Beneficiaries of the Trauma Healing (TH) sessions organised by The Bible Society of Nigeria have continued to commend the Society as their emotional wounds were healed and soured relationships with both God and man restored.
The participants of different categories who took part in the TH sessions carried out this year shared how they were relieved of their hurts, pains, and wounds.
Taiwo Gabriel, a youth; Tope Oyinlola, a schoolteacher, Julie Atoyebi, a missionary, and Mrs. Ifeoma Musa (not real name) were unanimous in their submissions that the TH helped them deal with the problem of unforgiveness.
According to Atoyebi, the TH helped her to get off the hook of unforgiveness which she had struggled with for many years. “Coming to the training of Trauma Healing programme made me see the hold that unforgiveness can have on a person,” she said, adding that going through the practical session where people were tied together and to see how difficult it is to move around in such position opened her eyes to how terrible unforgiveness is.
“Thank God for releasing me from those hurts and pains of unforgiveness. It has helped me to let go of things more easily than before,” she said appreciatively.
Atoyebi, who is also a counsellor said that taking part in TH gave her a better understanding of counselling as she now knows what to do in every situation. She said that if she did not attend the training, she would have restricted herself to what she called “pastoral counselling” where she would only listen to those who come to her, quote Bible passages, pray with them and conclude by saying, “may you go in peace” without addressing the main issues bordering them.
Tope Oyinlola, who represented her school principal was happy she attended. She said that the programme helped her let go of the emotions she had bottled up. She admitted that she used to find it difficult to forgive people and expressed joy that the training had a positive impact on her heart. “And somehow it did something to my heart, my heart of stone has been changed to heart of flesh. The Holy Spirit gradually began a new work in me, and he is helping me to forgive easily. I now struggle to get angry because it is now almost natural that it is one of those things,” she said.
Speaking further on how the trauma she had affected her relationship with God, Oyinlola said that she lamented and used some hard words against the Lord, wondering why God allowed whom she loves to go through such difficult times without intervening. She, however, said she regretted such lamentation but felt relieved when she learnt during the Trauma Healing session that it was okay to say some of those things she said. According to her, she was traumatized following the loss of a loved one, became withdrawn, and stopped reading her Bible, but discovered during the TH session that, “God finds a way of replacing these people, as he brings new people in contact with us and gives us a new hope of new tomorrow, a new beginning.”
On his part, Taiwo Gabriel said he felt hopeless, thinking that both God and men had abandoned him, but going through the Trauma Healing sessions, he realized that the love of God for humanity is incomparable despite one’s challenges. He had to go back to reading his Bible which he had abandoned at the time of his challenges until he took part in a Trauma Healing session. Gabriel had failed his final secondary school exam repeatedly after struggling each time to raise money to register for the exam.
Mrs. Ifeoma Musa had this to say, “I have a troubled marriage. My husband is never there for me. I am living like a single person. I had been hurt so many times going through the challenges of my marriage. I was embittered towards my husband. Each time I remembered all I was going through all alone, I used to develop an intense pain in my chest. I came for the trauma healing session. From there, I learnt to forgive people and I dropped my pain at the cross. Ever since I attended the healing group, the excruciating pain in the chest and serious headache stopped. I have decided to move on with life.”
Trauma Healing is one of the programmes of The Bible Society of Nigeria which is aimed at helping those going through traumatic experiences to find healing.
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