Beirut, Lebanon - Seventeen Nazarenes from three countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Field gathered for the first in a series of three lay counseling classes August 4 to 11.

The three-year equipping process consists of a series of one-week intensive training sessions designed to teach lay people the skills of trauma and loss counseling, marital and family counseling, and other related areas of study. Students who participated in the August session will take the second course in 2012, and the final course in 2013. In addition to these intensive class sessions, students work throughout the year, periodically meeting in small groups to practice their skills, to solidify their learnings, and to reflect on how they are utilizing the training in their ministry settings.

Rod Green, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) coordinator for the field, said he first realized a need for such a ministry within local churches when he saw how churches in the Middle East were struggling to effectively help refugees from Iraq who were settling in their communities.

In cultures and nations that are fraught with civil war and unrest, many people need more than simply material help; they need emotional support and healing.

"I went to Lebanon where the young adults were still talking about their formative years spent coping with a 16-year civil war, wondering how the past was affecting their present," Green recalled. "I realized we need help in understanding the emotional scars that come just from living in the Middle East and how regular church folk can offer quality, tangible help."

The instructors were: Tom Gray, a licensed clinical professional counselor, who has served with the Church of the Nazarene in the Middle East for eight years; Karen Gray, an experienced educator and missionary; Rand Michael, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and associate professor and clinical director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at George Fox University, in the United States; and Phyllis Michael, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Warner Pacific College, and a certified family life educator. The Michaels, who developed the training curriculum, have been involved in ministry in the Eurasia Region at various times.

The course included times of instruction, as well as small group meetings in which the participants practiced what they were learning with one another. The instructors also offered one-on-one counseling sessions with the participants so they could experience first-hand the effect of the new skills on those they will be counseling in the future.

"I was able to speak about my worries for the first time," wrote one participant in the evaluation. "I always listen to others, but for the first time I got the chance to open up."

"I have come to the realization that listening actively ... is one of or perhaps the best gift one could give someone," wrote another participant. "I came to this realization when and because I was listened to. It felt great!"

Learning to listen effectively was perhaps the most important thing they could have learned, said Marlene Mshantaf, principal of Nazarene Evangelical School in Beirut, and NCM coordinator for Lebanon. In her culture, she said it is common for people to offer a lot of advice when someone they know is experiencing an emotional or relational difficulty. This sometimes prevents them from listening with an attitude of unconditional acceptance and compassion.

"Sometimes instead of helping others we became an obstacle for others," she said. "In this training, we learned how to listen more to people, how to let them see that they're welcome and they can speak and they can put their trust in us."

God designed people as integrated beings -- spiritual, psychological, physical and social beings, Rand Michael said. So, equipping people at the local church level to offer family and personal counseling allows the church to be more holistic in its ministry to the community.

"As I read the New Testament, it seems to me the Church is to be a holistic healing community, both for those who are part of the Body of Christ and then also healing on out into the community," he said. "As believers, we interact with all kinds of people, and we have access and are networked with people that allow us to be proactive and present with others in a way that professionals are not."

The course is designed so that the participants can go on to train others, multiplying the number of trained lay counselors and making the course a self-sustaining program on the field.

Mshantaf said she already has begun training teachers at the school in the skills she learned, so they can help many of the struggling families who have children enrolled at the school. Green said another participant began to train college age students in his church, who are now eager to enroll in next year's course.

"My hope is that if someone has a problem they cannot handle alone, people in the neighborhood will know to send them to the Nazarene church because there are people in the church that can offer real help and hope for people in troubled times," Green said.