Trauma on Trauma

This girl, we will call her C, was a part of Living Stones for many years. Her younger brother is currently a part. She moved to Recife a couple of years back, but had just moved back into the community of Guadalajara again a couple months back.

As many of our kids were leaving the local high school in early October 2021, they saw from a distance (not too distant) as some men dragged C and her boyfriend out of their house and shot them, point blank, in the head.

***

Covid hasn’t been easy on any of us, but for the kids in Brazil that go to public school (anyone who cannot afford private school), they didn’t have any school at all for over 500 days. Even when schools began (fully in August 2021), it has only been a couple of days a week, in the morning or the afternoon in person. The kids nor the teachers have the ability to actually do online schooling.

Churches were closed for a long time, and then only allowed to open for those over 10 years old and under 65, effectively keeping children’s ministries closed (and for families that had any younger children). Sports were not allowed for much of this time as well.

In Guadalajara, the parents went back to work, but the kids had nothing to do for over a year and a half. They would hang out in the open square, and many of them formed a dance team. They’d gather with their friends and dance to pass the time. Many of them are now finding it hard to go back to school and a schedule that is not their own.

Living Stones was able to start for a couple months in the spring of 2021, but then closed down in May. They weren’t fully (like the public schools) able to resume until August 2021. The local leaders have found that around 10% of the kids that normally came are not doing much of anything: not going to Living stones, not going to school, not hanging out with friends. When they visit the children, their parents, with sad faces, tell them that their child just doesn’t want to leave the house anymore.

Words like “Depression,” “Anxiety,” and “Trauma” are still new to many of these families and children. Mental health is not talked about much, especially in the more rural areas of Notheast Brazil (the poorest part of Brazil). Many of them don’t know how to even begin talking about all the feelings and changes from Covid, let alone find help.

***

And now many of the Living Stones kids are dealing with seeing their friend murdered before their eyes. Please pray for our local leaders, that they would have the words and opportunities to talk with these children. Please pray for C’s little brother, and his family as they grieve. Please pray for the 10% of so of the children who are suffering from depression and other mental health issues.

Please pray for us to get some really good trauma help training for our leaders, and resources (in Portuguese) to them to be able to use while they minister and make a difference in their communities.