What's Happening with Harriet?: I cannot tell it all!

The Trauma Healing Story-Tellers of Goma. They went everywhere preaching the good news and healing the sick: to villages, to hospitals, to prisons, to neighbors, to their own families, to wakes and funerals, to churches, to orphanages, to women's care facilities, to military camps. Some walked 2 and 3 days through insecure zones just to get to the traumatized people. Two were imprisoned, one fell seriously ill in the forest area. Churches contributed funds and food and paid fines and hospital bills for their story-tellers. In all, almost 8000 stories were heard by over 5000 people. Testimonies of changed lives overflow. Here's just one: "I went to one of our villages where many Rwandan refugees live and cause a lot of trouble. I met with 29 men and told them two stories: the story of Creation and the Fall, and the story of Pastor Yuh—about the origin of suffering. They told me that their suffering was caused by the Rwandan refugees. Two men in the group who were Christians had decided to leave the church and join the local militia so they could fight and kill the Rwandan refugees. After they heard our two stories, they went to the church and repented of what they planned to do. Later I heard that one of them had given his daughter to be married to a Rwandan refugee as a sign that he had forgiven them."

Goma: the most dangerous place on earth to be a woman due to rampant gender-based violence as the preferred weapon of war. These women have stories to tell.

Full circle: The church leaders we trained told stories of trauma healing to these traumatized women. Many found hope and healing. We happened to visit them and asked them about the stories. They told the stories back to us--and with passion! Full circle. WIth the words of healing in story form, these women can pass on what they have experienced to others. Hear a bit of the story of Rosa, who lost her baby in a mudslide. The story provides a jumping off point to discuss loss, grief, and healing.

The Hill Sisters (Margaret and I) with Maman Jeanne, the founder of an orphanage/women's care facility in Goma. click here to hear the children praying before their meal. We will be launching children's trauma healing in 2012. This is a huge need.

The story-tellers learned new stories on the themes of traumatized children, rape, HIV-AIDS, living a Christian in the midst of conflict, caring for the care-giver, and preparing for potential trouble. They now have the full Trauma Healing Story Set of 23 stories and 13 Scripture songs. Each group mapped out the priority sites for their next 5 months of story-telling. Pray for health and safety, that the attacks would diminish so that they can go into the hardest hit areas with the good news.