Our Curriculum Arrives Today
For a week we've been learning how to use life mapping, reframing, and personality matrix assessment tools but when Greg and Jennifer, Jeff and Lisa, Paul and Susan, Elliot and B'linda, Pete and Cheri, Denise, Andrew, Annie and Emily arrive at Bear Trap Ranch this afternoon
they are the curriculum. Their needs and what God is doing in their lives as he prepares them for their next step with OC will dictate the flow of this summer's OC Internship.
Learner driven training forces us to really listen to those who are being prepared and to be sensitive to God's leading...which is much more challenging than merely moving through a lesson plan. We're particularly excited to work through this process with a great team of our OC colleagues, some of whom we'd never met before even though they've been with OC even longer than we have (they were in Asia and our paths had never crossed in the last 14 years, until now).
As our fearless leader Steve Aldrich says, "It's gonna be a GREAT summer."
Why Is Our Apt. Empty?
For the next month Annette and I will
not be in Buenos Aires (B.A.), but in the mountains of Colorado getting hands on training in mentoring. "But why Colorado?" you might ask.
To answer that we need to go back a bit. When they invited us to Argentina it was to be mentors of the youth leaders who will be going through the program at the institute... kind of like the youth leaders for the youth leaders. As part of our preparation we are spending a 5 weeks as part of a mentoring program for OC International's new staff, all the while being coached and mentored by Steve Aldrich, an expert with decades of experience in this field. Our hope is that this mentoring apprenticeship will equip us to be more effect in our role in the youth ministy institute. Please pray with us for that.
We don't return to B.A. until July 17th and 7 days later we head off to Cochabamba, Bolivia for three days of leading workshops at the national youth leaders convention. This is the 6th year in a row that we've been invited but the first time we're able to participate. Some of you may remember the only other time we tried to go to this Bolivian event, the airline we were flying on went bankrupt and we were stuck in Chile for 7 days.
When we return from Bolivia we have a week before we leave for Guatemala for an annual youth leaders convention - 2000+ youth leaders from all over Central America. We'll also be in meetings with the Guatemalan team helping start the youth ministry institutes we're a part of. We get back from Guatemala and 9 days later we leave for Lima, Peru for a Raíces congress where we'll be doing in-depth youth ministry training for around 350 dedicated leaders. Wow, I'm tired just typing out that summer schedule :-)
or 
Learner driven training forces us to really listen to those who are being prepared and to be sensitive to God's leading...which is much more challenging than merely moving through a lesson plan. We're particularly excited to work through this process with a great team of our OC colleagues, some of whom we'd never met before even though they've been with OC even longer than we have (they were in Asia and our paths had never crossed in the last 14 years, until now).
