Starting To Help Hurting People

Many of us really love and feel for those around us who are emotionally wounded. We honestly want to help them but don't know how. We may become discouraged and feel helpless and inadequate. That is good - we are! But it is Jesus Christ who does the healing. We are simply the channels for His grace and love.

You may, however, have tried hard to be that channel to them, but have become exhausted and burnt out, and the church members around you may be exasperated at the lack of progress in spite of the hours of help invested in them.

We can help you here. We believe that the Lord has chosen the church to be His hands, feet and heart in these situations; not individually but together. It is as a group of people surrounding the hurting person with unity and strength that we can, together, provide the stability and atmosphere of trust that is the necessary environment for healing to take place.

The "Walking with the Wounded" team can help you here. We can help your church, under the covering and consent of your church leader, form a caring and committed group around the wounded person, and walk them into freedom using the resources we can provide. However inadequate and untrained you may feel, as long as you are prepared to trust in the power of Christ in all situations, and are aware of and working on your own personal issues so that they don't become "entangled" with those of the person you are trying to help (so it helps for each person concerned to have gone through the Steps themselves) you will see results. It is not us, of course, that does the work of healing and grace, but Christ.:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."
Luke 4:18-19 (quoting from Isaiah 61)

We firmly believe that Jesus wants exactly that to happen in your "ordinary" church using "ordinary" Christians. Consider this testimony from one of our own staff members who now spends her time equipping churches:

"I know what it's like to be one of those very needy people that churches don't know what to do with. My personal story includes the journey to recovery from years of abuse and "dissociative identity disorder". I know what it's like to be seen as 'weird' or 'an interesting case'; to have nowhere to live and nothing to eat. I've been there.

I have received incalculable help from the ministry of Freedom in Christ working through a local church of just 22 people and seen Christ resolve what seemed to me like absolutely insurmountable problems, leading me out of hopelessness into fruitfulness. There is nothing too difficult for Jesus."