When one of our church’s missionaries in the Middle East started telling me on WhatsApp about a young Arab woman who came to faith after a suicide attempt, it became apparent that the young woman needed resources in her language that could address depression and sexual abuse as well as her spiritual questions. Our missionary didn’t have counseling skills or adequate language skills at this point, and she felt overwhelmed and uncertain in how to walk alongside this sister. To help, I began looking for resources in Arabic with little success. A member of our church’s Global Team relayed hearing about a trauma training that was culturally sensitive and available in multiple languages. Through this, a fellow staff member and I connected with Steve, and a result of this conversation was that nine folks from our church went through the trauma healing facilitator training in August 2020.
Initially, our thoughts were to lead healing groups that would be required for everyone who is in the process of being sent out as missionaries from our church. We knew this would equip them with basic skills to respond well to those who are hurting as well as help our missionary candidates better process their own hurts before being sent. This is now part of our church’s annual training for those in our sending process, and the culturally sensitive stories and language availability of the curriculum enable it to be used by our sent ones in the various regions of the world where they’re working.
Around this time, our church launched an initiative to care well for survivors of abuse in our faith family, and as our pastor prepared to preach a sermon on abuse, our Caring Well Team knew we needed to have some sort of support available for survivors as well as a way to equip our church to better respond to those who have abuse in their story. Part of our follow-up to the sermon involved offering a healing group for those who had trauma in their story as well as for those who wanted to be equipped to walk alongside a trauma survivor. The response to this workshop was overwhelmingly positive, and the people who attended still reference how helpful it was.
Because of a lack of familiarity with “trauma healing,” we knew we needed to rebrand how we advertised healing groups in our local church. We term it as a workshop or study on “How to Deal with Suffering” or “Dealing with Hard Times” because we believe the topics discussed in the curriculum equip people to understand suffering and emotions from a biblical perspective and, essentially, how not to be a well-intentioned idiot to someone’s who is hurting.
Over the past three years, we’ve offered trauma healing as a five or six-week curriculum for small groups who have expressed interest, and I’ve walked through it and the disaster response curriculum with two of our missionaries after they survived a devastating earthquake in their country. During the first year of COVID, I offered it as a Zoom group for our church’s Singles 20s/30s Ministry as well as a group for small group leaders, and this past year, we offered a group specifically for healthcare workers because a significant number of people in our church work in this field and have expressed how hard it has been for them since COVID. Two ladies in our church also led a trauma healing group for wives whose husbands are in the military. We’ve done this in-person, on Zoom, and as a hybrid, and format-wise, we’ve done it as a weekend retreat, a weekly class, as well as a monthly class with five sessions.
Even if I’m unable to walk through the entire trauma healing curriculum with a person or group, I’ve found that I do one-off lessons frequently, particularly the lessons on grief and heart wounds. Sometimes, I’ll pull this out when training a small group leader or when counseling a young woman at church, and I’ve also incorporated it in trainings I’ve done with everyone from seminary students to women’s ministry leaders. I’ve also done a lesson as a one-off to get buy-in for a person or group to see the relevance of the curriculum, which is helpful when people are picky about how they’ll spend their time.
Trauma healing doesn’t have to be a whole separate program or ministry in the church. I’ve found it to be highly effective when integrated into the ministries currently happening in our local church. Let’s make it part of small groups, part of training missionaries, part of volunteer training for serving with our city ministries team, etc. rather than an additional something for people to do in their already busy lives.
Personally, the trauma healing training and groups I’ve done have helped me to be a better shepherd, small group leader, and friend. It’s increased my understanding, cultivated empathy, and equipped me with tools to better serve people who are hurting.
In Suffering and the Heart of God, trauma therapist Diane Langberg notes that trauma is the greatest mission field in the twenty-first century. To share the gospel, we’re willing to learn languages and adapt culturally. Let’s add to this by being trauma-informed. Since the Great Commission isn’t optional, whether we share the gospel in our hometown or somewhere across the globe, being trauma-informed enables us to better point hurting people to Christ. How so? Because we’re showing how the gospel affects every part of a person’s life—physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. It’s being holistic in our disciple-making and caring for the people God has placed in our life.
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