Page 194 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Trauma Recovery Training at a Seminary? Introducing Global Trauma Recovery Institute

the impact we are having. When you can pro- trauma of sexual abuse every sense was invol-
vide for yourself and your family through a job, ved (touch, taste, smell, sound and sight) and it
through growing food and selling it, fishing or was involved during a state of hyper-awareness
caring for children or creating something use- because of the fear. The lessons taught (such
ful or beautiful – you feel a sense of value and as I am worthless), right or wrong, will not be
strength. You can see the results of your hard forgotten. Think about a couple in China who
work. When you can create goods for others lost a child in the collapse of a school during
or things of beauty – a beautiful basket, jewelry, the earthquake there. What do you think might
music, a garden or a good meal – you can point happen if some years from now they have ano-
and say, “Look that is what I did. That is here ther child and send him to school? How do you
because I am here.” It is not only proof of your think they will feel the first day they see him go
existence; it also shows that you are producing into the school building? Do you think they will
something good. feel afraid? How might they think about God
and his protection?
Work can be paid or not. It simply means you
are using your strength, your abilities, or your Second, you and I learn about the unseen or the
brains to be productive and creative. You can things of faith through the visible world. We
do it every day, in small ways and affecting many are of the earth and we learn through our five
lives. You will feel yourself making choices. It senses – hearing, seeing, touching, tasting smel-
will give you dignity and honor and respect. ling. God knows how he created us to be and so
You are doing good in this world. It has been he teaches us truths through the world around
noted that in refugee camps where people have us. We grasp a bit of eternity by looking at the
purpose and work to produce, create or help sea. We get a glimmer of infinity by staring into
others, they do much better and become stron- space. We learn about the shortness of time by
ger. It reverses the trauma which brought help- the quickness of a vapor. Jesus taught us this
lessness, evil and shame. Traumatized people way. In his teachings he said he was bread, light,
who are given purpose or work recover and water, and the vine. We look at the visible world
re-connect with life much more than those wit- and learn about the unseen world. Consider the
hout work. Work provides purpose, a schedule, sacraments – water, bread and wine. We are
a focus and a familiar place, all of which is con- taught about the holiest of all through what was
nected to the present and the future. the diet of a very poor person during the time
Finally, we need to consider faith and how trau- of Jesus. God uses this method in teaching us
ma affects faith and how to think about that in about his character so we do not have to guess
terms of recovery. I want to specifically consi- what he is like. He says, “Do you want to under-
der faith as an agent of recovery for a Christian. stand who I am?” Here I am in the flesh. Here
First let us notice a couple of things about faith. I am with skin on. Look at Jesus and know me.
Trauma freezes thinking. Someone who has ex- God explains Himself to us through the things
perienced trauma thinks about herself, her life, we can understand. When people are trauma-
her relationships and her future through the fra- tized, instead of learning from God who he is,
me of the trauma. She gets stuck. Trauma stops they learn from the trauma and believe that
growth because it shuts everything down. It is God is behind the evil. For many God is viewed
a kind of death. The thinking that grows out through the frame of that trauma. Violence and
of the traumatic experience controls the input humiliation means God does not care. He does
from new experiences. That means after trau- not love me or those I love. He has abandoned
ma, rather than faith being foundational the us. It is quite common for people to lose their
traumatic experience becomes foundational. faith in God after they have experienced trau-
The trauma will serve as the framework. The ma. It is another loss.
trauma provides the control beliefs for the vic- Elie Wiesel, from whom I have learned a great
tim. The more aspects of a person involved in deal about the impact of trauma, states the pro-
what was learned the stronger the lesson. In the blem eloquently. He is a Jew and he was in the

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