Today was the final day in Rwanda, and the final day of the 360Life training that I’ve been giving to a group comprising prison chaplains and outreach workers for children living on the streets of Kigali.
As I’ve said before, I love delivering the training and hearing from the participants about the varied ways in which they can see it positively impacting them personally, as well as speaking into their family life, their relationships, and their ministries. So, it’s partly about how they implement their new knowledge into bringing about change and healing in their own lives, and partly about how they use the knowledge to help bring about change and healing in the lives of those they are supporting and ministering to.
The training today mainly consisted of the participants working in pairs to develop and deliver presentations on aspects of the 360Life materials, in a way that would be suitable for the beneficiaries that they work with. For example, one group related it to their work with the children living on the streets, one group delivered it as they would to a group of prison inmates, and another group delivered it as they would to a team of prison officers.
The presentations were fab, and it felt so satisfying and fulfilling to see just how much they had taken the info on board, thought it through, and applied it to their ministry. It was also really insightful to be part of conversations reflecting on how the teaching can play a part in reviewing and updating programmes to prepare genocide perpetrators to be released from prison and move back to the community. This is a process of reconciliation that is still going on, 30 years after the horrific genocide of 1994, and church leaders and prison chaplains are often called on by the prison service to help with preparing both perpetrators and victims. Listening to the prison chaplains today, it was evident that processes of reintegration and reconciliation have not always gone well in the past, and the search for a better way is ongoing. I’m not saying that what I’ve been sharing is the magic bullet, but what was clear was that the chaplains felt more informed and prepared to be able to support those perpetrators and victims better in the future.
If, as a result of this training, even one process of reconciliation and reintegration goes better, then the development of the materials has been time well spent. I’m not interested in creating a big global brand or anything like that with these materials – although if that’s part of God’s plan for it then I’m happy to comply. But if the materials can help to bring about identity, healing, wellbeing and hope for those who have experienced trauma, then that’s a prayer answered. Today, I got another glimpse of how that might be come to be – thank you God for that glimpse.
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