7 MINUTE READ

From Luke’s Journal Nov 2024 | Vol.29 No.3 | Mental Health II

The poem above was written by C, a mother, wife, teacher, a believing Christian, and an active member of her church. Her childhood trauma is playing havoc with her mind. She says, “If it is not for the support of D, I would have ended it all.” Both C and D have attended our ALIVE (Alive to God, Alive in the Community) training. One discovered the pain and hurt behind her masked life, the other practices what she learned during the training – “We are fellow travellers, not solution providers. A friend never gives up on a friend.” (used with permission)

The Christian church, from its very beginning, proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ by actively and creatively responding to the challenges of poverty and injustice; illiteracy and ignorance; disease and epidemics. Today, the greatest need of our world is dealing with emotional trauma. Domestic violence, sexual abuse, marital problems, prejudice and stigma, depression and suicide are everyday experiences in our world. Students in schools, patients in hospitals and clinics, the public at their workplaces, and worshippers at churches carry this hidden burden.

Some of us may know about these issues. But how many of our friends, church members and relatives suffer unnoticed and uncared for? It is not because we don’t care but because we do not know how to care, or how to read the hidden messages they try to send our way.

Emotional trauma is the Christian church’s most compelling challenge today. It is also our window of opportunity to make Christ known. The church is a caring community because the God of the Bible is a caring God. When we care we are not just responding to a need, but we are being transformed into the character of Jesus Christ.

Then, what we do in the name of Christ will become a spontaneous overflow of the character of the God who dwells within us – an extension and consequence of who we are in Christ. When we are empowered and directed by the God who lives within us, everything we do becomes service to God, and service to God becomes more than what we do. Then we will not look for who is deserving of our service and who is undeserving of God’s pleasure. Instead, we become Christ-like in all our dealings.

ALIVE training

ALIVE training is Transform4Life’s response to this predicament in our communities. It is designed to create awareness and provide basic skills to non-anxiously journey with a friend who may be going through some form of emotional trauma. Everyone deserves a caring friend. Caring is the church’s response to a hurting world. We are called to be alive to God, alive in God’s world.

• A Christian is a community builder not a spiritual consumer.
• Staying with people in their moments of need and journeying with them as they struggle with their pain and uncertainty are effective ways to make Christ known.
• The most effective realm to make Christ known is in our own spheres of influence.
• When the Christian community truly feels the pain of those in their spheres of influence, then they will know that there is a God who cares. “See how much he loved,” said the world when Jesus wept with Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother.
• Caring is more than crisis management. It is a process, a journey.
• Caring is staying with people in their moments of need and beyond. Friends never give up on friends.
• Caring friendships have healing power, but it does not replace or disregard professional therapy and care.

ALIVE Strategy

Move slowly, intentionally, and patiently. ALIVE is not solution-focused. We believe that when we do the right things the right way, we will get the right results. In Jesus’s parable of the sower, even the seeds that fell on the good soil did not all produce the same result. We believe that as long as we sow the seeds of God’s Kingdom, there will be a harvest.

ALIVE people are everywhere. They do not sit in offices or consulting rooms waiting for their clients to come to them. They are everywhere because they are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and even strangers. Remember, the man who stayed with the victim in Jesus’ story of the good Samaritan was a stranger and an outcast. He was also on a journey and possibly just as vulnerable. ALIVE is a training programme of Transform4Life, designed to empower the local church to connect with their communities with the purpose of making Christ known.

It was emphasised throughout the course that, ” Our life is God’s and not our own,” and God wants us as individuals and community to be caring friend(s) to those around us who are in the grip of violence, abuse, victimisation, pain, fear, anger, anguish, trauma, etc. Before helping them to go to a professional caregiver, such victims under (sic) trauma need a friend who is prepared to walk along with them in their traumatic journey, (to) give support by being present with them, and giving (them) confidence to open up.Among all the topics, I single out one point which touched me as a parent and grandparent, and it is about transgenerational trauma which a person under trauma, may pass on to their next generations. It is a warning to all parents as well as prospective parents. – ALIVE Training Participant.

Transform4Life

Transform4Life exists to make Christ known by caring for those who are emotionally wounded. Our goal is to establish communities of trained caregivers who provide emotional care and relief to those in their spheres of influence. We are a group of people from the fields of education, health, pastoral care, psychology, and social work.

“We believe that the most effective way to make Christ known is by caring. We want to enable spiritual consumers to become community builders.”

Our mission is to motivate, mobilise, train and support those who are committed to bringing healing and restoration in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ to those in their sphere of influence. We believe that the most effective way to make Christ known is by caring. We want to enable spiritual consumers to become community builders.

We have several training programmes ranging from short seminars and workshops to fully-fledged face-to-face and online certificate courses to suit the needs, abilities, and availability of the community. Currently, we have participants from sixteen countries. We conduct training in several languages in small groups of 25 to 30 people at a time. Currently, we work with local churches and Christian institutions in East Asia, India, Africa and Australia.

For more information please contact Sunny Philip
Phone +61 411395232

^{sunny@transform4life.org.au}

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