The God who lifts shame and brings healing...

The story of Joy Sarah

July 4th, 2009 was a special day. Yes, that is the day we celebrated independence in the USA but on this day in Beni, DRC Pastor Abrahim and his wife Joy Sarah celebrated 17 years of marriage. On the left is a photo I took for them in recognition of the occasion. Both had come to our conference which was for caregivers who work with abuse survivors . At this conference , Joy Sarah shared with me how she as a child was chronically and severely abused and further more, to her regret she had done the very same thing to her 17 year old daughter.

At the conference we had a session that taught on toxic shame and how it belonged to the abuser and not to the abuse survivor. In typical African fashion, the attendees wanted to hand over there and then the unhealthy shame they had carried for years. So we held a service where the attendees wrote letters to their abusers handing back their shame to them. Then we took these letters and placed them at the foot of a wooden cross we had built to symbolize that while we hand back the shame to the abuser (which physically could not be done) we could surrender that shame to Jesus. One after another, the attendees came and placed their letters at the foot of the cross. Abrahim , Joy Sarah and even Joy Sarah’s daughter all came and surrendered their letters at the cross. After everyone had done this, Joy Sarah and her daughter were left at the cross - they were embracing each other (photo on right - daughter in red t-shirt). They had forgiven each other and were just weeping and weeping and hugging each other. They were there for a very long time. The service ended almost an hour and half later - we ended African style with lots of singing and dancing - celebrating the freedom from shame everyone was experiencing. It was an incredible celebration and worship of God!

We worship a God who can heal the deepest of wounds and restore hope, freedom and relationships. The story of Joy Sarah does not end here. Last week I heard that she now has 9 (yes, NINE) classes (based on the Mending the Soul workbook material) for traumatized children and one similar class for married couples. Joy Sarah is an incredible woman of God who has embraced the healing in her life and is now allowing God to use her to reach out to many, many wounded and help them receive God’s healing.

Our God is an awesome God!