The initiative developed from a conversation with Pastor Leo Espa\u00f1a, president of the Albanian Mission. He contacted Karen and Helgi to discuss the need to train local church members to offer a telephone listening service for the people of Albania. <\/p>\n Many Albanian citizens are living in very strict lockdown conditions, losing their jobs, feeling isolated, experiencing family conflict, and becoming very anxious about COVID-19. By Tuesday the message about the webinar had reached both the ADRA Europe office and the Inter-European Division. They were equally wondering how to train people to be effective and caring telephone listeners. <\/p>\n Holford and J\u00f3nsson rose to the challenge. Holford adapted a workshop on listening that she used in relationship training and blended it with J\u00f3nsson\u2019s ideas to create a simple webinar. Their first attempt at Zoom training was recorded so that it could be shared with other groups. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a finely polished presentation, but it\u2019s packed with useful information to help those who want to be channels of God\u2019s love into the lives of distressed, anxious, bereaved, confused and lonely people,\u201d Holford states. <\/p>\n Alongside the webinar recording they also provided handouts on listening well, a draft \u2018script\u2019 for a telephone listening session, and information on assessing the risk of suicide. <\/p>\n Several other groups have now shown interest in this listening project. \u201cEveryone can learn how to listen better to the people around them,\u201d J\u00f3nsson reflects. \u201cWhen people experience the care of a good listener it helps them to feel less alone, to feel comforted, to sort out their muddled thoughts, to reduce their conflicts and to experience the loving and generous care of another human being.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe think we don’t need to learn<\/strong> how to listen, because we\u2019re doing it all the time,\u201d said Holford, \u201cbut often we\u2019re not really hearing<\/strong> what others are saying to us, let alone listening deeply<\/strong> to their thoughts and concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n This listening webinar offers lots of simple ways that everyone can listen better, with their eyes, ears, mouths, minds, hearts, and hands, in ways that can really make a difference to the people who need someone to talk to.<\/p>\n Her challenge: \u201cWho do you need to listen to today? Why not call someone who lives alone and give them the special gift of listening to their fears and concerns?\u201d<\/p>\n The listening webinar can be found among the Family Ministry resources on the live:kind section of the TED website<\/a>. Scroll down the page, past the live:kind ideas, to find both the webinar and the handouts. On request, the files can also be made available in a format to facilitate translation to other languages.<\/p>\n![\"listening](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/images_news-2020_listening_well_webinar.jpg\")
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