Village Voice - October,
2005
SPRITUAL
DEVELOPMENT IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Working with the victims of Hurricane
Katrina has been very rewarding
for me. The victims of Hurricane Katrina will experience many of the
same
battles that I had to face as a victim violent crime. As I listen to
many of
their stories, I am reminded of many of the feelings I had to struggle
with. Every aspect of a person’s
existence is threatened when they are victimized. Receiving appropriate
spiritual support is very important during the recovery process.
Constant
prayer inspired me to discover a path through this maze to healing and
transformation. Personal battles with faith, forgiveness and grace gave
rise to
deep spiritual growth: growth that inspired the development of an
effective
method to help victims achieve healing through the pursuit of True
Justice. A support group for victims of
disaster has
been started to help them on their journey to recovery. Mental health
counselors have agreed to work with those who might need it. Some of the steps along the journey to healing
are listed below.
Listening with Caring
In a time of pain and crisis, we hope
for words that will bring us
comfort, and we cry for understanding. There is a need to have our
feelings
validated. We need to feel accepted, heard and understood in a caring
way.
Listening with caring means being silent and not interrupting as they
express
their pain, anger, confusion or frustration. It is critical to listen
for clues
to this person’s strengths and important life experiences so that you
will be
able to come back to these in the future.
Look for evidence of other times when their use of faith was
meaningful. Look for the strengths
(personal, family, or social strengths) that sustained them through
other
traumatic events. Look for times when
God was significant in their life. These
are vital tools that they will need once they choose to work toward
healing.
Awaiting an Invitation
If we want to help the victim to regain
a clear perspective of their
spiritual life, we must wait to be invited into the discussion. While
they
share their story with us, we look for moments when they shift to
speaking in
the present or future tense. Often the question, “Why did this happen?”
is an
invitation to join in the discussion. Or they may ask, “What do you
suggest?”
Sometimes they will simply shake their heads and ask if there is any
hope, and
this is your invitation to enter into the discussion.
Shifting
Focus to the Solution
Once there is an invitation to
participate in the
discussion, someone with faith, courage and a vision of hope to share
can be
the inspiration for renewed hope, healing and transformation. Grieving
is a
process of repairing and reconstructing one’s life. It takes time,
effort,
preparation, patience and persistence; it takes deliberate steps of
courage to
do.
Spiritual
development begins at first contact. The
problem with helping
victims to experience spiritual growth isn’t when to
start, but how to
start. People experiencing loss can be expected to express feelings of
anger or
frustration. Expressing these feelings and emotions is essential to the
process
of healing. People who are grieving have a deep need to feel they are
being
heard. And although their initial concentration is primarily on the
problem,
this does not change the fact that the solution, too, is within them.
Attentive listening, looking for clues
to where
this person’s greatest strengths lie, patience, and the ability to
recognize
the invitation to offer help when it comes - these are all skills that
can help
us aid the victim in their spiritual development and, ultimately, in
their
development of renewed healing with the painful realities of loss.
Victims of Hurricane Katrina have a
long, painful
journey ahead. There must be healing in
all areas of their lives. As ministers
and victim service providers, we use this foundation of spiritual
development
as the basis for a holistic approach that nurtures and supports healing
in all
areas of a person’s life: physical, mental, social, spiritual and
financial. Helping as well as healing
takes time, effort, preparation, patience and persistence; it takes
deliberate
steps of courage to do.
-- Rev. Wayne Price