31 Aug Recovering from Trauma as a Missionary Worker
Christian missionary workers accept living in challenging environments. The missionary life involves above-average levels of stress, loss, and trauma. Cross-cultural workers can learn the effects of these sufferings and how to respond in ways that promote well-being. In order for them to persevere, overcome, and thrive they need a theological foundation for a missionary lifestyle and an understanding of the role spiritual formation plays in maintaining well-being. The following beliefs, strategies, and skills for creating healthy adaptation through difficult circumstances are ways we can be prepared for future engagement with cross-cultural workers.
Surely You Will Suffer
In many places of the world where there is war, political or religious hostility, gang violence, economic instability, corruption, and evil practices of all kinds there is a potential for many missionaries to have traumatic experiences. Trauma is one way cross-cultural workers get stuck emotionally. Avoiding trauma isn’t the goal. There is a high likelihood of trauma happening to missionaries. Recovering from trauma is required to have healthy living and sustained fruitfulness.
Handling trauma is connected to our ability to grieve openly. Expressing grief is a lament from our soul. “Laments compose a poetic forum in which to express fury at the deep fissures of the world and the ways God fails to care for it. These qualities make laments ready-made prayers for victims of trauma and disaster.”
There is a theological basis for healing from trauma in the Scriptures. The Bible provides us with stories of trauma care and empathetic narratives of God and his people walking together through destruction, displacement, and desolation. These stories affirm to us a potential for care through the pain of trauma.
The Old testament narratives are a good place to look in understanding anyone who is experiencing trauma. These stories are filled with barrenness, famine, and exile. The people in the stories are suffering with grief, loss, and despair. Sometimes it is on the scale of a single individual and other times it is on a national scale of the entire nation of Israel. In either situation the theme is repeated over and over again in the Old Testament that God cares for the traumatized and is present during their sufferings. These stories from Genesis through the prophets were written at a time when the nation of Israel had reason to lose all hope. Many scholars believe the Pentateuch was written at a time when the nation of Israel was in exiled captivity by the Assyrians. The leadership of the nation recognized the need to record the stories of a God for a harassed and helpless people. He is a God of hope. He is a miracle maker for people experiencing barrenness, famine, and exile. These biblical stories are medicine for the soul sick struggling to survive trauma.
What the psalmist writes in Psalm 77:8-9 echoes true for anyone traumatized, “Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful?” This is the reality for those broken by pain and suffering. Jesus on the Road to Emmaus encounters two of his disciples discussing the recent events of his crucifixion and the rumor of his resurrection. In their moment of despair and confusion Jesus walks with them. Jesus listens to them. He doesn’t reveal himself but points to the stories in the scriptures from the past about God’s plan, God’s people, and God’s presence. When Jesus does reveal his identity, the disciples are amazed at how their hearts were burning inside them as they reflected on the scriptures and being with Jesus as they walked together. Jesus is familiar with our sorrows. He knows about death and loss. His friend Lazarus died, and it is recorded that Jesus wept. Weeping is a deep emotional response to loss. But we see Jesus being consistent with the work of God in the Old Testament. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Even with the odds stacked against us, God can provide a miracle that produces flourishing in a person. In 2 Corinthians 1:3 we read about the, “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.”
It is common in lamenting over loss and suffering that we argue and whine; even cursing God in our prayers. This is often the response to our pain. It is in lamenting the we connect our story with the stories of the Bible. Soaking in these similar stories we find the fruitful abundance of God’s renewing hope and renewed flourishing as we heal to live again.
Hoping to Heal
If we want to live more fully in our role as a shepherd and encourager in the body of Christ, then we need to be prepared for trauma care. Embracing the realities of trauma care is embracing who God is calling me us be as healers. We can contribute to the healing process in ourselves and others.
Entering into someone’s trauma is about entering a story that is being painfully retold over and over again before it ever turns into a resurrection story. For trauma recovery to be a resurrection story, more than a resuscitation story; it must produce transformation, or even transfiguration. Jesus didn’t resuscitate from the dead, he was resurrected from the dead. Healing from trauma requires transformation. The dead must come to life again. Ultimate healing comes when in an elusive moment a perspective suddenly shifts, a new meaning is found, and a pathway appears, leading a person out of the deep tangle of memories, emotions, and stories of death into a moment of grace.
There is a true story about a Christian man, single, and in his late 40’s. He has struggled with understanding his sexual identity for most of his life. A couple of years ago he became aware of traumatic events in his childhood that were mentally repressed. It has been a revelation for him about who is and why. He had early childhood experiences that shaped his inner life and world view. When he was a child, maybe five or six years old, his mother and father divorced, and he lived with his mother. What his repressed memories eventually revealed to him was that his mother would rape him when he was a boy. His mother for some reason had a need to act out sexually with him in response to her husband leaving her. At such a young age his little mind blocked out these tragic experiences. So much of his life has been shaped by the unawareness of these traumatic experiences in his childhood.
The memories of these events didn’t return to his mind until after his mom passed away when he was in his 40’s. It has been a journey of discovery about the evil done to him, the results in his life, and how to reconcile the consequences. This man began sharing these revelations about himself to enlarging groups of trusted friends and then even began writing about them publicly on his blog. He is very vulnerable about what this has meant in his life and processing how to deal with it with his friends and spiritual mentors. He is being transformed, or transfigured, in who he is as a person as he heals from this trauma.
Journey to Healing
It takes time, tears, and talking for a person healing through trauma. It is also important to know the road map of the healing journey through trauma. It is like a journey down a path that takes us through several villages.
Village 1: This is the village of shock and denial. People often feel numb when they first experience the loss and they keep thinking, “Oh no, no; this cannot be true.”
Village 2: This is the village of the body. Grieving often has physical manifestations.
Village 3: Anger is typically a part of grief. It is often our response once the pain of the loss settles in.
Village 4: This is the village of no hope. When people get to this village, they feel sad and without hope.
Village 5: This is the village of new beginnings. In the hopelessness it somehow begins to dawn on the griever that he or she is still among the living.
As someone journeys through these villages there are steps towards resolution of the grief as they journey from location to location. The following are steps towards resolving the grief.
Step 1: Admitting the loss has taken place and that it is final.
Step 2: Experiencing and expressing all the emotions and thoughts accompanying the loss.
Step 3: Finding a way to let go or say good-bye.
Step 4: Learning to reinvest the emotional and mental energy consumed by grieving in new relationships, endeavors, people, and projects.
Outlining this journey is a helpful tool for us in the ministry of healing for people in trauma, distress, or suffering. As a shepherd leader growing in the skills of God’s kingdom work this is helpful for anyone as a mental model of moving a person forward towards health, hope, and fruitful living. Being present with people in the suffering process is what makes the difference. We can bring ‘presence’ to people. God will bring ‘healing’ to them.
In order for missionaries and cross-cultural workers to persevere, overcome, and thrive they need a theological foundation for suffering. The missionary life involves increased levels of stress, loss, and trauma. As Christian workers we can learn the effects of this pain in ourselves and others. God has equipped us with Scriptures and wise practices to promote well-being and health beyond trauma. There is hoping to heal.
[1] O’Connor, Kathleen. Jeremiah: Pain and Promise. Fortress Press, 2011. Pg. 82.
[2] O’Connor, Kathleen. Kathleen O’Connor – 2016 COP. 2016. Vimeo. Accessed on August 5, 2018. https://vimeo.com/172433156/dae86ed931.
[3] Schreiter, Robert. The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies. Orbis, 1998. Pg. 46.
[3] Schreiter, Robert. The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies. Orbis, 1998. Pg. 49.
[4] Langberg, Diane. Suffering and the Heart of God. New Growth Press, 2015. Pg. 153.
[5] Langberg, Diane. Suffering and the Heart of God. New Growth Press, 2015. Pg. 180.