Even though World Impact’s focus has always been and always will be magnifying Jesus Christ through empowering local churches in communities of poverty, our methods for reaching that goal have changed over the years. What started as neighborhood Bible clubs shifted to church planting, and now to leadership training and empowerment. There are several reasons that ministries change: first, communities change; second, organizations improve to become more effective; third, the Holy Spirit leads; and fourth, people are uniquely called.
We believe that the best way to see a healthy church in every community of poverty is to develop core programs: Church-Based Seminary, Church Planting, Trauma Healing, and Prison Ministry. Each one of these programs strengthens churches and ministries in communities of poverty.
One program I would like to highlight for you this month is Trauma Healing. Since our founding in 1971, we have longed for healing in traumatized communities. However, Trauma Healing as a program has only been around since 2017. Since then, we have gained 112 Trauma Healing ministry partners who are creating trauma-informed churches and ministries!
One of our ministry partners on the forefront of Trauma Healing is The Prisoner’s Hope in Louisville, Kentucky, led by Darryll Davis.
While Darryll was serving 22 years in a Kentucky state prison for wanton murder, God started an amazing work in his life and gave him a new mission. Upon release, he founded The Prisoner’s Hope, a holistic organization that ministers to incarcerated men and women and their families before, during, and after incarceration. Darryll went through World Impact’s Trauma Healing training, which not only helped him heal from trauma he had experienced in his early years and during incarceration, but also gave him the tools he needed to train his staff and care for hurting families in his community.
The Prisoner’s Hope now has a presence in every prison in Kentucky (and some in Indiana) and continues to grow. Without your support, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to partner with such amazing ministries like The Prisoner’s Hope.
– Dr. Alvin Sanders