I was born in Ibuye, situated in the Ngozi province in Burundi. I was the second generation to be born in that house, close to the border to Rwanda and built by my grandparents\u2019 hands while he discipled a group of men in the art of building and following Jesus. My arrival was not met with fireworks but with the sounds of turbulence and riots which became the genocide across Burundi. Friends whose cars were packed to the ceiling with all their possessions, tried to escape but were shot dead next to us. My parents, brother and I managed to leave via Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, with each nation providing short term safety and support for my parents who were terrified.<\/p>\n
The memory of this became an unspeakable story of my early years that was never mentioned to me but discovered slowly with tiny snippets of memories being extracted from my parents by my adult children as they sought to find the treasure of stories of my childhood. My mum\u2019s challenges to recover from this nightmare started my journey of determination to support missionaries with their journey of recovery from trauma. The passion is for those traumatised by such experiences to become the hero in their own story as they push through the pain, terror and turmoil of memories towards transformation and healing where they can look back and marvel at their courage, strength and determination to survive. Ultimately the normalised \u2018pushing it down and getting on with life\u2019 attitude that society encourages causes a problem that is brewing in the subconscious. Campbell describes this experience and the impact of it as \u2018the lines of communication between the conscious and the unconscious zones of the human psyche have all been cut, and we have been split in two\u2019.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Joseph Campbell describes the Hero\u2019s journey as a monomyth, which is almost a predictable cycle of life experiences that propel humans forward towards transformation. Within Cambells route map, he asserts that each new life starts as an innocent \u2018blank sheet\u2019 of freedom and innocence which is disrupted by a crisis that sends us into an exile. I would challenge the sense of uniformity of that fresh, new innocent starts with the knowledge that each human who has been traumatised in the womb starts their life on earth with essentially marks of the experience held within the depths of the unseen part of their humanity. The gene itself doesn\u2019t change but the trauma changes how the gene functions. While some people can start their life with a positive womb experience of being nurtured with the sounds of singing, laughter, words of love and excitement, others knew a womb life that was full of trauma. Already we see the contrast for babies with vastly different beginnings on their paths of the journey of life, right from their first breath. The good news is that trauma recovery is possible, even at this genetic level due to our high levels of neuroplasticity and the knowledge from decades of research revealing methods of stimulating growth, change and transformation.<\/p>\n Campbells monomyth lays out the probably map of being alive which moves from birth to the sudden interruption of a crisis which sends the hero into exile where they must overcome the challenges and face their fears and the threatening possibility of failure, shame, abandonment, rejection and pointlessness. As the hero reflects on their desire to go back to their innocence and pretend this crisis had never happened, they face a threshold experience of doubt, dis-ease, panic and fear. It is here where the testimonies of others who have walked a similar path can bring comfort and hope that through the other side is the ability to have found meaning and return to their community with new capacities and rich experiences that have formed their sense of self and where they fit into the world. This model of pushing through the mess and darkness of disappointment, challenges and confusion towards growth and transformation is a theme within the Bible as writers urge us to stop avoiding the pain or moan about the obstacles in our path but instead view suffering as a temporary challenge that is incomparable to the \u2018glory that is to be revealed to us.\u2019 Philippians 3:10.[2]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>Carl Jung coined the term \u2018shadow work\u2019 to describe the courage to face the hidden parts of the self, acknowledge the secrets, face the pain and process the experiences that were ignored or denied until a sense of acceptance takes place. The acceptance doesn\u2019t deny the reality of the pain but is now able to propel the person into the transformative element of peaceful integration of their story into their sense of self.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The person who chooses to be the hero of their own story does not wear a cape and is not celebrated on large stages with fans, but is the one who chooses to allow the Creator to heal, transform and re build from the mess and darkness of difficult experiences, so that they can reveal the transformative power of the only Hero we have who deserves worship, which is Jesus. He modelled descending to the pit of hell to defeat darkness to empower us to see transformation of the pain and agony that faces many within the human life. The assertion that \u00a0\u2018suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope\u2019<\/em> is a prominent theme throughout The Bible and fuels the path through pain to find the purpose and meaning from within it.[3]<\/a> I had a book published in 2007 called, \u2018Making Your Mess Your Message\u2019 that details the journey of transforming the emotional pain, which is sometimes hidden within the depths of a humans soul and distant from their conscious awareness of self, but impacts decisions, behaviours and thoughts through its invisible filter. It has been a passion of my life to support those who support people walking through the depths of darkness towards the light of hope and recovery and able to make meaning out of their experiences. To do that work I too have to face my own shadows and courageously walk through my own pain and struggles through to a sense of integration, wholeness, honesty and authenticity which I hope leads to being more like Jesus.<\/p>\n PS. this has been written on my phone as I am away from home at a conference. Sadly, the one laptop that I brought had a bottle of water spilt on it, so I\u2019m using my phone which doesn\u2019t enjoy spacing or footnotes. I apologise.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Campbell. Joseph. The Hero with.a Thousand Faces. (Third Edition. Novato. CA: New World). 334<\/p>\n