The keynote speaker, Steve Kim, leads the “Project Kinship” project whose mission is to provide support and training to lives impacted by incarceration, gangs, and violence through hope, healing, and transformation.  He knew Pastor David and Maria in California when he was just a youth.  He and his wife and several co-workers came and shared their testimonies of ruined lives redeemed by Christ.

Their stories may seem to not apply to our lives, but we can relate to the same root cause that drives people to turn to drugs, which eventually destroys their lives and relationships.  The common link is the experience of emotional, psychological, and physical pain in our past.

As I reflect on this, parents cannot be fully blamed as you realize they are only passing down how they were raised and how our grandparents were raised, etc.  The cycle of abuse cannot be broken without the intervention of Christ coming into a family and breaking the chain.  God can transform the family patterns and provide healing in broken lives.

The major theme of the conference was this:  If we don’t transform our pain, we will transmit it. Even becoming a Christian will not make a difference until we forgive others from our past and ask God to heal us.  As God gives us a new spirit and renews our mind, we are made whole.  The alternative is to continue in our broken ways and pass on the pain to others, especially those closest to us.

I was amazed at the openness in the speakers’ transparency as they shared such deeply personal stories of painful moments in their lives.   Steven shared about how he had overcome many obstacles to make it to college only to see his college life get ruined by drugs.  It was not just the crisis in his youth where God redeemed his life.  His wife later also shared about a painful situation in their lives.  While amid a furious moment of arguments at a restaurant, they faced the end of their marriage.  They asked each other what was next.  Steven said they each decided to Put God First.  In this way, their marriage was saved.

Thanks to God for the testimonies of changed lives that make an impact for Christ.  May we be inspired to also be wounded healers to others at our church.