In 4 hours, I leave for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (with a whistle stop in Brussels to see Mr. Max and family). You can read about American Bible Society's initiative, She's my Sister at http://www.americanbible.org/sister. The idea is that the atrocities going on in East Africa, especially those against women, are of the magnitude of the atrocities of the slave trade, and in the tradition of William Wilburforce (a founding member of the Bible Societies), we are called by God to respond and do what we can to help restore life and well-being to our sisters and brothers and children who are suffering.
Trauma Healing figures large in this holistic response and Margaret Hill and I are heading up 2 workshops: the first (Feb 20-25) will be doing Trauma Healing sessions with 3 church leaders from 8 locations in DRC, who will then pass on the experience to others in 2 Tim 2:2 fashion. They will come back for the advanced session in the fall. By the end of the year, we are hoping each of these locations will have enough people trained to bring trauma healing to the wounded.
The second workshop (Feb 28-Mar 11) is a totally new. In partnership with the Seed Company, we will be pilot testing a story-based, oral version with church leaders from 4 ethnic groups that have been hit hard by the violence (over 6 M died in this conflict since 1996). These are ethnic groups that do not have the Bible yet in their language and consequently have no way to write or read their language. So we expect the combo is Scripture stories-oral delivery-trauma healing to resonate.
This will be a challenging trip, both in terms of amount of work and also the stories we will be hearing from the participants. I'm leaving home fighting a cold. Please pray for health and strength, protection, wisdom, sensitivity, good working relationship with all staff, and joy each day! It is so exciting to see our small efforts in Trauma Healing become a part of a much bigger, more effective program. God is good.
Location: Goma, DRC.
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