Surely our griefs He
Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for
our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His
scourging we are healed. – Isaiah 53:4-5
Last
weekend we went to Louisville to attend a training put on by the Trauma Healing
Institute and learned some new tools for doing Trauma Healing with refugees. There were approximately fifteen South
Sudanese refugees at the training, and it was a valuable experience to hear
their stories. We also gained some great
insight on the trauma that the long war in Sudan has caused in the lives of the
people, and how God can bring healing to their lives.
In 2 Samuel
13, when Tamar was assaulted by her step-brother Amnon, Absalom, her brother
responded by saying “But now keep silent, my sister, he is your brother; do not
take this matter to heart.” The Bible
then says that Tamar remained and was desolate in her brother’s house. Later, when Absalom killed his brother, the
disgrace against Tamar was avenged, and Scripture says that David was angry
about the situation, but there is little response to Tamar and the pain she was
experiencing.
In most
South Sudanese cultures, the response is the same. Whether it is a woman being assaulted, a
child who watched his family be killed, a village being attacked and burned by rival
tribes or even the military, personal trauma is a reality for many of the
people in South Sudan. In many cases,
people are encouraged by their culture to just “toughen up” or “get over it and
move on” but we know that those approaches don’t usually work in the long-term.
As a counselor, Amy is passionate about reaching out to
hurting people and showing them the path to healing that the Gospel can bring
in their lives. We are anxious to get
back to South Sudan and see lives changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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