“I am writing this book in the most trauma-inducing year in my lifetime, a year of a million worldwide deaths and local lockdowns due to the pandemic, job losses, food insecurity and houselessness on massive scales, exposed racial injustices, national political and social unrest. Unprecedented wildfires consumed farms, homes, and wildernesses in the west, ice storms overwhelmed Texas, and floodwaters raged in the Midwest. I assume that many of these traumatic experiences have caused pain and grief for you and the members of your faith community as well.

In this book you will be reading about people with different types of trauma, including some who carry unique traumatic burdens. I will help you sort out the lingering traumatic shadows from the pandemic and from your life as far back as your immigrant or indigenous ancestors. We will explore trauma’s initial and long-lasting mental and physical symptomology. And then, we will take a look at ways to heal trauma and build trauma resilience.”