Word Alive Magazine - Fall 2011

Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada • Fall 2011

Survivors of trauma in the Democratic Republic of Congo need hope to rebuild their lives. God’s Word is lighting a pathway to healing.

Let Fear Not Rule New Wycliffe President Appointed Thankful for a Hardy Word

Fall 2011 • Volume 29 • Number 3 Word Alive, which takes its name from Hebrews 4:12a, is the official publication of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada. Its mission is to inform, inspire and involve the Christian public as partners in the worldwide Bible translation movement.

Editor: Dwayne Janke Designer: Laird Salkeld

Foreword Weeping for Conso Dwayne Janke

Senior Staff Writer: Doug Lockhart Staff Writer: Janet Seever Staff Photographers: Alan Hood, Natasha Schmale Word Alive is published four times annually by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada, 4316 10 St NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6K3. Copyright 2011 by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada. Permission to reprint articles and other magazine contents may be obtained by written request to the editor. A donation of $16 annually is suggested to cover the cost of printing and mailing the magazine. (Donate online or use the reply form in this issue.) Printed in Canada by McCallum Printing Group, Edmonton.

Member: The Canadian Church Press, Evangelical Press Association.

For additional copies: media_resources@wycliffe.ca To contact the editor: editor_wam@wycliffe.ca For address updates: circulation@wycliffe.ca Note to readers: References to “SIL” are occasionally made in Word Alive. SIL is a key partner organization, dedicated to training, language development and research, translation and literacy.

Wycliffe Canada Vision Statement: A world where translated Scriptures lead to transformed lives among people of all languages.

Translating Scripture, Transforming Lives Together with partners worldwide, we serve indigenous people through language-related ministries, especially Bible translation and literacy. Our goal is to empower local communities to express God’s love in both Word and deed—for personal, social and spiritual transformation. Wycliffe personnel currently serve globally in more than 1,500 language projects for about 2.6 billion people. However, about 2,100 minority language groups still wait for the power of God working through their own languages. Wycliffe invites you to participate in this effort through prayer, service and funding.

Canadian Head Office: 4316 10 St NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6K3. Phone: (403) 250-5411 or toll free 1-800-463-1143, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. mountain time. Fax: (403) 250-2623. Email: info@wycliffe.ca. French speakers: Call toll free 1-877-747-2622 or email francophone@wycliffe.ca.

Cover: Siuzike Cirwisa, 21, holds her month-old son, Bahati, in their temporary “home”—in a house under construction in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A victim of sexual violence, Cirwisa’s plight is common to thousands of women in the war-ravaged region of Central Africa.

In Others’ Words “ Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92), England’s best-known, late 19th-century preacher/evangelist)

I

t was their final night in the city of Goma, collecting stories and photos for this Word Alive issue on trauma healing workshops, developed with help from Wycliffe.

Writer Doug Lockhart and photographer Alan Hood were introduced to Conso Zaina, a 20-year-old woman who lives in an orphanage for children (see “Beauty for Ashes,” pg. 15) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Alan set up his tripod and prepared to take photos of Conso in her dark, cramped sleeping quarters behind the main building. As he did, an orphanage staff member told Doug that a group of men sexually assaulted Conso three years ago.

Looking at the beautiful young woman before him, and thinking of his own two daughters and granddaughters, any “journalistic objectivity” Doug had tried to maintain to that point began to crumble.

“I slipped outside and found a place to be alone,” recalls Doug.

“There, in the darkness, I wept for Conso, and for all who have been sexually assaulted, beaten and killed in the DRC over the past 20 years.”

For several weeks after returning to Canada, Doug struggled with mild depression because of what he had seen and heard in the Central African country. Over time, he was able to overcome his emotional distress—thanks in part to the pastors he and Alan met at the trauma healing workshop in Goma.

“By reading and applying God’s Word to “Following in their their tragic circumstances, they have been an example to me,” explains Doug. “Following in Saviour’s footsteps, their Saviour’s footsteps, they have chosen to forgive those who have mutilated, violated and they have chosen to even killed their friends and loved ones. forgive those who “They have also grasped the fundamental truth that they, too, are sinners in need of have mutilated, forgiveness.”

Doug discovered that the victims of trauma violated and even in the DRC don’t fully understand why God killed their friends allows such pain and suffering in the world.

But they know He is good. and loved ones.”

And their steadfast faith, which has been tested far beyond ours, can help us to process our own jumbled thoughts and feelings when hearing the stories of others’ trauma.

In the end, the real issue is not why trauma hits others so hard, but rather doing something—in Jesus’ name—to help those experiencing it.

Thank the Lord that this is the case in the DRC and in a growing list of other countries, through Bible-based workshops that bring healing in the heart-penetrating languages of local people.

6 Contents

Features Articles by Doug Lockhart • Photographs by Alan Hood EDITOR’S NOTE: The following articles contain content that may be disturbing for some readers. Discretion is advised.

6

18

Beauty for Ashes

Victims of violence in war-ravaged Congo rekindle hope through Scripture-based, trauma healing workshops.

18 Giving the “Gift of Tears”

A book and related workshop on trauma healing impact thousands of hurting people around the world.

24 Faces of Trauma: A Photo Essay 32 Let Fear Not Rule

Wycliffe’s Sue Ambrose leans on the strength of God after a physical attack in Papua New Guinea.

Article & photographs by Craig Pulsifer

24

Departments 2

Foreword Weeping for Conso

4

Watchword Young Team Builder Will

By Dwayne Janke

Head Wycliffe Canada

34 Beyond Words Tongue Tickler 35 Last Word Thankful for a Hardy Word

By Don Hekman

32 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 3

Watchword Young Team Builder Will Head Wycliffe Canada

40,000 and Counting

he youngest person to ever lead Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada will take the helm later this year. Wycliffe Canada’s board of directors recently unanimously appointed 39-year-old Roy Eyre (left) as the next president of Wycliffe Canada. He takes over the position when Don Hekman completes his term in November.

“For a young man, Roy Eyre has accumulated a lot of leadership experience and already gained recognition as an emerging leader in Wycliffe,” says Hart Wiens, board chair.

“I’m excited to take on this challenge,” says Eyre. “I think what excites me most is the potential I see in Wycliffe Canada to tap into the vast resources Canada has to offer for cross-cultural work.

At the same time, I recognize that this is a big jump in responsibility for me, and there are significant challenges for the organization in the next few years.”

Born in Toronto, Ont., and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Eyre served as a graphic designer with Wycliffe Canada and Wycliffe U.S.A., before moving into administration. Since 2009, Eyre has directed the work of leadership development for Wycliffe U.S.A. He and his wife Becky are raising three children.

For more details, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/newsroom>.

í fìntimaan! Takaldapeepeekaa 1 is the title of a reading primer for the Ntscham language group in Togo, Africa. The booklet is also a milestone— item number 40,000 in the bibliography of materials authored, edited or published

by Wycliffe personnel since 1935.

The bibliography, much of which is online at <www.ethnologue.com/bibliography.asp>, lists publications representing 76 years of work by Wycliffe staff in more than 2,700 languages.

It includes books, journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and other academic papers about languages and cultures. The bibliography also has references for materials written in the local languages, such as literacy books, instructional books on other basic education topics (health, math, and social studies), story and folk tale books, etc.

Scriptures for a Digital Age

JESUS Film Prepared for Eight CAR Languages

S

T

IL, Wycliffe’s key partner in Bible translation, has moved a step closer to making Scripture translations in North Eurasia available in a variety of digital media.

Scriptures on cellphones, as text, audio and even video, was a focus of a digital media consultation in Moscow earlier this year. The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has agreed to make God’s Word downloadable on cellphones and websites. IBT publishes most of the Scripture on which SIL teams work in this region of the world.

Most people in the region have cellphones and there is clearly an interest in digital Scriptures. In one Central Asian translation project, for example, the Old Testament is nearing completion. The goal will be to first produce digital, rather than printed, versions.

Meanwhile, Pidgin speakers in Hawaii can download their New Testament and 16 Old Testament books onto most cellphones.

he JESUS Film will soon be coming to eight language groups in the Central African Republic (CAR).

A workshop with the languages’ Bible translation teams has just concluded, during which they prepared the film’s script, based on the Gospel of Luke. Now the film will be audio dubbed into each of the languages—Banda-Linda, Bhogoto, Mpyemo, Nzakara, Gbaya, Kaba, Ngbugu and Yaka—and then distributed to the communities of speakers in the country.

Take Together, these language groups total about 900,000 people. Wycliffe personnel are supporting the work of local translation teams in the nation.

Scene

Wycliffe Gets New Name

W

ycliffe International, the umbrella group of 105 partner organizations to which Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada belongs, has a new name: Wycliffe Global Alliance.

The change to “Global” was made to better reflect the reality that Wycliffe is no longer primarily “Western” run or based. Its primary office is now in Singapore, while its leadership team, originating from 10 nations, is spread across the globe.

“Alliance” was chosen for the new name because Wycliffe’s partner organizations hold to a common vision to advance the goals and interests of Bible translation and related work worldwide.

As the worldwide Church and the awareness of the need for translated Scripture grow, so do the opportunities for increasingly more people to participate in this critical part of God’s mission. Wycliffe Global Alliance is helping create an environment for greater and broader involvement around the globe.

4

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

Cellphones are increasingly being used to distribute translated Scriptures.

Alan Hood

Date

Alan Hood

T

Alan Hood

Alan Hood

T

UBS, SIL Aim for Joint Language Technology Work

P

ersonnel who create computer software for Bible translators with the United Bible Societies (UBS) and SIL have agreed to work more closely.

After attending a Dallas conference in February, they are partnering on a UBS-SIL Language Technology Initiative.

They plan to combine efforts to develop software, in order to more efficiently use resources, avoid redundancy, and simplify training and support.

Computer staff for both agencies want their work to: accelerate Bible translation worldwide; enable language communities to produce dictionaries and literacy materials; and aid the publication of God’s Word and other materials, using scripts and media that keep languages strong and people engaged with Scriptures.

One language software development team works out of the Wycliffe Canada office in Calgary.

Wycliffe Canada Gathers For 60th Anniversary

W

Courtesy of Gardner Family/Wycliffe UK

ycliffe Canada celebrated its 60th anni- For details, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/newsroom> an office, started to form a staff and began or for audio recordings, visit <www.wycliffe. to build a Canadian identity. That story is versary by holding a special two-day outlined in “Passages,” a new booklet containstaff retreat and a one-day public conference ca/unbound>.

Both events were scheduled in conjunction ing Wycliffe Canada’s history and timeline, at in and around Calgary in early May. with the 60th anniversary of Wycliffe’s organi- <www.wycliffe.ca/history>.

About 170 staff and guests from across zational beginnings in 1951, when it opened Canada attended the retreat called “The Gathering,” at River’s Edge Camp near Sundre, Alberta. The meeting included British Wycliffe Worker Dies in Bomb Blast worship sessions, field reports, discusary Gardner, a 55-year-old Wycliffe member from Scotland sion groups and a recognition banquet. (right), was killed in a March terrorist bomb explosion at a Immediately after the retreat, crowded public bus stop in Jerusalem.

Wycliffe held “UnBound” at Ambrose Gardner was in Israel studying Hebrew at Hebrew University, as part University College in Calgary. The of her training to become a consultant for Old Testament translation public conference explored how the among Togo’s Ife people. Gardner had worked in the West African biblical story dynamically intersects nation since 1989, serving with a local team of Ife translators that with cultural stories, through special completed the New Testament two years ago. speakers and informative workshops.

Thirty other people were injured by the bomb. Though no one took responsibility, the blast came hours after Palestinian militants vowed revenge for two deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza.

“Mary will be sorely missed by her colleagues and the Ife community, in whom she had invested more than 20 years of her life,” said Lee Higdon, who directs work done by the Togo-Benin branch of SIL, Wycliffe’s key partner organization. “She was loved and respected by those who knew and worked with her.”

Gardner is survived by two elderly parents and several siblings.

M

Word Count

Unbound” speaker Ray Aldred shares his insights.

105 6,500+ 34% 66%

Number of organizations (including Wycliffe Canada) that are part of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

Affiliated staff with those Wycliffe organizations serving around the world.

Staff positions in language-related work such as translation and literacy.

Staff positions in other types of work (eg. project managers, computer specialists, administrators, etc).

Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 5

Beauty Victims of violence in war-ravaged Congo rekindle hope through Scripture-based, trauma healing workshops.

Articles by Doug Lockhart • Photographs by Alan Hood

Residents of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which one leading volcanologist has called “the most dangerous city in the world,” go about their daily routines in the shadow of one of the world’s most active volcanoes. “Nyiragongo” could erupt at any time—like the violence that has plagued the explosive, deeply-scarred region beyond its slopes.

A

massive, steaming volcano towers over the city of Goma, on the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After nightfall, clouds of reddish vapour swirl above the summit of Mount Nyiragongo [ny-EAR-a-gong-go], reflecting light from a boiling lake of molten lava more than 200 metres wide.

The volcano last erupted in 2002. Rivers of scalding lava flowed into the city’s streets, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. Like Mount Doom in Tolkein’s epic Lord of the Rings, today the volcano’s eerie, menacing presence seems to fill the air with whispered threats that Death is about to visit Goma and vicinity—yet again.

Death has been a frequent caller to the DRC, in the form of a brutal war that began in the mid-’90s. It has directly or indirectly killed an estimated 5.4 million people in the Central African nation. Violence still erupts from time to time in several eastern provinces. Most citizens there have been deeply traumatized by the unspeakable brutality that has touched nearly every city, village and hamlet in Africa’s third-largest country.

Church leaders and social agencies have been ill-equipped to respond to the overwhelming needs they’ve encountered.

But now a growing group of concerned individuals and organizations—including Wycliffe Bible Translators—are banding together to provide a biblical response to the deep trauma that has crippled the nation.

Very, Very Hard

Margaret Hill, a Brit associated with Wycliffe U.K., is a translation consultant who works closely with Bible translators throughout Africa. But in her work with Wycliffe’s key partner organization, SIL, she is also charged with promoting the use of translated Scriptures.

“My work in Scripture engagement involves getting people to use relevant, pertinent Scriptures that really speak to their life needs,” says Margaret, one of the leaders of a recent trauma healing workshop held in Goma.

“Trauma healing is using the Scriptures in ways that really speak to people and therefore, they’re likely to want and be able to use the Scriptures.”

Margaret’s friend and co-worker, Harriet Hill, is an American and a former Wycliffe member who now serves as Director of Scripture Engagement Content for the American Bible Society (ABS). Harriet served for 18 years, with her husband Ralph, in a Bible translation project in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa.

“The American Bible Society has taken a very strong interest in trauma healing and in East Africa,” says Harriet, “especially DRC.” Most participants in the Goma workshop are refugees, unable to return to their home areas.

“They’ve lost everything,” Harriet says. “They have fields and lands . . . but they can’t go to them because it is so dangerous.

People get attacked and killed.

“So they’re living here in Goma as displaced people with no rights, no money—it’s just very, very hard.”

8

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

(Above) A billboard in Goma urges citizens to say no to sexual violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Despite a 2008 peace agreement between the government and rebel forces, violence is still pervasive in eastern Congo and women are especially vulnerable. During a 2009 visit to Goma, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to their plight by pledging US $17 million to support programs that assist female victims.

(Below) During a short break in a trauma healing workshop held last March in Goma, workshop leaders Harriet Hill (left) and Margaret Hill (centre) discuss the next exercise with Wycliffe’s Bettina Gottschlich (right). Through a book they coauthored and related workshops on trauma healing, the Hills (unrelated) have played a significant role in promoting emotional healing for victims of trauma throughout Africa and around the world.

Goma’s steady growth in recent years has been fuelled by the never-ending stream of refugees that pour into the city from outlying areas. Comforted by the presence of highly visible UN troops, they seek to rebuild their lives—in the shadow of one of the world’s most active, unpredictable volcanoes.

But for millions of people living in Goma and elsewhere in the eastern provinces, daily life is more a struggle for survival.

Rampant inflation, food shortages, malnutrition and malaria are just some of the challenges that confront the general population.

AIDS, inadequate health care and a frail public infrastructure leave most Congolese living hand-to-mouth and without hope for a better future.

Women Victimized

While few Congolese adults have been untouched by past and continuing atrocities, women especially have had to endure mind-numbing violence. More often than not, it includes sexual assault—often multiple times, by multiple perpetrators. Some are forced into sexual slavery.

If women and young girls survive an encounter with one of the country’s numerous military groups still vying for power or profit, they are frequently left battered and bleeding from having limbs hacked off or private body parts mutilated by bullets, knives or other weapons.

Untold thousands are also left pregnant and infected with HIV. The emotional fallout from such encounters is unfathomable.

“ They’ve lost everything.

They have fields and lands . . . but they can’t go to them because it is so dangerous. People get attacked and killed.”

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 9

Bloodied, traumatized and afraid, many of these victims suddenly find themselves with few resources. Because of the stigma attached to rape, wives and daughters who have been sexually assaulted frequently find themselves rejected by husbands and fathers. With no resources and no support, many such women turn to prostitution.

Furthermore, these victims may be left homeless because their houses—and entire villages—have been burned to the ground and their relatives have disappeared.

Congolese churches are filled with traumatized believers who need more than a prayer and a pat on the back to recover from the paralyzing trauma they have experienced. But sadly, most pastors and elders lack the training they need to help believers and non-believers alike find deep healing.

Margaret first saw the need to train Congolese pastors in the ’90s, after she was forced to leave DRC twice because of the violence.

“When I came back at one point, I realized the church leaders needed to be more aware . . . because they just hadn’t realized why people were angry and depressed, and why there was an increase in suicide and mental illness and all these things.”

Margaret began talking with colleagues—including Harriet— about what she was seeing. Those discussions led them to write, with help from a psychologist and a counsellor, a book entitled Healing the Wounds of Trauma; How the Church Can Help.

But even before the book was published in 2004, Margaret, Harriet and other colleagues had begun using what they’d learned to conduct trauma healing workshops in Kenya, for pastors from six war-torn countries in Africa. The workshops, which typically run up to two weeks, equip pastors and others to help trauma victims express their pain, bring it to the Cross and find grace to forgive their tormentors.

10 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

(Above) Straining to push a tshukudu, a kind of wooden bicycle used to transport everything from food supplies to lumber, a young man navigates a busy route in Goma where traffic passes within inches and jagged volcanic rocks litter streets. Similarly, thousands are weighed down by heavy emotional baggage as they navigate life as trauma victims.

(Right) Using his hands to simulate a chopping motion, church leader Nganga Batasema demonstrates how several of his neighbours had their limbs hacked off when armed invaders attacked villages in his home area.

“ [Congolese church leaders] just hadn’t realized why people were angry and depressed and why there was an increase in suicide and mental illness….”

Racing for the Traumatized Canadians have played a key role in funding the work of Bible translation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), through its Race to 2025 adventure fundraisers (see Word Alive, Spring 2010). Since September 2010, 27 teams of four, comprised primarily of college students from across Canada, have competed in four weekend events. The teams raised $118,000 to further language survey, Bible translation and Scripture use initiatives in DRC—including trauma healing workshops.

After reading the book, Healing the Wounds of Trauma, a pastor in northeastern Congo began teaching it to the members of his congregation. Last February, he attended a training workshop to help him share the materials more effectively in his home region. A portion of the money raised from Race to 2025: Congo will help fund trauma healing workshops in the area, as well as translation and printing of the book in several languages.

In addition to funds raised by participants in Race to 2025: Congo, generous corporate sponsorships provided bursaries for approved student interns. Tim Lipp, who has participated in two races, won a scholarship

Distracted but Dedicated

Last March, 20 Congolese church leaders from four language groups assembled for two weeks at a retreat centre in Goma. They participated in a trauma healing workshop with a unique focus: to produce oral translations of the stories and lessons contained in the trauma healing book. Three of the language groups represented still have no writing system, while the fourth—Chitembo—is currently translating the New Testament into their language.

“These four language groups were chosen because they’re in the areas that are in acute, traumatically disturbed areas and they have no Scripture in their language,” Margaret explains.

Just days into the Goma workshop, five of the participants from the Kobo language group learned that militants had again attacked villages in their home area northwest of Goma. Their houses had been set ablaze—for the third time since 1994.

At breaks during the workshop, the Kobo men broke away from the larger group to call home using their cellphones, trying to connect with friends, family members and neighbours. News about the welfare of individual loved ones was sketchy; they did know that 20 of 22 villages had been set on fire and their people had taken refuge in the two remaining villages.

“It’s part of our lives, these difficulties,” said one, speaking through an interpreter.

Their Tembo colleagues—who speak the Chitembo language—have similar stories and similar motivation to help their people find healing.

“In one village, about 100 people were killed,” says Moise Mamlaka, a Tembo church leader. “There are several people who had their arms cut off and I have a family member that doesn’t have legs anymore. The region has been abandoned . . . so people really need assistance from those who know about trauma healing.”

During last February’s Race to 2025 event near Nordegg, Alta., racer Jeni Coleman shares a lighter moment with a volunteer in a simulated African village.

to attend Wycliffe Canada’s training program at the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) in Langley, B.C. He plans to study at CanIL this summer, before leaving for DRC to research Bible translation needs there by doing language survey.

Another racer, Rick Olney from Millar College of the Bible in Pambrun, Sask., attended CanIL last summer and is currently in DRC doing language survey.

DRC is in one of three regions in the world with the highest Bible translation needs. About 120 of the country’s 215 living languages still have no Scripture translations and many of those do not even have an alphabet or writing system.

To learn more about Race to 2025, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/raceto2025>.

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 11

That’s why Tembo believers have translated Healing the Wounds of Trauma into their language.

“We translated this in order to find out how we can help our people,” says Bwenge Ndeshibire. “Because if somebody hears in his own language, and is consoled . . . that can really help in his soul and in his mind.”

Nailed to the Cross

The stories and illustrations used in Healing the Wounds of Trauma are culturally relevant and true-to-life, making it easier for readers to identify with them. Augmented by exercises, object lessons and discussions in the trauma healing workshops, they become powerful tools for healing.

Two concepts especially leave a deep impression on participants: Taking Your Pain to the Cross and How Can We Forgive Others? When teaching on the former, workshop leaders instruct participants to write their trauma on a slip of paper. Then, the participants take these papers and nail them to an actual cross (See “Pain and Paper,” pg. 21).

The reminder of Christ’s sacrifice sets the stage for forgiveness— and for those who choose it, a powerful step towards healing.

In a 2010 paper titled Trauma Healing at the Cross of Christ, Harriet wrote about a woman who began applying what she learned about forgiveness at a workshop in Uganda.

“A woman whose ears, nose and lips had been cut off by child soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army,” wrote Harriet, “was so disfigured, she hid inside her house.”

12 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

(Left) Nganga Batasema (at far left), a workshop participant from the Chitembo language group, stresses a point while talking with teammate Moise Mamlaka. The group was tasked with deciding how to best express some key biblical terms in their language, as they prepared to translate trauma healing materials used in the workshop for oral presentation.

(Above) Stuka Elkan (far right) and his Kobo teammates used their cellphones to stay informed about the volatile conditions in their isolated home region northwest of Goma. During the two-week workshop, they learned that 20 of 22 villages had been attacked and houses set on fire. Desperate for news about the welfare of their loved ones, they took every opportunity to call home during breaks in the workshop. To add to his distress, Elkan was grieving the unrelated death of his infant nephew just two days earlier.

“ We translated this . . . because if somebody hears in his own language, and is consoled . . . that can really help in his soul and in his mind.”

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 13

raped. But Longombe (left) realizes that he and his small medical team are limited in the help they can offer.

“We can care for them in a medical way, but we cannot heal. The One who can heal is God, and the instrument we have for that is the Word of God. “Without the Word of God, you One Step Further cannot come to true healing.”

At the conclusion of the trauma healing workshops, each parAnother man, Thomson Kadorho ticipant is encouraged to take what they have learned and share [ka-DOR-oh], heads an Anglican with it with others. As a result, principles contained in Healing development and rehabilitation agency the Wounds of Trauma have spread to churches and schools elsethat does its best—despite limited funding—to provide practical where in DRC, as they have in dozens of countries around the assistance to traumatized people throughout the city (see photo world (see “Giving the ‘Gift of Tears,’ ” pg. 18).

Another Wycliffe facilitator of the March workshop in Goma, essay, “Faces of Trauma,” pg. 24).

Kadorho attended one of the first trauma healing workshops Bettina Gottschlich, believes it’s important for those who have held in DRC. He readily identified with the teachings on forgiveattended such sessions to work through their existing partnerness, because God had already challenged him to forgive the ships and networks to help meet needs in their communities.

“This training course is only a beginning,” says Gottschlich, a people who were responsible for his own pain.

As a teen, Kadorho nearly drowned when a boat he was ridGerman Wycliffe member who has worked in DRC since 1987. ing in capsized on nearby Lake Kivu, killing 50 fellow-travellers.

“It transforms people from where they are, one step further….

Around the same time, while still dealing with trauma from the “What they’re going to do with it depends largely on what boat accident, he witnessed armed soldiers kill his brother-in-law. they’re ready to do . . . and what they let God do with them.”

“When God told me [to forgive], it really changed something Gottschlich adds that even when financial resources are lackin my life. I had many things hidden in my heart, but when I ing, church leaders can integrate teaching on trauma healing decided to forgive, I had peace.” into their various ministries. And by networking with other ministries and agencies, they may be able to help traumatized people find help for their physical and material needs as well.

Overwhelming Needs In Goma, outreach workers have an ally in Dr. Ahuka Kadorho sometimes finds the needs of people he encounters in Longombe [long-GOM-bay], a Christian physician who special- Goma overwhelming. His small team at the Anglican ministry izes in reconstructive surgery for women who have been brutally does what it can, while hoping and praying that God will pro-

After the woman found help to deal with her trauma, she wanted to find the boys who had mutilated her—so she could let them know she had forgiven them. Her search led her eventually to a rehabilitation camp where the boys were being treated. After overcoming the guards’ initial reluctance to let her in, the woman met her attackers face to face and told them they were forgiven.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: At a Glance Name: Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Area: 2.34 million sq. km (about one quarter the size of Canada); vast central basin is a low-lying plateau, mountains in the east; largely dense tropical rainforest.

AFRICA

Location: Central Africa; northeast of Angola.

Life expectancy: 55 years (vs. 81 in Canada)

C. A. R.

Capital: Kinshasa (pop. 8.75 million).

People: More than 200 ethno-linguistic groups, of which the majority are Bantu.

Economy: One of the world’s very poorest nations; has immense diamond, mineral resources and agricultural potential.

Religion: 50% Roman Catholic; 42% Protestant/Independent, including 19% Evangelical.

Languages: 215, including French (official), Lingala (trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili); Kikongo, Tshiluba; and many tribal languages.

Languages with Scriptures: 30 have Bibles, 20 have New Testaments, 56 have Scripture portions.

Literacy: 67%.

Sources: Operation World, 7th Edition; World Factbook; Ethnologue.

Sudan

Chad

Population: Approx. 72 million.

Cameroon Republic of Congo

Democratic Republic of Congo Goma Kinshasa Angola Zambia

Tanzania

Uganda

Conso Zaina (in wheelchair), 20, can still smile despite enduring a savage, repeated sexual assault three years ago that left her disabled— and homeless. Abandoned by her family because of societal attitudes towards rape, she is the oldest resident of a Goma orphanage that houses some 40 children. Shown here with her caregiver, Zaina shares the small room with another young woman.

“ What they’re going to do with their

[trauma healing] training depends largely on what they’re ready to do . . . and what they let God do with them.”

vide additional resources to help Goma’s suffering citizens.

Thankfully, many secular, humanitarian organizations are also hard at work in DRC, providing medical care, shelter, food, clothing and other basic needs for the people of DRC. The needs are great, and God is using both Christian and secular agencies to help meet them.

More help is on the way. Recently, the American Bible Society launched a program called “She’s My Sister.” It will help traumatized women and children in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, including Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Central African Republic, Sudan and DRC. Partnering with DRC’s Bible Society, the U.S.-based program will provide funds for a consortium of faith-based groups and

16 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

enable local leaders to provide holistic, restorative programs for the traumatized—including trauma healing workshops.

For more than two decades, Death More On The Web: Learn more about has haunted the Democratic the “She’s My Sister” initiative at Republic of Congo. Like the dark http://sister.americanbible.org]. volcano that looms over Goma, its shadow has fallen on every corner of the country and robbed nearly every household of hope and happiness.

But Jesus has never forsaken the people of DRC. He still walks among them, as a high priest who identifies with their suffering. His Word continues to heal wounded hearts, restore hope to the weary and assure His followers that He has conquered death and hell.

Participants in the trauma healing workshop held in Goma join hands as they offer up prayers of thanksgiving and worship. The 20 church leaders—most of whom have suffered through severe trauma themselves—share a common motivation to help traumatized people from the four Congolese language groups they represent. Galen Johnson (in foreground, right), a co-leader at the workshop, represented the Goma event’s co-funder, The Seed Company, a Wycliffe U.S.A. affiliate.

“ When God told me to forgive, it really

changed something in my life. I had many things hidden in my heart, but when I decided to forgive, I had peace.”

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 17

S A book and related workshop on trauma healing impact thousands of hurting people around the world.

ince its publication in 2004, the book Healing the Wounds of Trauma has found receptive readers in DRC and several other African countries, as well as the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, the U.S. and U.K. and Latin America. Translation of the book is complete or in progress in 135 languages; Wycliffe personnel have some involvement in 76 of those translations.

Authors Harriet Hill and Margaret Hill are Scripture-use consultants, while co-authors, Dr. Richard Baggé and Pat Miersma, are a psychiatrist and a counsellor respectively.

Baggé, a Wycliffe member based in Nairobi, Kenya, manages a multi-agency counselling centre to help missionaries in Africa.

Miersma joined Wycliffe in 1980, after serving as a nurse during the war in Vietnam. She now specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder, crisis intervention and recovery from trauma.

So far, more than 80 organizations have used the materials, while trauma healing workshops based on the book have been held in 40 countries to date—sometimes in multiple languages. About 160 people are now qualified to lead or help lead workshops.

The workshops based on the book vary in focus; some have emphasized helping traumatized children and one targets the victims of earthquakes. A course for oral cultures—like the one recently held in Goma—is being developed to assist language groups where few can read or write.

Confronting Deep Issues

Originally written and developed from an African context, the book and workshops include numerous true-to-life trauma stories of people living in a fictional nation called Bingola. The book’s 11 lessons help readers grapple with some gritty subjects—like the first section, on why God allows suffering.

Additionally, the book and workshop help victims confront the pain in their lives—to feel it, and let God heal it—rather than repress or deny it.

Harriet recalls a trauma healing workshop held in southern Sudan, where one priest coped with his pain by spiritualizing it.

“He was saying, ‘I saw my son get shot—praise the Lord!’ ” The priest believed he needed to be an example to his flock of triumphant faith, but Harriet takes a different view.

A common feature of trauma healing workshops worldwide is an exercise that walks participants through three different “villages,” symbolizing grief as a journey. The “props” used above represent, in order: anger and denial, hopelessness, and new beginnings.

“To care for an emotional wound, people need to get their pain out. That is huge—to let people talk.”

“We want to help people know that tears are a gift,” adds Harriet, “and they help us get our pain out.”

“ We want to

Learning to Lament

As an example, Harriet points to the many laments in Scripture, where writers like David and Job expressed deep feelings to God. “We look at laments where you can say both things: ‘God, you’re always with me’ and ‘God, why did you abandon me?’—in the same psalm, and that’s OK. That’s how we feel when we’re going through a rough time; both of those emotions are present and God can handle it.”

“We get them to write their own laments,” says Margaret, “and that’s very powerful.”

Harriet says there’s a further step that’s invaluable in the healing process: bringing pain to the Cross.“When you’re in darkness and you realize Christ absorbs that pain as well, it’s just overwhelming what Christ’s death has done.

“A lot of people experience healing at that time” (see “Pain and Paper,” pg. 21).

help people

Kneeling by a bathtub filled with water, Harriet Hill struggles to keep several empty water bottles submerged. The object lesson, enacted during the March 2011 trauma healing workshop held in Goma, DRC, represents the strong emotions that accompany trauma and the difficulty of keeping them “buried” while dealing with the challenges of everyday life.

know that tears are a gift, and they help us get our pain out.”

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 19

As Harriet steps back from the tub, the empty bottles pop to the surface amidst applause and laughter from onlookers. The exercise is a simple, yet effective way to demonstrate that despite the human tendency to repress negative emotions, they eventually surface and 20 Word Alive â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 2011 â&#x20AC;˘ wycliffe.ca

must be addressed. Around the world, such principles of mental health are being combined with biblical teaching to help victims of trauma process their pain and move forward in their quest for emotional and spiritual healing.

Looking Ahead

While the workshops have an impressive track record in Africa and around the world, the Hills and other workshop leaders always look for ways to adapt and amend the course materials to make them more effective. To that end, they developed advanced training for workshop leaders to help them master the materials and methods, and feel confident to lead the course in their communities.

Furthermore, in many African countries, the need to help traumatized children is urgent. In northern Uganda, for example, the Anglican Church has been reaching out to homeless children who were forced to flee their homes because of violence.

“They’re called the ‘invisible children,’ ” says Margaret. “They were trying to make themselves invisible so they wouldn’t be abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army.”

Week-long camps for children age eight to 14 have been held in that country, along with Liberia, Togo and Thailand, using materials that integrate stories, games and crafts around different themes.

“There’s interest in putting this program material into other languages,” adds Margaret, “and getting more children involved.”

In Haiti, stories about earthquake trauma are used to replace war stories; in other areas, the materials have been adapted for use with refugees and those who host them.

Pain and Paper Bwenge Ndeshibire (en-desh-ib-EAR-eh), a man from the Tembo language group, attended the trauma healing workshop last March in Goma, DRC. Like other participants, he comes from an area of Eastern Congo that continues to experience frequent violence.

“All of us, the Tembo people, are traumatized,” Ndeshibire said, speaking through an interpreter.

“Our territory has become like a battlefield, daily.”

During the workshop, Ndeshibire began to see how his own trauma had affected him.

“I had needs, or hurts, inside myself,” he reflects, “but I didn’t know how to express them. In our way of thinking, in our culture, you just behave as though there’s nothing wrong with you.

“I even had the idea that God wasn’t interested in me anymore.”

The Tembo man says the workshop also helped him understand that the anger he felt inside was a normal response to loss.

“I tried to behave as though I’d solved my anger, to sort of ‘jump over’ it, instead of really dealing with it from the bottom of my heart.

Harriet and Margaret Hill, above, co-authored Healing the Wounds of Trauma with Dr. Richard Baggé and Pat Miersma. Because issues of the heart are best communicated in a person’s heart language, the book has since been translated into dozens of languages—including a Chitembo-language edition (left) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“But during the workshop, they showed us all the steps (of grief) to walk through, until you come to the step where you can start life again.”

That process included an exercise involving a cross, as a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. The participants wrote down, on slips of paper, experiences that had wounded them. Then, they took their notes with them and stood before the cross.

“We nailed them there,” says Ndeshibire, “and it was like we could take off our bruises and give them literally to Jesus . . . and lift them off of us and onto Him.” That healing experience and others like it has Ndeshibire excited about sharing the workshop materials with his people.

“Looking at our region, we would like to train 50, maybe 80 people, within the Church . . . so they can help others.

“This workshop has really been like medicine for us.”

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 21

Coping Skills

Those who lead trauma healing workshops are taught to care for themselves in the process. Sometimes, workshop leaders can feel overwhelmed by the “secondary trauma” they experience. This comes from listening to heartbreaking stories and witnessing the powerful emotions that are unleashed when participants allow themselves to feel the pain they’ve repressed for so long.

After leading the first few workshops, Margaret and Harriet sought help from their co-authors, Richard Baggé and Pat Miersma, who advised them to talk about what they were feeling, get adequate exercise and develop other coping skills.

“But it’s not always easy,” says Margaret.

“I think I will never be the same,” adds Harriet. “I mean, I’ve heard too much. I will never forget the people that have told their stories. . . . It’s not our full-time job,” she says, referencing her primary role with the American Bible Society, “but we do it because the need is so huge and immediate.

“It’s just a real privilege to be of any help.”

Laments For Healing

At right are examples of lament poems written by participants of a trauma healing workshop (including several mother tongue Bible translators) in the Central African Republic. That nation has been plagued by conflict, upheaval and anarchy due to ongoing government/rebel fighting.

Oh Jesus, great king!

Have pity on me Remove my sins I am a sinner.

Stretch out your wings Cover your son You are a mother hen Cover your son.

Give me peace Peace in my heart Have pity on me So that I can live.

Oh Jesus, great King You alone are King You have heard my cries.

Many of these children were sexually violated before they found a home at an orphanage in Goma. To help traumatized children, organizers elsewhere in Africa have developed age-appropriate materials and activities and week-long camps have been held in Uganda, Liberia and Togo.

Development of programs for children around the world is a high priority.

22 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

—Francis

Assigned to adapt a song in their language using a verse from the book of Ecclesiastes, church leaders from the Hunde language group sing for their classmates in the trauma healing workshop. When set to music, Bible verses are more easily remembered and touch the soul, contributing to deep healing.

Why this suffering?

Why these wars?

Where do divisions come from?

Where do all these ethnic conflicts come from?

O Lord, I come to appeal to you Please agree to hear my pleas, Oh, my Father Wipe my tears, Father So that I can find the joy that comes from you.

What does the good God do?

Is He asleep? Is He deaf?

Or is He expressly causing all this?

I’ve run around all over looking for peace I do that in the daytime At night, there is nothing but fear My worries are enormous My sufferings are also numerous When will it all end?

In my distress and sufferings Your little voice says: “My grace is sufficient for you, Because my Son took all this to the cross.”

Praise, honour, glory, Give them to our God, our Counsellor.

—Max

I used to go to the healers And even to the diviners, But I didn’t find peace.

It is in you I find peace, Oh Lord, And my sufferings evaporate You have freed me from my worries I’ve found hope again in You And my enemies are all ashamed.

God, you are a great God Is it truly I who got away from Bossangoa?

Thank you, God. My ears still hear the guns and the mortars But my heart is at peace.

God, my feet are tired God, what are you doing?

I’m suffering here for you I’m suffering in the bush.

I am sure that you are always seeing me I always put my confidence in you.

— Elvis, based on what his wife sang as they fled their town

I thank you, Father Thank you for coming to meet me My joy comes from you Alleluia to you Amen!

—David

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 23

Faces Photo Essay

L

ast March, Word Alive photojournalist Alan Hood and I (writer Doug Lockhart) spent six days in the city of Goma, at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda. As part of our orientation to a Wycliffe-related trauma healing workshop being held there, organizers introduced us to two Congolese Christians: Dr. Ahuka Longombe [long-GOMbay] and Thomson Kadorho [ka-DOR-oh]. The two men are dedicated to helping many of the Congolese citizens who have been traumatized during two decades of war, and by the ongoing violence that still plagues much of eastern Congo.

Longombe is affiliated with Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS), a U.S.-based Christian ministry that links U.S. volunteer physicians with doctors in Africa to share knowledge and expertise. At the DOCS clinic in Goma, Longombe’s small team struggles to assist the steady stream of women afflicted by HIV/ AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

All too frequently, DOCS staff must provide emergency surgery too—for women who have been brutally raped. Longombe has become a leading expert on the reconstructive surgery needed by many such Congolese women and girls.

Thomson Kadorho is the director of an Anglican relief and development ministry in Goma. Kadorho led us on a two-day tour of Goma. We were introduced to some of the traumatized people his cash-strapped agency tries to assist.

In the pages that follow, we feature some of the people Alan and I met and talked to, with help from a Congolese interpreter.

Despite varying circumstances, each person we met suffered deeply as a result of the war, continuing raids by armed soldiers elsewhere in eastern Congo, or the pervasive poverty that still has a chokehold on the people of DRC. Some of the details of their lives got lost in translation—but the photographs that follow speak for themselves.

Little Gracia Matabaro (far right) lives with her parents in a small house in Goma. Her father, Nyamuhirwa (right), was just 13 years old when soldiers seized him and conscripted him into a life of violence. He escaped five years later, but after a fruitless search for surviving relatives, he eventually made his way to Goma. Married in 2000, he now earns meagre income by selling shoes on the street. At night, he’s frequently haunted by disturbing memories from his past, while morning brings scant relief from the depression and hopelessness that dog his days.

(Above) In a district of Goma, a woman glances down before taking another step on the rocky path that separates houses—many home to those displaced by conflict—in the area near Lake Kivu. Evidence of past volcanic eruptions—most recently in 2002—is clearly visible throughout the city. One expert quoted recently in National Geographic magazine says the volcano, some 15 km away, will erupt again, potentially transforming the city into “a modern Pompeii.”

(Right) Neema Rugambwa, 19, holds her 16-month-old daughter Esther in their small room at the Anglican ministry centre.

Besides providing temporary shelter for up to 45 women and children, the ministry also provides job training for women.

Neema, whose home is 120 km away in a region still in turmoil, discovered she was pregnant after being sexually violated by an unknown assailant. Esther was born with a malformed foot; the Anglican ministry heard of their plight and arranged to bring them to Goma so Esther could receive medical attention.

26 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

Nalusambo Ndamuso, 65, is a destitute widow who has lived in a dark, cramped hut near Lake Kivu for the past three years. Before the Anglican ministry helped repair her leaky roof, she had to stand in a corner of the hut on rainy nights to stay dry. Married at age 15, Ndamuso bore 11 children; only one, a daughter, is still alive. Ndasumo manages to survive by selling bananas, avocados and other food items to boat passengers and crews at the lakeshore.

(Above) This woman and child live on the outskirts of Goma. Both face an uncertain future, living just a few kilometres away from a rumbling volcano, in a region of the country that continues to erupt in unspeakable violence.

(Right) Vumilia Kasongo reflects on the hardships she’s endured since coming to Goma in 2009 to seek refuge from the ongoing violence in rural areas of eastern Congo.

She’s temporarily living in a partlyconstructed house with her daughter Siuzike [soo-ZEEK] and her baby Bahati (see cover photo), as well as her son Emmanuel (in background).

Emmanuel is blind in one eye, making it difficult for him to work. The family earns a bit of income by selling fish, fruit and vegetables.

28 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

In a small shop in downtown Goma, a woman applies sewing skills she’s learned through classes at the ministry centre. Women attending the program are equipped with marketable skills that help them rebuild their lives. They also gain something less tangible but equally important—hope for the future.

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 29

(Above) A group of women in Goma chat in the courtyard of the Anglican ministry centre while weaving baskets to earn a bit of income. Josephine Mbambu (below), pictured here with the ministry’s director, Thomson Kadorho, is a victim of sexual violence who has made great strides in rebuilding her life and her health since she first came to the agency for help.

Her sewing shop income helps her to support a three-year-old daughter.

30 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

(Opposite page) Cradling her infant son Bahati in her arms, Siuzike Cirwisa gazes at street scenes visible through an open doorway. If better days await her and Bahati, they can’t come soon enough for the 21-year-old rape victim. Thankfully, a compassionate local pastor is watching out for her and her family and pointing them to Jesus—their healer and redeemer.

L e

t

F e

a r

N o

t

R

u

Wycliffe’s Sue Ambrose leans on the strength of God after a physical attack in Papua New Guinea.

Story & Photographs by Craig Pulsifer

32 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

l

tory to SIL to construct their operations centre for work among inland language groups. For 15 years, Canadians Mark and Sue Ambrose have called this place home, faithfully managing STEP, a literacy and numeracy course that equips men and women as effective leaders to help meet learning needs of their own and neighbouring PNG communities (see sidebar, pg. 35).

“In the early days, locals continued to fight and you could see them out there going at it,” says Mark.

“It’s still going on today a little more covertly,” he says, but then looking at Sue, he corrects himself: “Well, it isn’t even that covert, is it?”

Sue’s shoulders drop as she looks down at her hands in her lap. “No, it’s shotguns and rifles now.”

A Fateful Walk to Work

e

W

ere it market day, Sue Ambrose (above) would stop to buy food for 35 students and staff working at the language training centre she helps manage in the valley below her house in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The dirt road would be filled with people going about their business and the day would unfold very differently.

But this day—February 24, 2009—is not market day.

Air starts to thin at 5,000 feet, where the SIL centre at Ukarumpa sprawls across a high tropical savannah of natural grassland. Pockets of eucalyptus and pine trees, planted by missionaries over the past 55 years, hold soil in the hillside ravines.

These are traditional fighting grounds for the Tairora and the Gadsup people—sometimes fierce, vengeance-based societies of dark-skinned, curly haired indigenous tribes—who represent just two of more than 800 language groups in PNG. The local government was happy to lease this disputed terri-

The morning of February 24, 2009, is chilly. It is Mark’s birthday, but celebrations will come later. He is already 90 minutes into a day with STEP students at the training centre.

Back at the house, Sue finishes her email correspondence as the laundry air-dries on the line. She pulls on a thick shirt to match her long denim Later, Sue’s friend will dress and slips on shoes for the kilometre hike wish she had told Sue of down to the STEP traincentre. It is to be an the strange man she had ing office day with books to seen on the road below. balance, and disbursals to prepare for staff and students whose enrolment is subsidized.

Five minutes into her walk, Sue meets a fellow STEP trainer from England walking briskly toward her. The women exchange only pleasantries as they pass. Later, Sue’s friend will wish she had told Sue of the strange man she had seen on the road below.

Farther down at the print shop, where the road doglegs right toward the training centre, a lone Papua New Guinean in his late 20s is roaming the street. Speaking neither Tairora, nor Gadsup, the man exchanges angry words with another man familiar with his dialect. The loner then moves on to harass workers at the print shop. Local security personnel are notified but have yet to respond.

Deep Devotions

Sue, oblivious to what lies ahead, is lost in an amazingly personal time of devotion.

“It was a period of time in my life when I had been spending more time praying and reading His Word, and I had a lot of verses on cards,” she recalls. “I’m not good memorizing, so I just read them and pray them to God as I walk. I guess I’m not always that aware of the life around me—I’m more just . . . talking to God. “That particular day I remember talking about people and issues and life.”

The verse she reads is in three of the four Gospels: ‘Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’

“If I will lose my life and it will cause good,” she prays, “. . . if

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 33

The attack on Sue Ambrose occurred at her and her husband Mark’s place of assignment: Ukarumpa, the centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for SIL, Wycliffe’s key partner organization. Sue was on her way to work at STEP, a literacy leadership training program for Papua New Guineans. The couple manages the program.

“ ‘ If I will lose my life and it will cause good . . . then it’s yours.’ . . . I honestly meant what I prayed, but you don’t expect—OK, it’s my time.”

34 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

people at STEP will know You, or my children will choose to follow You . . . then it’s yours.”

Then all hell breaks loose.

“I heard the footsteps behind me and had no clue what was coming ’cause you really don’t expect—” Sue explains, faltering.

“I honestly meant what I prayed, but you don’t expect—OK, it’s my time.”

The Attack

The slapping sound of bare feet running on packed earth causes her to turn around to see a crazed Papua New Guinean male in mirrored sunglasses charge her with a large machete-like knife raised murderously above his head.

“No!” she cries.

“Yeah, you!” he screams, bringing the heavy blade down upon Sue’s skull with a force that cleaves scalp and chips bone.

It is strange, the connections one makes when in crisis. As the knife comes down, a thought flashes in Sue’s mind as she remembers a former colleague, Edmund Fabian, who was martyred 15 years earlier under similar circumstances: “Oh, Edmund, I’m just like you. I’m going to die.”

Not 300 metres away, at the building site of a new training facility, some 17 construction workers hear Sue’s cries for help.

Women there scatter, as the men race to her aid.

For Sue, the story has gaps here. She recalls fighting back, being thrown to the ground and having the knife lodge deep into her hip. Knowing the man’s mad intent, she grabs the knife

Alan Hood

“ While I was in hospital, God gave me a very clear vision of this angel . . . saying, ‘No, that is enough! I am not going to let you kill her.’ ”

blade, severing her thumb tendon; but she does not recall rescuers subduing the attacker, nor hearing the construction boss shout to spare the assailant’s life (see sidebar, pg. 36).

Friends to the Rescue

Within minutes, a small security truck arrives and four Papua New Guinean men lay Sue on the truck’s open flatbed for a rough, muddy ride to the local health clinic. Shunning cultural taboos against touching a woman or blood, they cradle her with their bodies, shaking their heads and making loud “tsk-tsk” sounds of shame and outrage as they ride.

Providentially, Sue’s long-time best friend, Canadian Dr. Jean Hecht, is on duty at the clinic along with at least five nurses and two other doctors. Notified by security to prepare for a woman with stab wounds, they expect a Papuan; for such attacks are not uncommon among locals. But all are shocked to see their friend and co-worker carried in.

A STEP Towards Transformation Strengthening Tokples Education (STEP) in Papua New Guinea is a literacy leadership training program for national men and women that helps people develop literacy training programs for their own communities throughout the country. Tokples is the country’s trade language word, meaning ‘language of the peoples.’

Designed to break illiteracy and enable the reading of God’s Word where New Testament translation work is underway, STEP is a five-module residency program that hosts students from villages throughout PNG. Students are encouraged to grow in personal literacy and share their knowledge with other community members.

Inspired by 2 Timothy 2:2, STEP trains people to train others in ways that lead to biblical literacy, transformed lives and improved community health and development.

“Papua New Guinea is a male-dominated society,” Sue Ambrose explains. “Women are . . . there to dig the garden and bear children. Throughout the course, we use Scripture to show that women are equally created. God loves them as He loves men and they are to be treated with respect and in godly ways.

“Through literacy training, you teach people to delve into answers for themselves, rather than taking for granted that everything that they hear is true—particularly when it comes to Scripture; but also when it comes to personal and community health care.”

Alan Hood

Construction workers at the building site of a new training facility at Ukarumpa heard Sue’s cries for help as she was attacked, and came to her aid.

“ I don’t think that I ever considered not going back. God has given us the strength to return and it has spoken volumes to people. The response of local New Guineans was amazing.”

The Other Guy Clinically speaking, Dr. Hecht suggests that Sue Ambrose’s attacker may have been dealing with some form of mental illness—schizophrenia or possible drug abuse. He was reportedly listening to “voices” telling him to kill a “white skin.”

Granted, there is a significant level of witchcraft activity in PNG, but Hecht is quick to point out that medical school has little to say on the topic of demon possession.

“Still, it would be nice to know that the young man did wind up receiving the care he needed,” she adds wishfully. But the man was taken to different facilities and his fate is unknown.

Dr. Hecht’s clinical side quickly kicks in to assess and prioritize her patient’s wounds: many abrasions; a damaged hand; a puncture wound near the sternum just below the diaphragm and lungs; and the knife still stuck fast in her hip, which, because of proximity to a major artery and organs, would take considerable care to remove.

Curiously, Sue feels no pain.

“Sue herself was remarkably calm through all of this,” recalls Dr. Hecht. She mimics Sue’s voice: “Oh, hey there. I’ve been stabbed. Would you mind calling Mark?”

By 12:00 noon, Sue is stabilized by the medical team at Ukarumpa and flown by SIL to Port Moresby airfield, arriving around 5 p.m. It takes until 1 a.m. for her medevac to arrive at the airfield and begin her transfer to medical facilities in Australia. Despite multiple delays, Sue does receive further professional care: plastic surgery for the thumb tendon and emotional counselling.

Today, aside from ongoing hand exercises, her rehabilitation is complete.

Angel Vision

Above the doctors, God attends to Sue by showing His loving intervention in a powerful way. Days after the attack, Sue is awake and in bed replaying the event and reflecting upon its spiritual overtones when quite suddenly, she receives a most vivid picture in her mind’s eye.

“While I was in hospital, God gave me a very clear vision of this angel. Not a fluffy angel, but a big warrior kind of guy that was eight or 10 feet tall with his sword raised, saying, ‘No, that is enough! I am not going to let you kill her.’

“And that really opened my eyes to the whole spiritual realm; that this man was part of Satan’s attacks on us, on the training centre, and on the work of SIL,” says Sue. “I got to be a part of

this warfare, but it wasn’t an attack on me. I really felt it was an attack on what we are doing, and this angel stood beside me saying that he was God’s warrior and [was] here to do God’s work, and this attack wasn’t going to happen.”

The agent for the Montreal-based health insurance company covering the cost of care for Sue is stunned by the Ambroses’ plans to return to Ukarumpa just two-and-a-half weeks after being medevaced out. And that seemingly simple act proves to be a strong counterstrike to the Enemy—a living sermon calling others to shun fear and courageously press on in their respective callings.

“I don’t think that I ever considered not going back,” says Sue. “God has given us the strength to return and it has spoken volumes to people.”

To God Be the Glory

In the Old Testament, Joseph told his family who had sent him away into slavery, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20 NIV).

“The response of local New Guineans was amazing,” says Sue. The day she returns, people come with hugs and tears to express their sense of national shame from what the attacker has done and to assure Sue of their prayers for her. Farther up the valley, the unprecedented attack becomes a catalyst for unity, drawing together in prayer local churches with long histories of conflict.

“God is calling us to a new level of commitment and allegiance to Him in this work,” says a STEP staff member with Bible Translators Association (BTA), a national translation organization that works with SIL. “We’ve seen how Mark and Sue have come back and weren’t to be dissuaded. Now, we’ve got to be that committed! This is our country—and these are our people!”

Sue and Mark’s return to Ukarumpa just weeks after Sue was medevaced to Australia was a living sermon calling others to shun fear and courageously press on in their respective callings.

Furlough Postscript

“As I look at the numbers of people that we’ve trained through years of STEP (over 230 men and women) compared to the size of the country, it’s really a drop in the bucket,” says Sue, who is now back in Canada on furlough with Mark in Salmon Arm, B.C. “But whether I go back now or not is not connected to [the attack].

“We want to keep doing what God lays on our hearts and strengthens us to do,” declares Sue. “So far, [He] has allowed us to be a part of what He’s doing there and that’s pretty awesome!”

Sue and Mark Ambrose are living life with humble boldness, modeling an attitude that we all must grasp: let fear not rule.

“ We’ve seen how Mark and Sue have come back and weren’t to be dissuaded. Now, we’ve got to be that committed! This is our country—and these are our people!”

Craig Pulsifer is a freelance writer/photographer based in Salmon Arm, B.C.

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 37

Beyond Words Tongue Tickler

A group of women attending a Sunday morning church service in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, burst into laughter and exuberant applause after hearing their pastor tell a Bible story in their heart language, Nyanga.

Their pastor, a participant in the trauma healing workshop (see pg. 8), normally preaches in Swahili. But as one of 20 Congolese church leaders dedicated to producing oral translations of the workshop curriculum in Nyanga and three other Congolese languages, he used the opportunity to fulfil a homework assignment—to the obvious delight of his flock.

38 Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca

Alan Hood

Last Word Thankful for a Hardy Word

By Don Hekman

I

* * *

This is truly my last “Last Word.” I know that short sentence looks like an editorial slip-up, but here’s the explanation. My two-year interim term as president of Wycliffe Canada draws to

completion at the end of November. From that point on, the “Last Word” column belongs to my successor: Roy Eyre (see pg. 4).

I have every confidence that Wycliffe Canada remains in the hands of excellent leadership with Roy. Not only because of his experience and abilities in leadership, but especially because he walks daily with the Lord, who truly has the last word with each of us.

I encourage you to support Roy in prayer.

On an occasion like this I’m fond of the prayer of William Temple, a long-ago Archbishop of Canterbury, when he entered that role. He wrote: Dave Harder

f you’ve read through this issue of Word Alive, I suspect you felt that it was almost too much to take in. If it was as difficult for you to read as it was for me, think of those who watch, hear about, and report these stories, not to mention those who live them.

We love telling the “impact,” the “result” stories of the efforts of translating the Bible into languages around the world. We love stories that show deep, genuine, heroic character. We love success stories, those that turn out well in the end.

But we hate the pain of getting there.

Some might wonder why Wycliffe Bible Translators is involved in healing the Is there still wounds of trauma at all. enough topsoil Isn’t that the work of the Church and relief, developleft in the violently ment, health and counselling agencies? plowed soil of life Wycliffe ministry resides experiences to at the heart of a culture and the hearts of people. nurture the seed Wycliffe helps those who translate the Word of God of God’s Word? to penetrate the innermost depths of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). When that heart has been torn asunder by trauma, then people need to know, feel, and see that this same Word speaks healing to individuals as well as their entire societies.

For some people, the soil of their life experiences has been so violently plowed and furrowed it’s difficult to know whether there’s still enough topsoil left to nurture the seed of God’s Word.

But thank the Lord, that Word is so hardy, and so penetrating, that when watered with the Holy Spirit and prayer, it can eventually thrive in the toughest of environments. And it changes lives.

The trauma healing movement and its workshops have proven that. May the movement thrive and spread to bring a restoring word wherever suffering has tragically traumatized men, women and children.

“Pray for me, I ask you, not chiefly that I would be strong and wise or any such thing, though for these things I certainly need your prayers. But pray for me chiefly that I may not let go of the unseen hand of the Lord Jesus and may live in daily fellowship with Him. It is so that you will most of all help me to help you.”

May this be our prayer for Roy, as well.

Don Hekman is outgoing president of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada.

Word Alive • Fall 2011 • wycliffe.ca 39

Deliver to:

RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO WYCLIFFE CANADA CIRCULATION 4316 10 ST NE CALGARY AB T2E 6K3

PM 40062756

Help Give Retiring Missionaries Financial Security

A

s Wycliffe missionaries serve around the world, they look to God to supply their financial needs through the gifts of churches and interested friends. We believe God will provide monies for active service and retirement for His people. Recognizing this, Wycliffe Canada has created a new program to help Wycliffe missionaries have enough money for their needs—a retirement matching fund under our Group Retirement Savings Plan.

An initial gift of $20,000 was received to start the fund. Smaller contributions were followed by a significant gift from Canada Institute of Linguistics, our key partner in training, as an encouragement to others to give.

Wycliffe members are encouraged to invest in the Group Retirement Savings Plan, which will qualify them to receive a matching amount of up to 50 per cent of their investment of $100 per month.

Interested donors who would like to help Wycliffe missionaries put aside funds for retirement may contribute to this matching fund. You can make a one-time donation or regular donations to ensure the ongoing viability of this program. Thanks for considering being a partner with us!

Interested? Contact us today.

Take Word Alive everywhere!

Word Alive has gone mobile! You can download and read our award-winning magazine on iPods, iPads, as well as iPhones and other smartphones. Or share Word Alive issues and stories with others via Facebook and Twitter. Visit <www.wycliffe.ca/wordalive/>.

• Email: retirement@wycliffe.ca • Phone: Toll free 1-800-463-1143 (8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. mountain time), ext. 308

• To donate online, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/donate/>

and click “Donate Online.” (In the pull-down menu in step 2, highlight “Retirement Matching Fund.”)

• To donate by mail, use the reply form in this

magazine (see the line “Included is my gift to the Wycliffe Canada Retirement Matching Fund”).

More info.