Last night I went to a reception that Debi-Raye Rivers and her husband, Jerry, put on at their home in order to thank people who had been supportive of her efforts to establish a response to child sexual abuse on the island of Bermuda. She has established a registered charity called SCARS, which stands for Saving Children And Revealing Secrets, and it will be the first organisation in Bermuda to specifically address child sexual abuse in a comprehensive way.From a presentation Debi and others made SCARS identifies child sexual abuse as follows:“Child sexual abuse is considered a criminal act in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a child. Sexual activity does not only mean having sexual intercourse. In other words it does not have to involve penetration, force or pain. It can be inappropriate fondling of a child's body such as genitals, buttocks or chest it can be inappropriate viewing of a child's body without touching it can be the adult asking the child to inappropriately view or touch those same parts of the adult's body, all for the offender's own interest and sexual gratification. And all of this is harmful to children.”Debi is comfortable telling people, “Approximately six years ago, my family was affected by the crime of child sexual abuse. A trusted family member stole the innocence of two children right from under our noses. Particularly the victims, but also the family as a whole, suffered from shock, sadness, guilt and mostly lots of shame.”Through the experience of dealing with that event, and coming to meet many other people who have had to deal with similar events, Jerry, Debi, and their team of supporters have come together to create an organised approach to facing and dealing with an issue that has most often been brushed aside as too distasteful, too embarrassing, or too difficult for people in general, let alone families in which it takes place, to deal with. Child sexual abuse has its own euphemism in Bermuda. It has been called “interfering with,” which does not sound quite as repulsive as child sexual abuse. SCARS' approach is to not only reveal secrets, but to also speak out loudly and clearly, naming things for what they are.I know from my practice that SCARS is needed. Not only victims of child sexual abuse, but also perpetrators will benefit from the work that will be carried out through that organisation. Helping victims is one part of the problem, but the problem keeps happening until the perpetrators are treated or otherwise kept away from the public and/or monitored in the community. The general population of Bermuda needs to learn much more about the prevalence of child sexual abuse, how to detect it, how to respond to it, and how to keep from overreacting or finding fault when no actual abuse has taken place. Appropriate, measured, and evidence-based responses and preventive action is what needs to emerge from the efforts of the SCARS team. It is not a simple task, but SCARS will take a comprehensive approach.And it will be more than anyone could have predicted.Although not a ministry of any given church, and not even primarily a religious thing, I know Debi's heart. I know that in some sense this is a calling, and I believe that what is taking place fits the part of the Bible that says, “Blessed be … the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”I will speak for myself, and perhaps the reader can relate. Some time ago I understood that I was expendable. I had taken to heart what Jesus challenged people to do: pick up your cross and follow Him. Follow Him in His example of sacrificial service and a whole life lived according to the discretion of another the one who had become the Lord of the church. Becoming a Christian was to me not a get out of jail free card, not a credit card with no spending limit. It was not a way to get high legally. It was not a new way to have things and to be successful. It was a willing sacrifice of my life and a yielding of my life so that God might use it to some purpose. Romans 12:1 became a life verse: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship.” I understood that my part was not to die and leave the world as Christ did, but to yield my life to Him and to continue to live in the world for the sake of the Kingdom. You just do not do that and escape suffering what the Bible also calls affliction. That is because the person who does this becomes expendable in the service of others' needs, just as Jesus was expendable in the service of all of our greatest need.I have gotten off track from time to time. I have also been through very difficult times, experiences that have made me into a better therapist than I ever would have been without them. I am not perfect; I fall short of God's standard. However, about ten years ago I found myself talking to God and reaffirming myself before Him. “If you can make any use of this life, Lord, I give it to you again.”So, I tend to believe that Debi, Jerry, and the people involved with SCARS are entering an adventure that will challenge, exhilarate, and also cost them something. If any of them, too, regard themselves to live an expendable life, they may find themselves having to reaffirm that dedication. The journey will be filled with people who come alongside to help and people who come to get help. It will call upon the grace they have received and by which they have been comforted already, and it will lead them to examine just how expendable they are for the sake of others and in the service of Christ.Wow.