Pastors are often viewed as strong leaders who provide counsel, encouragement, and prayers to their congregations. However, they also need support and healing for themselves. Pastor Tirso “Jhun” Combong, Jr. is one such pastor who participated in the launching event of the Trauma Healing Institute (THI) Mobile App Cebuano-based program in Davao del Norte on March 25-26, 2024.

He was introduced to the Trauma Healing Program by his friend, Pastor Ralph Borro, who invited him to meet Pastor Dave Quir, the mobilizer of the initiative in Mindanao. Pastor Jhun immediately liked the program and thanked the Lord for His intervention. They planned a 2-day Classic Trauma Healing seminar in General Santos City on March 19-22, days before the launching of the audio mobile Cebuano-based application.

“Maliban kay Lord ay kailangan na mayroon ka talagang yung para bang somebody na mapagsasabihan mo para maipalabas kung ano yung sakit na nasa loob mo,” [Aside from God, we really need somebody whom we can share our pains to.] Ptr. Jhun said.

The Classic Trauma Healing session helps participants to recover from their traumatic experiences, while the Trauma Healing Mobile App Cebuano-App Based Program was designed to train delegates to become audio healing leaders who can facilitate small Healing Groups towards recovery. The app works as a co-facilitator for trained leaders and reduces the Classic Trauma Healing session by up to two and a half hours.

“I am excited about it [the mobile app] kasi for me, mas madali na siya as facilitator, mas easy siya kasi mayroon nang audio app na kumbaga magtuturo. Parang co-facilitator yung application,” [I am excited about it [the app] because for me it will be easier as a facilitator because there is already an audio app that helps as a co-facilitator.] Ptr. Jhun shared.

Pastor Jhun then plans to have a series of seminars in coordination with Pastor Dave, to share the program with his fellow pastors and leaders in General Santos City. He is excited about this mobile application and hopes to use it to advance the kingdom of God in the 26 barangays of General Santos City, in the education system, and in the whole of Region 12.

Misty Bodkins, the Master Facilitator of the Trauma Healing Program in partnership with the American Bible Society, also hopes that the app will be very useful to expand the trauma healing ministry in Mindanao.

“Our hope is it’s going to be very useful. We’re still piloting it of course and so we still have a lot of lessons that we’re learning but we are really hopeful that this will resolve some of the barriers and be able to grow and expand the trauma healing ministry throughout Mindanao,” Misty said.

Mindanao is composed of six regions namely Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX); Northern Mindanao (Region X); Davao Region (Region XI); Soccsksargen (Region XII); Caraga (Region XIII); and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“Our hope is that we can train more and more leaders to be able to use this program and they can continue to serve their own communities, their own local churches, their families and being able to bring about not just the Word of the Lord which gives us that hope but be a safe place, a safe community for people to be able to find healing as well,” she added.

The launching event was attended by church leaders, workers, and pastors from different places in Mindanao. Each of the 101 participants had a story of trauma, healing, and an eagerness to help others in Mindanao who are hurting, through the mobile app with their heart language.

Misty added that the Cebuano-based program is still being piloted, and they hope to include Tagalog in the future. “So our hope is that as we continue to gather feedback from the Cebuano app that we’ll be able to incorporate that feedback and then moving forward in the future we can look at other languages, for example, Tagalog.”