About the Authors
Barb Mulvey
My soul was stamped Childhood Victim of Sexual Abuse, instead of A Child of the King. I wanted freedom but my heart was shackled to pain I couldn’t outrun, ignore, or forget. It followed me into every relationship, every conversation, every waking and sleeping moment like a dead body strapped to my back. All my attempts to get rid of it were useless. How can I be happy? How do I get out of the pain? Most of my life had been a search to find answers to those two questions.
Very slowly, God brought me out of the hell that was my life. My journey started with forgiving my abusers, and ended 20 years later with freedom and joy. Along the way, I learned how to trust God with my life and my pain; how to love my husband; how to read and understand the Bible; how to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice; how to walk through the pain and leave it behind. God has restored my life in good ways I could not have imagined. My passion now is to help other women find hope and leave their sexual abuse in the past, as a certified counselor through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).
I wrote Hope Ahead to shorten your journey, so you won’t stay in the pain 20 years like I did.
I’ve put every helpful tip, every practical exercise and every necessary change I’ve tried in my journey into Hope Ahead.
30 years ago, I could have never imagined my great life today. I have purpose and joy, that I want you to have too.
Come join the women who have gone before you on the Road to Freedom.
Cris Paulson
Cris was Barb’s second counselor, her “Joshua;” who led her into the Promised Land—a full Christian life. In many years as a Bible study teacher, women’s ministry leader and biblical lay counselor, she considers helping Barb as her greatest challenge and highest honor. The two friends share a common passion for helping hurting women. She helped draw this book out of Barb.
Cris felt God’s call to be a counselor in junior high school while helping a suicidal friend. Her college degree was in Music Education (University of New Mexico), but she has trained to be a biblical lay counselor since 1987. As a stay-at-home mom, she supported her husband/pastor, home-schooled her two sons and ran a daycare business. Since her divorce, she has tried to be consistently available for God, which has included packing and delivering supplies to Hurricane Sandy victims, praying over a dying friend and nursing her mother after surgery. In addition to counseling at her church, she is a reader, writer and editor. Cris is divorced and has two grown sons and one grandson.