Posttraumatic Healing and Wellness

Dear Friend

2013 is a year in which we took many things a little slower than usual, in order to set time aside to seek the face of God, to finish and document our research and to be sensitive to where Inter Trauma Nexus should focus in the time to come. It is now 15 years since the official registration and we are grateful for God’s faithfulness and we give Him all the glory for the people we met and all the lives that were touched by His mercy, provision, healing and hope.

Taking it slower gave us a special understanding of Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) Having the assurance that the peace of God is guarding our hearts and minds was so important in the process of researching specific issues in other faith contexts and world religious convictions.

Inter Trauma Nexus recognizes that trauma and crisis call for local needs-based solutions. A key feature of addressing needs is mobilizing community members to participate in planning, strategizing and addressing the needs of their communities. This type of approach encourages the community to become an active and valuable partner in crime prevention, crisis management, trauma relief facilitation, addiction resilience coaching and helping people to acquire life skills to be able to live dynamic lives. One of the ways to mobilize people and empower communities to respond to crisis and trauma is through recruiting, training, and utilizing volunteer supporters, to serve as valuable resources to their communities.

In the past 15 years, many issues in the community changed, but much remained the same. One of the ever present challenges is the fact that the needs over shadow the resources. Another reality is that leaders, pastors and caregivers are so burdened by the needs of the people around them, that many are severely troubled by ill health, poor personal relationships and financial hardship of their own. These visionary leaders often reach the end of their wits, without anybody noticing.

Much is written about Posttraumatic Reaction, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder. Many of us are working with traumatized people daily and often we are exposed to continuous trauma and secondary victimization.

Let us take care of each other in a new way

The vision of our hearts for Inter Trauma Nexus is to offer leaders, pastor and caregivers a network where we can help each other to be ‘healed healers’ instead of ‘broken healers’. As ‘healed healers’ we can live in the calling of Jesus Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit to help the people around us to ‘Posttraumatic Healing and Wellness’.

The Message says “Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law” (Gal. 6:2). This is a very significant assignment, because it is not limited to the hurting community members we serve, it is applicable to our fellow caregivers. A few verses later we see that, “but the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvest a crop of real life, eternal life.” (Gal. 6:8b, The Message)

Your invitation

We would like to invite you and your team to join us in arranging a conference/seminar in 2014, with the purpose of looking at the current challenges in caring for each other.

The proposed date is the 7th March 2014. Detail issues such as venue, speakers and speaker topic is still a matter of prayer on our side. Please get in touch and let us know what would be valuable for you and your team.

A last note

In the process of reaching out to minister and encourage colleagues, we will be faithful to our commitment to help the people who cross our path to come into a dynamic relationship with God and others. The weekly trauma support groups, training for churches and community organisations and face-to-face services will continue.

We are looking forward to your response.

Wynand & Barbara Louw