South Asia on the horizon

Have you ever designed a Global Center for Trauma Healing? Have you ever tried to consolidate 10 years of viral growth? I'm working so hard to establish this Global Center that even my dreams are laced with bright insights and worrisome issues. Progress? Yes. Launched? Not yet. 

But Tuesday I'm off to South Asia--Nepal, India and SriLanka--to work with national Bible Societies and lead sessions with top church and organizational leaders, giving them a taste of Trauma Healing and determining together what's needed and if they would like to have this as part of their ministry. We're aiming at an August 2012 'equipping session' to train a cohort of church leaders from Nepal, India, SriLanka and Bangladesh who can then train others (in their national languages).

Not long ago, I got back from the DRC, where we reconnected with a group of 12 Trauma Healing facilitators in training. They had shared the Trauma Healing experience with over 1000 people since February. People said, "Why didn't anyone tell us this before?" One facilitator reports:

The night of August 28, 2011, armed men raped a woman and her daughter of 14 years old. After this rape, the daughter had nightmares and she had no appetite. She was jumpy and very ashamed. She didn’t go to church anymore and didn’t want to see any man after 7 p.m.After listening to this woman, I took her to the hospital to get medical treatment. I visited her every day at 5:00 p.m. and we sang and prayed together. After 2 weeks she told me that some of the problems she had were beginning to disappear. Now she feels good and she’s able to understand what happened and she’s going to school and serving God.

The facilitators themselves are becoming better able to deal with trauma. They say, 

• "When trauma happens, I understand what is going on and prepare myself so the effects of it don't enter my thoughts." 
• "I used to be afraid to be with traumatized people but now I help them through the grief process."
• "Before when I faced suffering, I thought I was abandoned by God, but now I know that suffering isn't a sin. God's love is there" (Ro 8:35). 

We also led a Trauma Healing convening session in Kigali, Rwanda with about 40 church leaders who are enthusiastic about getting Trauma Healing underway in their communities. 

But the trip was not without incident--see "Getting out of Isiro."