From grief to healing for hundreds

Last year Pastor Kandora Jean tragically lost his wife. But this year he’s helping hundreds of people across Bujumbura Province find healing from their own wounds.

Kandora has a lot on his plate. He’s a leader at Peace Church, heads up an association of pastors from different churches, and is father to eight children. Around Bujumbura Province, he’s known as a man of faith and someone people can really trust.

Last year, he was one of more than 30 pastors and church leaders trained in trauma healing by our partner Preaching Ministry Burundi. In a country where so many people carry the weight of conflict, loss and hardship, the training equips church leaders to walk with congregations and parishioners through their pain.

This is more radical than it sounds. Conversations around trauma and mental health are taboo in Burundi, and the effect of this corporate silence can be devastating. Preaching Ministry Burundi uses the innovative methodology developed by another GLO leader, Dr Michel Nsabiyumva.

Kandora faced his own heartbreak when his wife died. Grief gave everything he’d learned a new weight. He now understood, from the inside, how much it matters to have someone alongside you when you’re hurting.

When the Preaching Ministry team visited him this year to follow up, they found that, rather than withdrawing into grief, he had turned it into a force for good. As well as supporting his own community, he had been training other church leaders and walking with people through their own healing!

And it didn’t stop at the church door. When the Governor of Bujumbura Province opened the way, Kandora helped train leaders from all 11 districts in the province. This training supported local officials who settle disputes and help neighbours reconcile. It’s hard to think of anyone better placed to carry trauma healing into everyday life.

The results speak for themselves. More than 500 people have been reached so far, and over 80 of these are now offering the same kind of support in their own communities. The Governor has even presented Kandora with a certificate of appreciation for the work he has been doing.

This is exactly what the trauma healing programme was designed to do. The impact of one person equipped multiplies, as pastors, church leaders and community members pass on what they’ve learned. Churches become places of healing, families grow stronger, and communities that have known division find their way towards peace.

Pray with us:

• That God will keep strengthening the Preaching Ministry’s Trauma Healing programme and open doors to more churches and communities across Burundi. 
• For the resources to train more counselors, so that many more people find much needed support and healing, and go on to become peacemakers in their own communities.