{"id":1081,"date":"2012-04-13T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads-copy\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2012-07-18T10:55:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T14:55:57","slug":"addressing-abuse-in-retirement-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2012\/04\/13\/addressing-abuse-in-retirement-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing Abuse in Retirement Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nelson

Nelson Roth \u201963<\/p><\/div>\n

At first, the Crossroads Pregnancy Center in Lewistown, Pa., turned Nelson Roth away. They didn\u2019t have any male clients or need any male counselors. Roth, who had just retired with his wife to Belleville, Pa., after nearly 40 years as a teacher and pastor, left his contact information with the center. If the need arose, he told them, he was eager to volunteer as a pastoral counselor.<\/p>\n

Not long thereafter, the first call came, and then another and another. Roth began meeting with men who\u2019d come to Crossroads looking for relief from abusive relationships, broken homes and dysfunction in their lives. The workload grew, and now, nine years later, Roth sees clients four days a week at Crossroads offices in Mifflin, Huntingdon and Juniata counties, plus visits to jails and hospitals.<\/p>\n

Though he holds a master\u2019s degree in counseling from Shippensburg State University, Roth says his long experience as a pastor and a gift for sensitivity and connection are his biggest assets as a counselor. Often, the people he counsels reveal painful things about their lives they\u2019ve never told anyone else. And unlike most counselors, Roth says, he does not try to avoid or minimize his own emotional involvement in his clients\u2019 painful lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Jesus to be our strength,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t carry the load emotionally, because it\u2019s up to the Lord \u2026 Scores of clients have experienced Crossroads as a place of learning, decision and new life in Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, Roth was recognized for his work when he traveled to Washington D.C. to receive a Presidential Volunteer Service Award. He lives in Belleville with his wife, Emma Jane, and is active in the Allensville Mennonite Church. In addition to seeing clients through Crossroads Pregnancy Center, Roth also regularly volunteers as a counselor to members of his congregation, and is sometimes assigned clients by a judge in Mifflin County.<\/p>\n

The past nine years have been a unique opportunity, which has resulted in a new kind of personal crossroads in my life,\u201d Roth says. \u201cI daily seek God\u2019s mercy, grace and victory, both for myself and my clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew Jenner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first, the Crossroads Pregnancy Center in Lewistown, Pa., turned Nelson Roth away. They didn\u2019t have any male clients or need any male counselors. Roth, who had just retired with his wife to Belleville, Pa., after nearly 40 years as a teacher and pastor, left his contact information with the center. If the need arose, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":1082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[213],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-nelson-roth","issues-fallwinterspring-2011-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1387,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions\/1387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}