“Remembering God’s Love in Any Crisis”…

…Was one of the main takeaways for the widows. On the last but one day of the conference, we focused on the hope found in God’s Word.

“For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 (GNT)

As you will see in the attached short testimonial video clips, many of the widows testify about how a fresh understanding of Romans 8 directly applies to their plight as traumatized women. During the “creating a live picture” exercise some of them highlighted the specific part of the passage that is most meaningful to them. During the session, many groups were called up to the front to create scenes with their bodies or make hand gestures depicting their understanding of the text. Such gestures ranged from pointing upward and downward, then crossing their arms as in “no” for expressing neither the world above nor the world below. It was a beautiful site to see as they moved the crowd with their emotionally and spiritually charged expressions of renewed faith in God’s Word to help them in their trauma.

A Summary of the Entire Trip:

On Tuesday, January 22, 2023, the team of three – Mark Smith, Winnie, and Arllen Ade – traveled from Washington through Germany, to Nigeria. Due to a flight cancellation in Frankfurt, the conference was delayed by one day. Instead of starting the training on Tuesday 23rd, it was started at 8 AM on Wednesday 24th with over 400 trainees in attendance.

Fifty-five of the 427 trainees were assigned to 1100 widows for continued trauma care. There were 55 groups formed of 20 members per group. From among the 20 members of each group were designated 2 individuals (group representatives) through whom the trauma trainee works with his or her group. The trainees were called to the stage along with their two group representatives (three people for a group in all) so everyone could see who their leaders were. The names of the three people were collected by the Ambassadors team to provide them with ongoing further assistance.

Regarding the assistance promised at the training, we encouraged them to enroll in our next Levels 1 and 2 online course which started on February 10th. To ensure that they don’t fall off the course due to anticipated internet connectivity issues and language barriers, each of them was assigned a mentor or peer-support from our 17 Jos-based graduates who completed Level 3 in August 2022.

Eleven graduates who were selected from Jos have been assigned to 55 trainees. The Jos graduates are serving as mentors who help the trainees in their personal mental well-being. They are also assisting them with the challenging issues they face with providing ongoing trauma care for the widows assigned to them. The 20 people they are serving would also be their ongoing practicum opportunity throughout their participation in Levels 1 and 2 courses online. This course has been going on since February 10.

 

Here is a summary of the trauma training, care, evangelism, and food distribution sessions:

  • Trauma Care Widows and Food Distribution: The total number of widows registered for trauma care and food distribution was 1,645.
  • Trauma Training: The total number of trainees (pastors and lay leaders) is 427. Worth noting is that 97 unregistered additional people attended, amounting to a total of 524.
  • Salvation Cards: The total number of those who gave their lives to Christ is 36.
  • Online Continued Education: The total number of those who indicated interest in continuing with Biblical counseling education and are currently attending the online course is 70.