Armed
robbery at home and on the road, civil and religious rioting,
serious car accidents, death of a child or spouse, house fires,
kidnapping/car jacking, emergency evacuation from a country,
life-threatening illness, rape, personal assault – such are the
critical incidents that happen to missionaries around the globe and
with increasing frequency. Surprised? Unfortunately, most of these
have occurred in Jos, Nigeria within the past five years to our
fellow missionaries.
Over
the past several years Rosie has been a part of a ministry known as
Member Care. Member Care
involves coming along side fellow missionaries as a source of
emotional support, physical assistance, and encouragement during
difficult times.
Several
years ago a group of missionaries in Jos felt the need to band
together to reach out to one another during crisis events and
difficult circumstances. Mission organizations around the world have
recognized the need in recent years to better care for their
missionaries. This may involve ongoing pastoral care or assistance
during a crisis event. Yet,
often one’s mission headquarters in the sending country desires to
help, but due to distance, immediate intervention is often
impossible.
Sensing
the need to help ourselves, several missionaries from various
organizations met and organized a Jos member care team.
Over the years we have met to continually assess our needs,
educate and equip ourselves, evaluate our strengths and giftedness,
in order to enable us to serve one another. Presently
we meet monthly with each mission organization sending their
representatives. Little
did we know at the time of our inception what was in store for the
Jos community over the next several years.
To
be trained as a Peer Responder, Rosie attended a workshop in
Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2002. Rosie
was equipped to be a proactive, compassionate care giver to a victim
of a traumatic event. The
training included basics of crisis care, assessment of victims, the
“how to’s” of a critical incident debrief and referral.
Since that time, Rosie has used her training to debrief
individuals who have experienced assault during armed robbery in
their homes, car jacking, and political unrest involving evacuation,
to name a few.
In
October Rosie will attend a follow-up workshop in Accra, Ghana, for
further training. Thank
you for making this ministry possible through your partnership with
us.
Bearing
one another’s burdens,
