I may have been naive when I went to the field, but I didn’t realize how many local friends were going to share parts of their story with me simply because I was safe as an “outsider” to the culture.

I felt a bit like a “barefoot doctor” who missed the training and was far out of my zone of competence. But not outside of God’s. Most likely you do not need to become a professionally trained mental health professional. You do, however, need to learn some basic healing skills, so that when a teammate or local friend needs your help with some aspect of mental, emotional, or spiritual health, you are able to say more than, “Wow, that sounds really tough.”

As we considered organizational health and this month’s workshop, we believe that healthy organizations think upstream and prepare their personnel for situations you will face. With that in mind, it seemed the right time in our Trauma Training series by Kierstie Ersch for TT 103.

Building on Trauma Training 101 (The Basics) and Trauma Training 102 (Secondary Trauma and Self Care), Trauma Training 103 will equip you to do something about the trauma.

You’ve got a handle on what trauma IS (after Trauma Training 101 and 102), now what? What can you do? What are “Healing Interventions?” Intervention is a fancy way of saying “taking action to improve a situation.” So “healing interventions” are the actions we take to improve a situation by bringing about healing. We will cover ways to bring “healing” in the different stages of healing.

We answer the following questions:

—How should I conceptualize healing? What are the stages of healing?
—What cultural considerations should I take in helping someone heal?
—What are healing interventions?
—What are basic counseling skills?
—What are specific things I can do to help someone heal in the different stages of healing?

It’s a familiar story, but you may have missed a key detail. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, was sick and Jesus said it would not end in his death (John 11:4). But it did. Lazarus died and his sisters and friends were lost and confused and hurt. Even Jesus wept (11:35). And then it got a bit surreal. Jesus asked people to remove the stone covering the grave. Can you imagine the smell? Lazarus had been dead for three days, let’s not kid ourselves that he had an odor-free death. And then it got more surreal as Jesus told Lazarus in a loud voice—oh the details!— to come out.

And then it got miraculous. He did.

No surprise that his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. But here’s the detail you might have missed.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:44b)

Jesus invited the bystanders to be a part of the process. Start noticing how often in the Bible people are invited into the process. More times than you may care, you will be invited into someone’s process.

This is just how God works.

It’s beautiful and frustrating and messy and at times, smelly. Can you imagine how shock and maybe a bit of disgust and a bit of curiosity and awe mixed together as Lazarus’ friends pealed literal death cloths off of his three day dead, now alive (?!!) body?

God has, and will continue to invite you to be a part of the growth and healing process of people. This workshop will help you be ready to do more than say, “Wow, that sounds tough.”

Watch the workshop today, be ready for your next familiar, yet surreal invitation from Jesus.

P.S. Today is the last day to take the organizational health survey and be entered to win an Amazon gift card. Take the survey here.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash