We are on the right track! Strategic initiative of CCI/LA –Formation of a multicultural team of professors

Until now, the two professors responsible for teaching these Institutes for Forming Instructors have been two missionaries, two North Americans. The task at hand is to broaden this team of professors in a number of ways. How the top tier of our Leadership development pyramid is being broadened (see arrow):

• Instead of just one small team, we are creating two teams, one for the region of South America and one for Mexico/Central America.
• Instead of just two members, each team will have approx. 6 members, making for a pool of 12 professors to draw from.
• Instead of just one culture being represented, ten will be represented, from North to South: USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

We have started this process and feel God’s confirmation that we are on the right track! A flame burns in the heart of a number of very proficient instructors with a yearning to become part of this multicultural team of professors and they are counting the cost to belong to it. With the exception of three of us, all the rest are volunteers. God did a mighty work just to get these professors to Mexico and He used many supporters from around the Globe who prayed and gave generously so we could begin the process of preparing them to be professors of the IFI.

Here are the professors-in-training:

Gloria Garcia (Monterrey, Mexico)

Evelyn Umana (San Salvador, El Salvador, she's the one standing up)

Rixy Leiva (San Salvador, El Salvador)

We all aspire to be like Bob Sabean, who at his 74 years of age, continues to serve faithfully, impacting our lives with his wisdom, Biblical insights and historical perspectives.

Someone has to lead the games!? That would be me! I love to play, to teach others how to play, and to teach others how to lead games!

What do you love to do?

Tell us about it by clicking on "observations" below and sharing!

Two Institutes for Forming Instructors (IFI) held in 2011

Since 1990, the manner in which we impact children and young people’s lives for Christ is through our Leadership Development pyramid (see figure). Each layer of leadership is developed by the tier above it and grows exponentially with each new camp counselor, program director and instructor formed.

This year, 2011, Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA) has added a total of 29 new instructors to the pyramid (IFI Argentina in January—13 new and one former instructor from the IFI in 1992 “updated” & IFI Mexico in July—16 new and two former instructors from the IFI in 2001 “updated”). The addition of 29 instructors will result in directly impacting the lives of hundreds of camp counselors who will participate in the training courses they will hold throughout Mexico, Central and South America. These counselors in turn will impact for Christ the lives of thousands of children and young people who will attend the camps held by these newly trained counselors.

The impact of these IFI’s will be felt throughout Latin America as viewed in the map since graduates come from nine different countries of Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina).

This July the IFI was hosted by the camp I served at during my initial five years of ministry (1983-1988), Camp Kikotén, Mexico. What a thrill it was to walk around the camp, with my children playing on the same recreational elements that we had built years ago!

I actually got to see one of my co-workers, Julieta Garfias, whom I had not seen since I left in 1988! She was 18 years old when I last saw her and here she is married with two children!

I love serving with the kids in ministry!

What do you love about the ministry where you serve?

Raising the bar!

(Testimonies from the Institute for Forming Instructors continued)

During our Institute for Forming Instructors (IFI) Feb. 1-15, 2009, Jose Climaco, said about Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA):

Every time I attend a CCI AL training event I know I’m going to get evaluated and my shortcomings pointed out, but I keep coming back for more!

I should know better!

I started with Lisa in 1993 when she came to El Salvador and although now I’m a missionary with Assemblies of God, and have served in Peru and Dominican Republic reaching out to children, I love about CCI/LA that they have a high standard. They raise the bar for me and I need that challenge and the accompaniment to change.”

He continues his confession, “my problem has been finishing my homework, writing my thoughts and ideas and mapping out plans, that’s why I haven’t finished my professional studies and so although I hesitated attending this IFI due to my “my human side” being exposed, God brought me here because He knew I needed the push. I will return to my studies the Monday after I return after having stopped for 10 years.”

PS. Since returning to El Salvador, Jose has written all of his fellow instructors indicating that he indeed is finishing his studies. Praise the Lord for the accountable relationships formed during the IFI-3!

Part II Praise Report for Leadership Training-Low ropes course facilitation

“The only way to really learn is to sit in class at the feet of some expert, listen and take notes.”

“So I thought,” says Cristián, “prior to my exposure to Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI /LA). My eyes have been opened, so to speak, to a whole another realm of learning: experiential education!”

Cristián is sitting on the floor sharing his thoughts and impressions as a recent graduate of CCI /LA training for low ropes course facilitation. He is surrounded by leaders from other countries, like Carlos Valladares who is the director of the Bible Institute for Assembles of God—King’s Castle ministry in El Salvador, and Rixy Leiva who is a psychologist in El Salvador, as well as a number of pastors who attended the training as well.

“I have a vision for starting a School of Leadership and I would like to make the use of low ropes course and camp activities a core part of the curriculum,” Cristián further expounded on his vision but also confessed his initial hesitation regarding involvement with CCI /LA.

“I confess, after Lisa’s church came to build the ropes course elements this summer in our camp, I said to myself, “if these CCI /LA training courses aren’t that good, I’ll just come up with my own stuff. Indeed, I went on-line and studied hard to gather materials to create my own training course to teach facilitators. But after these last 4 days filled with 44-hours of training (Sept. 12-15), I’d be

crazy to try and reinvent the wheel! Now that our camp is a member of CCI LA/Honduras, I plan on soliciting one of these training courses every year to prepare new facilitators to run groups through our ropes course.”

“Thank you CCI/LA for putting together such a spectacular training program!”

Well, , this response from Cristián is a direct answer to your prayers!

Thank you for “watching over us in prayer”

Lisa

Cristian during the training course, on the "Chicken Wire Crossing", his third attempt was the charm! as he persisted in crossing from one end of the hanging pole to the other side, in the process, having to hang like a possum!

Lead not for the applause

LEAD NOT FOR THE APPLAUSE

Henri Nouwen’s book, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (1994) took me a few hours to read, but I fear it’ll take me a lifetime to live. His anti-intuitive advice on leadership couldn’t be timelier for me since the question that drove me to pursue further studies has been: How do you develop leaders who develop leaders? Perhaps through this little book, I am catching the first glimpses of an answer, but it is very different from what I expected.

• Do not lead out of your competence, lead out of your vulnerability.
• Do not lead out of your self-confidence; lead out of your fullness in knowing you are loved unconditionally, completely, without limits by God the Father.
• Do not lead like the “Lone Ranger Pilgrim”; lead willing to be hidden behind or alongside of others unseen, not in the spotlight.
• Do not lead for the applause you may acquire; lead others to follow the One you so fervently follow.
• Do not purpose to lead in this manner as if it were a TO-DO-LIST item that you could eventually check off your list.

To lead in this manner is not a question of working harder, or knowing the right model to emulate, learning the right skill set, reading the right books, knowing the right people, growing in my competencies. This, by the way, is precisely how I was approaching my time of studies at Trinity. Thank you Lord for showing me just how misguided I have been.

Nouwen (1994) points out that you can only overcome these temptations by adopting spiritual practices, something akin to learning to run a marathon by diligently jogging and training everyday. The spiritual discipline of contemplative prayer reminds us that being a leader is not about feeling important and competent; it is all about answering the question Christ put to Peter before he sent him on a mission to feed His sheep. Do I love you Jesus? Do I love you Jesus? Do I love you Jesus? Pondering that question reminds me that leading is not about me, it is not about what I do or do not do. It is not about my successes and accomplishments nor about the goals I set and reach. It is all about knowing that I am loved unconditionally and without limits and in response to His first love (I John 4:19) I can guide others to be loved by Him as well.

The spiritual disciplines of confession and forgiveness will keep you vulnerable and aware of your need for others, definitely not traits most leadership books would preach about! Do I make it a regular practice to admit my shortcomings to my team? Not enough since most of them see me as “having it all together.” A friend of ours asked me the other day: Have you ever struggled with this? My husband Alfredo quickly jumped in and described a time in our marriage when we struggled with something similar but I was left with the sensation that even to our closest friends, I can unwittingly project a competent attitude which will inevitably create distance.

Last night a friend of mine asked me how I am and I proceeded to answer her commenting on how I am learning a new way to host short-term missions teams, how much I loved teaching my daughter’s second-grade class about heaven…. She perceptively replied: Why do you tend to comment on the externals of your life and not the internals. You tell me what you are doing but not how you are being.

That made me stop multi-tasking, look at the screen (we were on instant messenger) and ponder. Well, maybe because I usually am asking that question. Two, maybe because I have to start talking in order to eventually figure out how I am really doing inside. That is tough to do on-screen. But what if my two friends’ comments are related to what Henri Nouwen writes about the temptation for leaders to feel important, like when Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread. As a missionary I feel under constant pressure (mostly from within) to promote myself and the ministry. A part of me feels like I have to prove I am worthy of support, that by producing results I am “earning” it. I would do well to write and share what I do on this blog and otherwise out of a profound sense of being loved by God unconditionally, not to impress or gain applause. So the next time someone asks me how are you? Why not refer to my internal state of being and say something like: I am trying to be different. I am striving to be humble. I am struggling to become irrelevant.

No doubt that might make for some interesting conversations.

I would welcome any comments or insights you might like to give me as I proceed in this journey. If you haven’t tasted Henri Nouwen’s books, I assure you will enjoy a feast with this book: In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (1994).

Sincerely trying to be irrelevant,

Lisa