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Petra: stone, rock.

Foundation

Trained teams are beneficial for unity on the eve of crises.
Trainings provide a useful tool to help people become aware of how trauma affects them and the entire Christian community.

The education of counsellors aims at providing the Christian community with an adequate support in a crisis. It strives to make an organized and effective contribution to the healing process from traumas caused by diverse life crises and pressures on their lives.

The pressure, violence, war, losses, and natural disasters lead to traumatic experiences and leave lasting consequences on every individual. Such events and experiences affect families and the Church itself. Unfortunately, Christians in the MENA region have been exposed to traumatic experiences daily.

Addressing the root of the problem involves also a thorough and long-term approach in dealing with the consequences of trauma. However, problems that church face are not solved by trauma training only.

Trainings provide a useful tool to help people become aware of how trauma affects them and the entire Christian community. However, the stage after trauma training should focus on educating Christian counsellors. Their task would be that of providing skilled counselling to the traumatized community in the healing process.

For the healing process to take place, the church needs to be equipped with tools that help face the diverse problems of the community. The counseling school is a long-term strategy in dealing with these challenges. That is, trained teams are beneficial for unity on the eve of crises. It would at any time develop its own capacities and have skilled people to deal with issues, capable of uprooting weeds at the outset, while these are still small. This has advantages over facing a weed jungle.

This kind of assistance in dealing with potential crises should grow into a stable source of support to the community. Namely, precisely the ones who live in the region exposed to traumatic events are also the ones who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to deal with issues on a long-term basis and thoroughly.

The church in its normal operational mode cannot provide sufficient support to all who are in need. Church leaders (pastors, priests, deacons) often have limited capacities in terms of time and available staff. But assisted by trained counsellors they would combine efforts in alleviating the needs in the community by providing timely help to those who are suffering.

What we teach at Petra

School Program