Breaking the Silence

Happy New Year! Wishing you every blessing in 2013! A highlight of 2012 was our family gathering of our 3 kids, their 3 spouses, and our 3 grand children -- 2 of them 2012 editions!

Maximo is now nearly 5 and turned into a boy before we realized how quickly all this happens from the  grandparent perspective. He's holding his new sister, long-awaited Noemi, born in August. Many of you prayed with us through the months Adelie was in the hospital fighting for her life. She's now nearly 1 and is now as eager to discover as much as she can about this wonderful world she finds herself in. 

2012 was full to the brim developing the Trauma Healing Institute, a new part of the American Bible Society. It was an intense mix of developing the program model, editing materials, testing the model and materials, training facilitators, networking, and directly helping church leaders know how to help their people. I helped lead trauma healing sessions in: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia, Kenya, Canada, Dallas, Uganda, India, and Nepal. Others led sessions in: US, South Sudan, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Mexico, Tanzania, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and the UK. The good news is that there are more and more trained facilitators who can carry on the work in these places so that we can better respond to the nearly daily requests that come in asking for help. And I may not have to travel so much. 

Another highlight is that the revision of our book Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help went to press in the last working days of 2012 after an 18 month revision process (whew!). I feel like I'm having triplets, as the Spanish version and the revised French will follow on its heals. Handbooks explaining more on how to run programs have been field-tested and are available in English with the French and Spanish around the corner. The story-based version of trauma healing, for people who prefer oral communication, has now been field tested and is working well in places like DRC, CAR, and South Sudan. Children's Trauma Healing materials and program are under revision. 

Most exciting for me (get this!) is that we now have a simple, field-tested reporting system that allows us to track with those we've trained and the translations of the materials. And we have a functioning database where all this info can be stored and is available on line anywhere at any time. A website (www.traumahealinginstitute.org--under development) complements face-to-face meetings of the growing Trauma Healing Community of Practice. It brings together mental health professionals and field workers who know the local cultures, languages, and people for mutual benefit, in hope of helping the church know how to respond to emotional pain through Scripture and mental health principles.

With the model and materials now in better shape, my hope is that Trauma Healing can spread more widely and more effectively in 2013. The 147 Bible Societies around the world work with all of the churches and organizations in their countries and offer a worldwide channel for this spread. 

Romans 12:8, in talking about using the gifts God has given you, says "if [your gift] is leadership, let him govern diligently" (NIV) or enthusiastically (God's Word)  or "whoever has authority should work hard" (TEV), or "take the responsibility seriously (NLT). That pretty much sums up my year, with Romans 12:1 being the motivation: "because of God's great mercy, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship you should offer" (TEV). 

Ralph continues to hone his on-line trading skills as he develops his home business. We hope for good progress in that arena as well in 2013.