From Trauma to Triumph 
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NIV)
The following is the testimony of one woman whose family came to know Jesus through unexpected ways. The story is edited for clarity and in order to protect the privacy of those involved.
I am a wife and a mother to my five beautiful children. Back when our family didn’t know Jesus, we were living a good life - a very normal life, I thought. But everything changed when my second child reached out to me and confessed that my husband, her own father, had raped her. It was so painful. She kept it to herself for some time because she had no strength to tell me. She kept the truth from me because she feared her father and she feared what could possibly happen to her family.
This brought a great trauma, not just to my daughter, but to all my children. I confronted my husband, and I reached out to social workers for help. Later on, my youngest daughter confessed that she was raped, too. It was really painful for me. I knew what I had to do. I had to protect my children. So, I filed a case against their father and, thankfully, I won. Justice was served and he was put in jail.
Our family isn’t rich. We only have enough resources each day to meet our needs. Having no father to provide for the family was hard, but my eldest daughter did her best and was able to work abroad. She became our family’s primary support. While my husband was in jail, the case was investigated further and we found out that even my eldest daughter was raped. This had become her deeper motivation to strive to support us. As a mother, I couldn’t believe that my three daughters experienced this from their own father. If only I had known, I could have done something to protect them.
We decided to leave our home and moved more than a thousand kilometers away to start afresh. My children, especially my youngest daughter, suffered a great deal of trauma. I became overly protective of her. I didn’t allow her to go out of the house without my knowledge. I wanted to know every detail of where she would go and who she would be with.
Our house is near a newly planted church. My youngest daughter’s friend invited her to attend the church. I, being protective of her, didn’t allow her at first but she really insisted. The social workers told me that she must be given the best care and treatment, as she had experienced the most trauma. I was fairly aware that the trauma she experienced wasn’t something to be taken lightly. So I made sure that she was secure and her needs were met at all times.
My children and I came to an agreement that my daughter could only go to the church if my younger son went with her. My son didn’t want to accompany his sister at first. He didn’t want to be involved in a Christian church and had no interest in any Christian activities, but he had no choice. He wanted what was best for his sister. They began attending the church.
While the two of them continued going to the church, my daughter came to know and accept Jesus in her life. She was the first in our family to become a Christian, and we saw God work in her life. Eventually, she became a way for her brother to also know Jesus. I witnessed how they were both in love with God and the church. I saw how their lives were changed from trauma to triumph. It wasn’t just me who saw the transformation in them; their other siblings and the people around them saw it, too. They were really transformed from the inside out and it was contagious.
One day, my older son expressed to me that something in him was telling him to attend the church. He told me that he wanted to try because it seemed to him that the people inside the church were happy and they treated each other as family. I told this son that he could not attend that church unless he went with me.
By God’s plan and perfect timing, our whole family came to know Jesus. We accepted Him as our Peace, our Rock, our Lord, and our Savior.
Before, I only heard the church sing and praise Jesus from my house while I watered my plants. Today, our whole family sings and praises Jesus with that church. By God’s grace, we are all involved in the ministry. God used the church as His way for us to know Him and to have Him heal the great trauma that my family experienced. To God be all the glory!
This is just one of the many stories that God uses to show the importance of church planting. Abuse, anxiety, depression and trauma are very prevalent nowadays. Remember that your church could also be God’s way to help heal the trauma of the people around us. So let us be the church that PRAYS, CARES and SHARES JESUS WITH THE WORLD! Let’s continue to do the TASK of multiplying churches.
