Multiplying Hope
In June of this year, a team of Kenyan trainers from one of Word Collective’s partner organizations traveled to a remote community in a north African to train an adaptation of Word Collective’s trauma healing program. The north African country is a dangerous place to live, and many of the churches in that country experience persecution — especially when they try to share their faith with their non-believing neighbors. Because of the violence and persecution its people experience, the church invited our partners to share trauma-healing with its people.
So every day, the trainers would gather with a small group of people ready to access God’s healing. Everyone would begin the day by practicing listening well to each other’s pain and joy. Next, they would do an activity to learn basic mental health skills. Then, they would learn a story from God’s Word, sit together to discuss it, and feel the stories in their bodies by acting it out. Finally, the trainers would ask the community to plan to share what they had learned with others.
On the last day of training, as everyone gathered together for the last time, the trainers shared their final story. After Jesus rose from the dead, the trainers explained, he met with his followers several times. The last time Jesus was with his followers he promised them that he would send them God’s Spirit, and God’s Spirit would give them power to tell everyone everywhere the Good News about Jesus. And just like Jesus promised, a few days after he left he sent God’s Spirit to his followers, and as soon as they got it they began telling everyone in their city about Jesus.
Like they always did, the community learned the story, discussed it together, and acted it out. But this time, as they acted it out, they began to feel like those first followers of Jesus — full of God’s healing power. That evening, instead of planning who they would share the story with, the community left their trainers behind and, like those first followers, immediately went to their neighbors to share the Good News about Jesus. By the end of the night, that one small group had shared with over 27 people.