Letter from a Trauma Healing Facilitator

May, 2003

Dear Friends and Loved Ones,

I've just returned home from our Trauma Healing workshop in Kenya. These workshops are designed to help pastors know how to use God’s Word and basic counseling principles to help those who have been traumatized by war. This year, we had 26 African participants from 10 language groups in Congo DRC, Sudan, Congo Brazzaville, CAR (Central African Republic), Nigeria and Ivory Coast. God provided enough funding to bring every last participant we hoped for; the meeting room wouldn’t have held one more person. The group was full of energy from the first day; even at breakfast, we had to shout to the person across from us to be heard. Each team had held at least one local workshop in their area since the last workshop. They were bursting with stories of those they had helped, and those that still needed prayer. Their feedback will help us as we revise the 10 lessons of the manual, which we hope to publish now for wider distribution.

Last year we shared the grief process—how a person moves from the Village of Anger and Denial, to the Village of Despair, and finally to the Village of New Beginnings. It took time for them to accept that Christians, especially pastors, could be angry at God or sad. This year we shared the structure of the laments in Scripture, where the Psalmist expresses his feelings of abandonment and anger at God in one verse, and then his faith in God a few verses later. They are all fully convinced now that Christians can express their feelings honestly. One pastor said his first sermon when he gets home will be on laments. They wrote their own laments, and then put them to music, which they performed for us one evening. One lament was of a mother who had lost all ten of her children in war. Another was from an Ivorian who had to flee his home due to the war, leaving a sickly sister who soon died due to lack of medical care. He was not able to attend her funeral, and singing the lament helped him grieve her loss.

This year we asked the participants to prepare skits to use in teaching the lessons. We found we had a very creative group on our hands. We laughed until our sides ached. We also added a lesson on how the local church can minister in the midst of the AIDS crisis. Where there is war, AIDS increases, adding to the load of suffering. The church community is one of the most effective means of combating AIDS, and churches that address the needs associated with AIDS grow. Pray that God will bless the efforts of the participants as they mobilize their churches to minister in this area.

Suffering has been plentiful in Africa this year. The lessons are helping pastors bring healing to wounds of the heart. One pastor commented that it is strange that expatriates thought of this. It is so appreciated and right for Africa. How did foreigners know, if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit? Another participant who had to flee from her home in Ivory Coast explained how Africans are taught to hold their pain inside; this teaching had helped her express her pain and experience God healing the wounds of her heart.

Another pastor from Nigeria prayed that God would use these lessons to start a revival in Africa, as hatred is replaced with forgiveness and wounds of the heart are supernaturally healed. He said, “I promise not to fail my God: I will teach this material all over Izere-land.”

In Christ’s love and faithfulness,

Harriet and Ralph

Note: Izere-land is an area in Nigeria near Jos where where Izere is spoken.

Trauma Healing Manual

Title: Healing the Wounds of Trauma
How the Church Can Help
Publisher: Paulines Publications Africa
ISBN 9966-21-792-4
Year of publication 2004

To order a copy:
In the US, please call 1-800-WYCLIFFE or 407-852-3778 and ask for the Media Resource Center (also known as The Village Shop.
Or order your copy online by visiting our Shop pages.

In Africa, contact:
Paulines Publications Africa
Daughters of St Paul
P.O. Box 4902600100
Nairobi GPOKENYA, Africa

This book is intended as a textbook for conducting trauma healing seminars. There are many case studies, descriptions and discussions of true-to-life situations. "Each lesson starts with a story that depicts the problem the lesson addresses." Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 9 are the core lessons for all seminars. Lessons 4-7 cover special topics which may be relevant for some communities. "It is the Word of God that gives life, and that will feed people's souls." This book is written in a style of English that is easy to translate into other languages. A French edition is forthcoming.

Chapter headings from "Healing the Wounds of Trauma"

• Introduction
• How To Use This Book
• Lesson 1: If God Loves Us, Why Do We Suffer?
• Lesson 2: How can the Wounds of Our Hearts Be Healed?
• Lesson 3: What Happens When Someone is Grieving?
• Lesson 4: How Can We Help Children Who Have Experienced Bad Things?
• Lesson 5: How Can We Help Women Who Have Been Raped?
• Lesson 6: How Can a Church Minister in the Midst of AIDS?
• Lesson 7: Care for the Caregiver
• Lesson 8: Response: Taking Your Pain to the Cross
• Lesson 9: How Can We Forgive Others?
• Lesson 10: How Can We Live As Christians in the Midst of Conflict?