Healing Hearts in Africa
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
I love partnerships in ministry. Sam Tekley is the F4L National Director for Ethiopia but he also supports for a team of evangelists there. Once completed the Amharic translation of our discipleship material will be put to very good use. Sam is also engaged with Trauma Healing Workshops people who suffered in the recent civil war in Ethiopia. When Sam attended our directors meeting in Kigali, Rwanda he was confronted with the need for trauma healing there as well. This is what he wrote about the experience in Rwanda.
"I thought I saw and experienced the boundaries of evil committed by people in my life. But nothing prepared me for what I heard from those who experienced it and saw it first hand in Rwanda. The stories in Rwanda, Burundi and DRC (Congo) were something out of this world and incredibly demonic. The word evil or extreme evil does not even begin to describe it.
As soon as the people in Rwanda began telling me their stories, I knew right then and there that I needed to do something. The Holy Spirit was nudging my heart to respond. I do not know how and when but I promised to return with the Trauma Healing Workshop that we have been conducting in Ethiopia. I was in Rwanda to be part of a discipleship training program by Foundations 4 Living with seven other African leaders. Going to Rwanda was never on my bucket or wish list. The only thing I knew about Rwanda was the Genocide and I had no desire to go there. Having gone through the Red Terror massacre in Ethiopia during my youth, I did not think I could handle Rwanda.
Three years ago, a powerful experience changed my life and forced me to face the trauma that I experienced between the ages of 14 and 17. War broke out in northern Ethiopia and I felt strongly led to visit the area to see for myself what was actually happening there. Despite warnings and people pleading with me not to travel there, I went. My life was forever changed when the people there opened up to me and described their horrific trauma in detail.
Many years ago, I immigrated and lived a good life in Canada, with freedom. I married, had three beautiful daughters, loving friends & family, and was serving God. I believed my past trauma was gone to never return again. In May 2021 when I visited the war devastated Dessie, in northern Ethiopia, and
saw thousands of displaced people, I was in shock. I was feeling okay looking at the massive crowd from the outside, but I did not expect people to approach me and tell me countless stories of the killings, rapes, mutilations and torture they endured. I could not avoid these people. They followed me to tell me their stories, as if I could fix their problems. When I was traumatized during communism and lost many friends, I was silent for over 30 years. Why are these people talking so much? I did not understand. After a few stories, I could not handle it and moved away from the crowd. A friend came and asked me if I was okay. I was silent, fighting back stormy emotions. I don’t think he understood me at all.
From that moment, came a thought & a prayer. “I do not want these people to live with their trauma for over 30 years like me." “I do not know how, but God help me find a way to help these people”, was my prayer.
For two years, we have done a trauma healing program in Ethiopia. We have conducted this program with the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice personnel, the Ethiopian Police Service, teachers, pastors, priests, Muslim clerics and hundreds of victims of war suffering from trauma. These people in turn, have been certified and helped thousands of others dealing with this trauma. Just in September 2024, the Trauma Healing Course was offered to 40 Orthodox priests, 20 youth who fought in the war and 20 marginalized/neglected/abused Ethiopian Jews named Falasha, or House of Israel.
When I received the invitation to go to Rwanda to attend a simple 4-day meeting with African church leaders for Foundations4 Living, I was not sure whether or not to accept it. I refused initially but felt inside that God had a plan for me. The thought was so strong that I felt maybe we will have an opportunity to send more church planters to other African countries other than Ethiopia.
The meeting went well and after 2 days, the organizers planned for us to go to a genocide museum in Kigali. I did not want to go but the push from within was strong. I knew I needed to be there. Nervous, yet knowing there was a bigger plan, I decided to go. I was concerned about my trauma resurfacing again. That storm of emotions was there as we drove the 45 minutes and as walked through the door of the museum. First, we watched videos of people who experienced the genocide first hand, then more pictures of the history, with writings which I read most carefully. We saw hundreds of human remains in open graves and boxes. When we left the building, I was surprised at how calm and collected I was, even though I was silent. Maybe it was the shock of hearing the incredible evil that was committed from April 7 to July 19, 1994. The number of ordinary people who were tortured and brutally killed was numbing.
The men with me from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Cameroon and Kenya told me their personal experiences of trauma when I finally told them about the Trauma Healing program we do in Ethiopia. Their eyes lit up with envy and want, begging for me to tell them more about it. They begged me to bring the program to their countries. Again, I sat there in silence, knowing the limitation of resources, “Who do I use to train, how can I even travel to these countries?”, yet deep inside saying to myself, “The battle is God’s not mine. He knows there are people to be healed and He will make a way.”
I was shocked to hear each one of their painful stories and sad that no counseling was ever provided for them. A pastor from Burundi told me that during the genocide, they came and took his father and told him that he would never see his father again, so say good bye. He nor his mother ever talk about that day. They live in silence. He told me that a program like what I had mentioned would maybe lift his mother out of the pit of darkness. “I will be very happy if you could help only my mother. I can manage through life with pain which has always been part of me.”
I left Rwanda, thinking, praying, anticipating God’s guidance and envisioning the thousands we will help in Rwanda, Burundi and DRC in the near future. I do not have a definite plan or strategy yet but will remain in prayer waiting for God’s timing. All I know is that there was a reason I was there. As I shared
my experience in Ethiopia with them, they were encouraged and full of hope that healing is possible. I told them that the Trauma Healing Workshop is not only to heal them from trauma but for them in turn to facilitate healing for thousands more. What better person to be trained than someone who
has gone through genocide?
The pain in Africa is massive and only the Gospel and programs like the Trauma Healing ministry can help people. Please pray for me, and with me as I seek God’s guidance for this work.