Mental Health Resources and Training - Europe

Zalena* felt like she was constantly walking on eggshells. Fear, frustration, and fatigue characterized her every waking moment.

She lived in a small house with her husband, four-year-old child, in-laws, and Tigran*, her schizophrenic brother-in-law who struggles with substance abuse and has been to prison for violent attacks on their family.

But that’s where you entered Zalena’s life!

Zalena attends a local church that conducted a mental health clinic. You are the one who brought that care to Zalena through your generosity to this ministry. You helped believers improve their mental health to care better for the unbelievers around them.

Because of you, Zalena found counseling, helping her deal with the stress of her home life and family situation, and Tigran found the psychiatric care he needs.

After a week on medication, Zalena’s mother-in-law reported on Tigran’s progress: “I feel like for the first time in five years, I have my son back instead of a dangerous stranger living with us.”

Please join us in prayer:

• Pray for Zalena, Tigran, and their entire family as they seek peace in their home.
• Ask God to help churches across Europe shine God’s light into the darkness of depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, grief, and other mental health issues. Pray they have the resources to care for the suffering around them.
• Pray for the emotional health of pastors, church leaders, and missionaries in Europe. Many are dealing with burnout from ministering to their congregations while working outside jobs to support their families.
• Ask the Lord to encourage those in conflict zones struggling with hopelessness.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and generous gifts that bring mental health care to Europeans like Zalena and Tigran. You are making an eternal difference!

*Names changed

Thank you for praying and giving to help reach the Europeans for Christ. We are developing resources and tools to equip believers to feel more confident and able to address the mental health needs around them, such as a podcast discussing ways to approach mental health needs cross-culturally and training on burnout among national partners and Trauma Healing training and groups to help people process painful past experiences. Your faithful intercession and generosity also create materials people can use to engage mental health needs among the lost, such as a discovery Bible study on emotions for adults and teenagers.

God is working. God has given us several opportunities to meet worldwide mental health needs with your help. We are actively counseling 10 clients. Some are not believers, and counseling allows us to speak the love of Christ into deep pain and hurt. We also led a week-long Trauma Healing training, certifying 12 new international facilitators who will lead groups in their communities. In addition, we have continued recording new podcast episodes, including one on caring for those who are dying, and we are publishing and licensing a new course on caring for ministers suffering from burnout.

Over the next several months, God is directing us to expand and develop new avenues for reaching the lost and encouraging believers through mental health. We plan to:

• lead additional Trauma Healing trainings
• write material for Biblical Counselling UK (including shame and ambiguous loss)
• facilitate trainings for people interested in addiction ministry,
• write a Bible story on depression and anxiety
• host cross-cultural counseling students in seminary to offer free counseling in the community under our supervision
• travel to lead training on mental health and trauma with refugees.

Please pray for each of these activities by name. Pray God will use them to communicate the power and fullness of His love, grace, and forgiveness to participants and beyond.

Your gifts make an impact. Charlotte*, a long-term worker in Northern Ireland, recently attended Trauma Healing training. Because of decades of war and religious division, trauma and mental health needs are vast there. Charlotte has already started Trauma Healing groups to care for needs and share Christ’s love with those in her community. Pray for Charlotte’s new Trauma Healing groups to impact the lives of those needing help and healing, drawing many to mental and spiritual wholeness.

Thank you for partnering with us to reach the nations for Christ. We appreciate your sacrificial giving and prayers as we labor together to solve the world’s greatest problem: lostness.

*Name changed