Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 17

1 The force of the tsunami flipped this concrete building, leveling the rest of the surrounding Japanese harbor town near Sendai.
2 Roughly two-and-a-half years after Haiti’s massive earthquake, families were still living in tents. 3 Child advocates with the Restavek
Freedom Foundation often carry caseloads of 50 to 70 children. 4 This American Red Cross photo depicts Hurricane Sandy’s wake.

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work to develop tools and materials that will help churches and
communities in our backyard, across the nation, and around
the world.
With seven faculty fellows across the disciplines, graduate
students from many departments collaborate on projects ranging
from training child advocates in Haiti to interviewing pastors in
Japan. Through HDI’s applied research lab, for instance, psychology
graduate students helped develop a series of Disaster Spiritual and
Emotional Care Tip Sheets in response to Superstorm Sandy for
clergy or laypeople to use when working with disaster survivors—
all available online.
The HDI team also developed the Ready Faith Series (also
available online) to help church leaders get prepared—starting with
steps as simple as appointing a disaster ministry coordinator and
creating a team and a list of volunteers.
The tip sheets and manuals were among the resources presented
when HDI collaborated with FEMA, the American Red Cross,
and the Department of Homeland Security at a Faithful Readiness

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Conference that drew 150 clergy from the greater Chicago area to
Wheaton’s campus last fall.
Currently working with World Evangelical Association leaders
from Japan, the Philippines, and Haiti, Drs. Aten and Boan hope
to develop a “global model of church disaster preparedness and
response” adaptable to a wide range of cultural contexts. “We
would develop a standard framework, tools, and support system so
that in the face of a disaster, pastors and churches would not have to
start from scratch,” says Dr. Boan.
With backgrounds in psychology, Drs. Aten and Boan are
especially attuned to the needs that often go uncared for—wounds
of the heart, trauma from abuse, brokenness of spirit. Visiting Japan
one year after the tsunami, Dr. Aten spoke with an elderly woman
still living in temporary housing, who said, “Anytime someone
from the church visits me, it removes some of the rubble from my
heart.” Even a year later, the ministry of the church mattered to this
woman’s recovery.
This internal-care aspect of the institute makes HDI stand out
in the world of disaster recovery and relief, notes Stephan Bauman
’01, CEO of World Relief. “So often we focus on search and
rescue, medical relief, and the essential needs of food and shelter—
psychological first aid is something we greatly under-appreciate—
which is why I applaud their vision and what they are seeking to
do,” he says.
In response to the tragedy at Newtown, for instance, HDI

Child advocates working with the Restavek Freedom Foundation receive certificates
after completing training in Haiti with HDI’s co-director, Dr. David Boan.
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