Author: Simon Bartz, 4 February 2021
Pastor Julia felt she was quite a tough woman. She helped people deal with all kinds of problems as pastor of a church in the Mozambique city of Nampula. But when she welcomed 13 victims of terrorist violence into her house in 2020, even she needed help.
‘I cried because within the group there are children who have lost their parents and now I [had the responsibility] of taking their father’s place, which is not easy or even possible,’ Julia said.
‘One woman saw her husband being killed by the terrorists and couldn't bear it and lost her voice because of the trauma and can no longer speak,’ she added.
All 13 victims were from the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, where 1,500 mostly civilians have been killed in an insurgency by the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab.
In 2020 more than 420,000 people, including the 13 who sought Julia’s help, were forced to flee their homes as fighting raged between the terrorists and government troops, the United Nations estimated.
‘As a pastor I considered myself as a strong person. On the first day I received them, I thought that with simple praying things would change. But when I listened to each one of the victims, in the end I cried,’ Julia said.
Julia got the help she needed though a Bible-based trauma-healing workshop set up by Bible Society in the Southern African country.
‘When the Bible Society organised the training about trauma I went to participate and later I felt equipped to start with healing sessions in my own home,’ she said.
‘This training for me is God answering my prayers in which I beg for help so I can help others.’
Julia is full of thanks to Bible Society supporters whose kind giving enabled the trauma-healing workshops to be set up in Mozambique.
Thousands of people like Julia are now taking part in these workshops. They’re being equipped to deal with emotional pain, and trust God for healing and restoration.
Tragically, the insurgency in Mozambique is beginning to resemble the long-running conflicts that are rife in many countries further north in the Sahel region of Africa. There various Islamist groups including Boko Haram frequently target Christian communities.
If you want to support taking the Bible to remote communities living under the shadow of extremism in the Sahel region please donate to our current Africa appeal.
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