“The conference has offered me a long-lasting refreshment. I am still in contact with some of the pastors I met in the conference; they help me to continue learning. My friends say I have became stronger since I attended the conference. I try to apply what I learned in the conference. Every day I learn something new.”

“I was very encouraged by the invitation to this conference and I am very encouraged to hear that my story is shared and that people pray for me. You can’t imagine how much it means to me to know that I am not alone in this.”

“It was a joy for me to visit part of the conference. As a former prisoner, I have often felt alone and thought nobody cared about me. This conference proved me wrong. In daily life I find it difficult to talk about my time in prison; it’s a horrible story. And as a leader it’s a big temptation to pretend you are stronger than you actually are.”

“In the conference I met people who went through the same experience as me. We understood each other. We learned from each other. I cried a lot, but I was also comforted a lot. To heal from my experience is a painful process. Some wounds are healed, others not yet. But with the experiences and teachings at the conference I have become stronger, also as a leader.”

“The conference has been a good start to my healing process. Day by day my wounds are healed more. After my imprisonment the stress of the memories caused me to suffer from dizziness. After a while this disappeared, but it came back when I started counselling fellow believers, a task that included lots of emotions.”

“In the conference I learned how to create a safe space for myself. While I am counselling people, they sometimes drag me all into their problems. Now I have learned to keep a certain distance. In the long run this will mean I can do more for them. Creating this safe space has helped me stay healthy in the last months while I continued counseling and there was a conflict in church. Despite the many emotions, I stayed physically and mentally healthy. I wasn’t dizzy anymore.”

“Sharing about my prison time also reminded me about the lesson God thought me there: ‘Be silent, I will be close to you.’ I try to apply that lesson to my life again. I don’t want to speak up anymore just to receive recognition from other people. I don’t want others to see me as an important person because I spent time in prison for my faith. I am no more than any other Christian: I need God, just as all of us do. And I need Him now too. So I try to focus on Him first.”