our battles, we shared the work God is doing in our lives, and just upheld one another.

One of the most powerful gifts we can offer a survivor is community.

God often makes His presence known to us through the people who surround us—the people who listen without judgment, believe our stories, sit with us in our pain, remind us of our worth, and walk beside us when we cannot see the way forward.

📖 Galatians 6:2 (ESV)
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We were never created to carry our burdens alone.

For someone experiencing abuse, community can become a place where she begins to experience safety again. It can be the place where she hears:

“You are not alone.”
“I believe you.”
“What happened to you matters.”
“We will walk with you.”

And sometimes, through the compassion of another person, a survivor can begin to recognize something beautiful:

God has not abandoned me.

His presence can be experienced through a friend who stays, a church that protects, a counselor who listens, a support group that understands, or a community that reminds a survivor that she is seen and deeply loved.

💜 To the survivor: You do not have to walk this road alone. Reaching out for support is not weakness. You were created for connection, and you deserve a community where you can be heard, believed, supported, and safe.

⛪ To the church: We have an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Let us create communities where survivors don't have to hide their pain, defend their experiences, or fear being blamed. Let us listen well, respond with compassion, protect the vulnerable, and walk alongside survivors for as long as they need us.

Sometimes God's answer to “Where are You, God?” is found in the people He places around us.

May we be that kind of community. 💜

✨ If you or someone you know needs a faith-based support community, connect with us at shinealightondv.org/connect.

10/08/2026

💜 Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Mutual Surrender Is Not Ownership 💜

During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it is important to recognize another way Scripture can be misused to justify control and abuse—especially when it comes to a spouse’s body.

📖 1 Corinthians 7:4 (ESV)
“For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.”

This verse is sometimes taken out of context to suggest that a husband has rights over his wife’s body—as though marriage gives him an entitlement to her body or to s*xual access whenever he wants it.

But notice what Paul actually says.

He makes the statement mutual.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, and the husband does not have authority over his own body. Just a few verses earlier, Paul is addressing the importance of mutuality within the marriage relationship. The passage is not giving husbands permission to demand s*x, ignore their wives’ boundaries, or use Scripture to pressure or coerce them.

💜 Consent matters.

A spouse saying “no” does not give the other spouse permission to pressure, threaten, manipulate, punish, or force them.

Sexual coercion is abuse.
Pressure is not consent.
Fear is not consent.
Marriage is not consent.

And Scripture should never be used as a weapon to make someone believe they owe their body to another person.

💜 To the woman who has been told, “Your body belongs to your husband, so you have to”:

You are not an object. You are not property. Your marriage does not give another person permission to violate you.

God’s Word calls us toward mutuality, love, honor, and self-giving—not entitlement, coercion, or control.

⛪ To the church: Let us be careful with the way we teach Scripture. When we take a verse about mutual surrender and turn it into a weapon for control, we are not protecting marriage—we are creating space for abuse to hide behind Scripture.

Let’s teach that biblical intimacy is rooted in mutual love, mutual honor, mutual care, and freely given participation.

Marriage is a covenant of love—not a license for ownership.

✨ If you or someone you know needs a faith-based support community, connect with us at shinealightondv.org/connect.

10/05/2026

💜 Domestic Violence Awareness Month: A Wife’s Behavior Does Not Cause Abuse 💜

During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, let’s talk about how Scripture can be misused to shift the blame for abuse onto the woman experiencing it.

📖 Proverbs 15:1 (ESV)
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

This verse teaches us about the power of our words and the importance of responding with gentleness. However, it is sometimes misused to suggest that if a wife had spoken more gently, stayed quieter, or behaved differently, her husband would not have abused her.

This is a dangerous distortion of Scripture.

While our words and responses can affect our interactions with others, they do not make us responsible for another person’s choice to abuse us. A wife can speak gently and still experience abuse. She can disagree, express frustration, set boundaries, or say no without deserving to be threatened, intimidated, controlled, or harmed.

📖 Mark 7:20 (ESV)
“And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him.’”

In Mark 7, Jesus teaches that what comes from within a person reveals what is in their heart. The surrounding verses explain that evil thoughts and harmful actions come from within, from the human heart.

This gives us an important biblical perspective: abuse is not caused by a wife’s words, emotions, or behavior. The responsibility for abusive actions belongs to the person who chooses to commit them.

A wife’s tone does not cause her husband to become abusive. Her disagreement does not give him permission to intimidate her. Her imperfections do not excuse his cruelty.

💜 To the woman who has been told, “If you would just change, I wouldn’t treat you this way”: You are not responsible for managing another person’s anger to keep yourself safe. You do not have to be a perfect wife to deserve respect.

💜 To the church: Let us stop asking survivors what they did to provoke the abuse and start holding abusers accountable for their choices.

✨ If you or someone you know needs a faith-based support community, connect with us at shinealightondv.org/connect.

10/02/2026

💜 Domestic Violence Awareness Month: God’s Word Was Never Meant to Excuse Abuse 💜

During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it is important to recognize that Scripture can be misused and twisted to justify control, manipulation, and abuse. One example is Ephesians 5:22, which is sometimes used to demand that a wife submit to her husband while ignoring the surrounding verses and the call to mutual submission.

📖 Ephesians 5:21 (ESV)
“Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Before Paul addresses wives in verse 22, he calls believers to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This matters! God’s design for relationships is not about one person having unchecked power over another. It calls us to humility, mutual care, and Christlike love.

📖 Ephesians 5:22 (ESV)
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

This verse must never be used as a weapon to silence a woman, demand that she endure violence, or convince her that God requires her to remain in an unsafe situation. Submission is not permission for abuse. Scripture does not give anyone the right to intimidate, threaten, manipulate, control, or harm their spouse.

But Paul doesn’t stop at verse 22. Let’s look at what he says to husbands:

📖 Ephesians 5:25 (ESV)
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

📖 Ephesians 5:28 (ESV)
“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

These verses call husbands to a love modeled after Christ—a love that is sacrificial, caring, and self-giving. Paul also calls husbands to love their wives as they love their own bodies. Abuse is not sacrificial love. Control is not Christlike leadership. Violence is not biblical love.

We cannot isolate one verse to justify our behavior while ignoring the responsibility God places on us to love others as Christ loves.

💜 To the woman who has been told that God expects you to tolerate abuse: You are not responsible for someone else’s abusive choices. You do not have to sacrifice your safety because someone has led you to believe it is what God commands. Seeking safety and asking for help are not failures of faith.

💜 To the church: Let us handle God’s Word with integrity. Let us protect those who are vulnerable, hold abusers accountable, and offer survivors compassion without shame or condemnation. May our churches be places where truth is spoken, safety is prioritized, and the love of Christ is demonstrated through our actions.

God’s Word should never be twisted to excuse abuse. Let us use it to point people toward truth, love, accountability, and safety.

✨ If you or someone you know is in need for a faith-based support community, contact us at shinealightondv.org/connect

📞 If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence, confidential support is available through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233) or by texting START to 88788.

10/01/2026

✨ Living in the Presence of God — Chapter 2

As we continue through Kenneth Boa’s Life in the Presence of God, Chapter 2 invites us to look at several powerful images of what it means to walk with God.

We’re reminded of the importance of abiding in Christ, setting our minds and hearts on Him, walking by the Spirit, persevering in the race, and offering our lives to God.

These aren’t just ideas for a Bible study—they are invitations to live differently in the ordinary moments of our days. We don’t have to have everything figured out. We simply keep turning our hearts back toward God, depending on Him and learning to recognize His presence.

✨ Living in the Presence of God — Chapter 2

As we continue through Kenneth Boa’s Life in the Presence of God, Chapter 2 invites us to look at several powerful images of what it means to walk with God.

We’re reminded of the importance of abiding in Christ, setting our minds and hearts on Him, walking by the Spirit, persevering in the race, and offering our lives to God.

These aren’t just ideas for a Bible study—they are invitations to live differently in the ordinary moments of our days. We don’t have to have everything figured out. We simply keep turning our hearts back toward God, depending on Him and learning to recognize His presence.

🖼️ Above is an image I created as my phone screensaver. Whenever I look at my phone, I'm reminded that my focus needs to be on God and eternity. What image would you create?

💛 Let’s encourage one another this week. Share an image or object that reminds you of God's presence and will remind you to set your mind on things above. Someone else may need the encouragement you have to offer today.

09/24/2026

🎨 Engaging with Trauma Through Art 🖌️

This week in our Women’s Support Group, we explored what it means to be in the moment — without trying to control what comes next.

Through a simple doodling exercise, we practiced letting go of the need for an outcome. Instead of planning the picture, fixing mistakes, or deciding what it should look like, we focused on the process: putting pen to paper, noticing what was happening, and allowing the doodle to unfold naturally.

For many of us, letting go of control can feel uncomfortable — especially when life and trauma have taught us to stay alert, anticipate what might happen, and protect ourselves from uncertainty.

Art gave us a gentle way to practice something different: being present, trusting the process, and allowing ourselves to simply be where we are. 🌱

There was no right or wrong doodle, no perfect finished product — just a space to create, connect, reflect, and support one another.

09/17/2026

Christ was in constant contact with the Father, and he intended for us to learn this from him. - Kenneth Boa

We have officially kicked off our new study of Life in the Presence of God! Chapter 1 reminds us that practicing God's presence isn't just for quiet times or Sunday mornings—it's a moment-by-moment habit.

Boa calls us to have undivided hearts and pursue communion with God as the main priority in our lives. How often can you bring the Lord to mind each day? Record your goal and experiences to share.

Can't wait to hear your insights and discuss more when we meet!

09/11/2026

Join our weekly newsletter featuring:
🔸Opportunities to engage with content from our support groups
🔸Weekly challenges to reinforce group materials
🔸Learn about the prayer needs of the survivors we support
🔸Gain encouragement with our devotionals

✨Sign up today: https://4393hh.share-na2.hsforms.com/2e3JVR-TES9WfY3a3FUQNWQ

Address

13799 Park Boulevard N 232
Seminole, FL
33776

Telephone

+17275428056

Website

http://www.shinealightondv.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Shine a Light on Domestic Violence Ministry posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Shine a Light on Domestic Violence Ministry:

Want your organization to be the top-listed non profit organization in Seminole?