Read More »Come and See: Glimpses of Trauma Healing at Dzaleka Refugee Camp
Lament is loving our neighbors with our tears.
~Lamma Mansour~
Lament as an Offering
As I sat quietly listening to Filipe’s heartbreaking story of the brutal attack that left him paralyzed from the neck down, tears streamed down my cheeks. The video crew, along with Filipe and his wife, passed around a single role of toilet paper as we each tore a piece to blot away tears. Our small crew borrowed an office on the outskirts of Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi to record powerful stories of transformation and healing from trauma that many in the camp had been experiencing.
Insights from a Trauma Healing Workshop inside Dzaleka Refugee Camp We long to see people flourishing in community using the languages they value most. That’s… Read More »Human Flourishing
“Nobody we know can really identify with all our trauma. I feel so alone,” my friend breathed, her words barely audible as she slumped in her chair. She was wearier than I’d ever seen her, weighed down by her family’s ongoing journey through a series of extreme crises and shocking losses.
I sat beside her in silence, considering all the devastation my friend and her family had experienced over the years. She was right. I could think of others who’d suffered intensely, but no one who’d walked a road similar to theirs. While many people loved my friend deeply and wept along with her, none of us could fully understand.
Here are the latest resources on the Scripture Engagement website:
Scripture Engagement Research Initiative< Mar 03, 2022 10:53 am
A multiagency research program of Dallas International University
Dallas International University (DIU), in collaboration with SIL’s Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship, has launched the Scripture Engagement Research Initiative (SERI). The SERI program hosts a series of large grant-funded Scripture Engagement research projects. Research topics are proposed both by participants and by the SERI leadership. Participants can serve for short periods of time or as part of a longer-term assignment.
To attend the session on this subject go to https://emdc.online/list
or if you miss the session, the video of the emdc online session may be found here https://emdc.online/archive/687
Unaddressed trauma creates barriers to hearing, understanding, and accepting the love of God. In other words, trauma can keep someone from truly hearing the gospel and creates barriers to spiritual growth. If we are concerned with sharing the gospel and planting healthy and reproducing churches, we must pay significant attention to trauma. We must equip and empower lay people with the basic tools they need to address trauma safely, responsibly, and effectively. As lay people learn to use these tools, healing multiplies alongside the Good News.
Healing cannot take place in 7 or 10 simple sessions – it is an on-going journey. From entry into a community to leadership development, it is important to help communities establish environments where healing community, faith, and purpose can flourish. Comprehensive frameworks that integrate a trauma-informed approach into church planting strategy provide structures that allow for lay people to be trained and for healing to happen over time appropriately, in a healthy way, and in a way that multiplies. A trauma-informed approach should take the following steps:
While this blog departs a little from the normal EMDC topics it has been dealt with in the past. An Introduction to Healing the Wounds… Read More »Trauma Healing – Strength from Weakness