Dr. Dan Allender and a team from The Allender Center at The Seattle School spent last weekend partnering with Ecclesia church in Houston. They spent time speaking and ministering to individuals who had experienced many levels of trauma during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Here, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton (MDiv ’10) share a message with the Ecclesia community entitled “A Path Through the Waters,” based on Psalm 77. They invite the congregation to consider the effects of fragmentation, numbing, & absorption in their lives.

We invite you to share this video with others who have experienced trauma due to natural disasters across the country and across the world. We also invite you to listen to what the Spirit might have to say to you.

Highlights:

Dan: You need to be able to name the nature of trauma and the reality of what comes in the experience of trauma.

Rachael: We’re comfortable with songs of joy and rescue, and we can even handle songs of lament over our own sin because at least there we still have some volition. But to actually step into what this Psalmist is inviting us to takes a tremendous amount of courage, faith, and hope.

Rachael: Jesus was not unfamiliar with trauma—not just emotional but physical trauma.

Dan: This is the season in which evil knows it can take great ground as you struggle with what you have endured.

Rachael: You need to be people who grow your capacity to let joy and sorrow be sisters in the same home.

Dan: Jesus literally walked us through the waters of death, and the promise is that death will not have the final word.

This video was originally posted on Ecclesia’s website.