I am at my desk, writing this short blog, which I must have done four months ago. I am asking myself both questions, “What’s wrong with you?” and “What happened to you?” Laughter… Well, I should only ask the latter one by training. However, for the last several months, I intentionally tried to answer “What’s right for you?” convincing myself to do more self-care, reflection, and self-regulation. Whisper to me… “Good job!” Smile then, deep breathing…
As the founder of The Faithful City (TFC) and Arizona Trauma Informed Faith Coalition (AZTIFC), I am so grateful for the exponential growth of trauma informed care (TIC) movement with our organizations and other collaborative partners. PACES CONNECTION reported it several years ago, and the advancement of TIC movement has progressed immensely until today. It also brought great fellowship with local and national leaders as we sincerely care for and support one another, collaborating to build trauma informed and resilient communities. Personally and most importantly, my posttraumatic growth journey has continued, increasing my conviction and commitment to healing trauma by integrating faith and science.
In addition to my recovery, I hope this year to be a milestone for restoring TFC, which I founded twenty-six years ago as a campus prayer ministry. I am joyful that the prayer movement is arising again in Arizona, and a campus revival movement broke out at Asbury University, impacting the nation with the move of God. After committing to the prayer and revival movement for the first decade, TFC transitioned into a multi-cultural servant leadership ministry, organizing over thirty community initiatives and events annually. However, the traumatic season of my life drained TFC community’s energy and vitality until I joined the trauma-informed care movement. With the tremendous growth in the movement, however, I re-define TFC as trauma informed faith-based organization that connects and collaborates with many other people groups and societal sectors:
“Weave and Cleave with The Faithful City, a hub of trauma transformed co-journeyers, creating communities of belonging.”
Many years ago, one of my church members told me, “Pastor Yoo, you are a weaver.” In God’s sovereign grace, the people of our community have been weaved from all diversities in the world. The word Cleave is used in the Bible when God instituted the marriage, implying the separation between parents and their children as a newly married couple. In TFC, it means the trauma transformed journey from a life swallowed by pain to a life of posttraumatic growth and resilience. To bear the fruition of this journey, we offer Trauma Informed Discipleship, experiencing unconditional love and constant care in the community.
Building a safe relationship and space is one of the most critical foundations in trauma informed systemic change and cultural transformation. Brain science teaches us that the sense of belonging facilitates perceptual and emotional safety, which nurtures regulation and resilience. With many experiences in training organizational and cultural change, TFC provides Creating Communities of Belonging training of trainers. This training aims to prevent unhealthy coping behaviors such as substance use and build a safe, healthy, and resilient organizational culture.
This training project is grant-awarded by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, one of a few projects the Center for Disease Control supports faith communities in the nation. To build momentum for the project and the movement, TFC will hold a training conference on May 4, 2023. More details will be announced soon, but please save the date (5/04/2023) and join the movement (thefaithfulcity@gmail.com)!
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