The Seed Company™ - Accelerated Bible Translation

DRC Translators Meet Together

In the November issue of SeedLinks, we published an article about trauma healing workshops taking place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A Scripture-based curriculum and Bible stories are being translated into local languages to bring healing, hope and peace to many who have been traumatized by war. Seed Company partners help make this outreach possible.

Below you can read several testimonies from participants in the workshops who have not only received healing in their own lives, but also are learning how to help others do the same.

Click here to find out more about the Bible translation initiatives in this area.

“Pray the Tembo would have the entire Bible.”

John, Bible translator

I’m John, translator of the Bible in Tembo language. What we learned at this seminar gives us an important tool to heal first of all us personally. I’m one of the traumatized people by the troubles of the war that is ravaging the area where Tembo people live. Our translation office was destroyed, and we’re now displaced people in [a large city] where the work continues now. Everything we learned in the seminar helped us get our emotions out, our feelings, and how to implore God to support and help us. This was a great thing. To cry and lament is a small effort but after this workshop we see it is normal to express these emotions. So we appeal to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they pray that peace could come to our area and that the Tembo would have the entire Bible in their language. And we’re very thankful we already have the print version of Trauma Healing book in our language, and we ask your prayers that this tool will help healing of the hearts of the Tembo.

“I will help them see God isn’t far off.”

Pastor Andrew. pastor and school director

I’m called Andrew, of the Nyanga language, and director of a school in the interior of many children who have lost their parents and their siblings. I’m a pastor, married, father of five children. I came to this training to expand my abilities as a pastor. I’m really thankful to have had the grace to participate in this training. This training is helpful to me because all during this training, the heart wounds that were in me, little by little they disappeared. I had lots of difficulty in my heart and I didn’t know how to find a solution. I was abandoned by my brothers, and abandoned by certain friends, and many of my family members died during this war that we have here in Congo. I’m the only survivor of nine siblings. I felt alone, humiliated. I asked myself how to find help for my heart. But during this training on trauma, I understood I was not the only one who has passed by this period. There are many who have experienced misfortune. But by the stories of the Bible, I learned that God helped others and they were satisfied. So I hope that God is there to console me, to dry my tears. And He will get involved in my life.

I’m ready now to help others who have been traumatized because I myself have found peace in my heart that tells me to have hope in God. God knows when He will console me. The song from Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 consoled me very much. There is a time for everything. The period I’ve gone through [and the] new period I’ve entered.

This will help me help others. I will help them see God isn’t far from them. He will always help them if they stay close to Him. He is merciful and will give us peace until we find total peace if we have faith in Him.

Thanks so much for this training. I praise this training. I’ll pray to God that we will be able to come back together again and continue with this training until we can help many Congolese find peace in their hearts.

“It’s like our people are forgotten.”

Pastor James

I’m Pastor James, native of Kobo. I speak Kobo. I’m happy with this seminar because I came here when they were burning houses in our area. I was asked to draw a picture and here you see houses being burned, a military man who is piercing a woman, a man who’s raping a woman, and the others who are fleeing into the forest. In our area, this has been going on for 2 ½ weeks. … In our area, there aren’t any schools and students don’t study anymore. All our houses are destroyed …. I was chosen as the spokesman of the Kobo at [a large city] and I’m a Pentecostal pastor in [that city]. Really this teaching helps us. When I came here, I was not happy. But thanks to what I have learned of Bible stories, and from the stories we live today … I can go and help those out there who are traumatized. … We think God revealed to you to come here and give us this teaching. Because now as I speak here now, there are people sleeping in the bush, there is cold, there is rain, the children, the raped women, there is no help, women giving birth, we have no help. The Kobo are on the frontier of [two other regions]. It’s like our people are forgotten there. We pray our God to know how we can be helped in the misfortune in which we live. By grace we are saved, because we believe in Jesus Christ who can console and help us. We thank you for coming and helping us with training in trauma healing because that helps us a lot.

“It helped us transcend our pain.”

Lucius

I’m called Lucius. I’m from the Hunde group. I came to this training in trauma healing. I thank you very much for organizing this session because it helped us transcend our pain and our difficulties. And when we return home, we will try to transmit the message to those in our villages. And we ask that this will not be the end. But that those who have financed this training continue to send this team because we see that what they are teaching helps us a lot. We ask that this be given also in other big centers, there where painful things are happening. But we are very happy because first we are healed and we will transmit to those in our villages so that they too will benefit from this training. That’s why we say thanks.

“I need to help others find healing.”

Reverend Pastor Thomas

I am a Reverend Pastor Thomas of [another region]. But I’m here because of the atrocities. I was a pastor of a church that was dispersed because of the war. What I learned at this training will help me help those who are at home. First of all, I’m healed and in my tour, I need to help others find healing using all I used what I learned here. We call all our brothers who can help us so that the war ends. Really we don’t know what to do in Congo. I’m in the interior where there isn’t even a road. But I’ve been displaced here. Sometimes I find a good time to go to the village to see the church. I find that the people are traumatized. They don’t know what to do. There are women who have been raped. Girls are raped. The armed groups are there. We live a very difficult life. We pray to God that He helps us.