I am like your armor-bearer

Victor Hugo Martinez during the Pittsburgh

Leadership Summit

(July 2013) 

Victor Hugo put his hand on my shoulder, opened the Bible to I Sam. 14:7, and read “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.

Victor Hugo then leaned in and said with tears in his eyes: "I am like your armor-bearer. When you invited me onto the team two years ago, I resisted and came up with many excuses. But here I am today, in Pittsburgh, knit with you, ready to go to battle… and do the Lord’s work.”

Words cannot adequately describe what I felt at that moment. But much like Jonathan might have felt, so I too felt emboldened, given courage to advance with this process of transferring the responsibility of teaching future Institutes for Forming Instructors (IFI) into the hands of the professors.

Just because Lisa says so?

Interaction between Victor Hugo Martinez from Monterrey, Mexico and Dr. Plueddemann:

Jim Plueddemann questioned Victor Hugo: “You traveled to Cuba to teach them about recreation, but why did you bring non-competitive games there? Just because it says so in the books Lisa wrote?"

I was watching this exchange with delight since I have been a “victim” of Jim’s challenging dialogues for years and have benefitted enormously. 

Victor Hugo reacted passionately, leaning in as he spoke:

“Look, Professor Plueddemann, this is how it happened."

"A Cuban guy traveled to Mexico and there he found one of our camping magazines so he got in touch with the president of CCI LA/Mexico via email. Then our president put together a delegation to do a training in Cuba. My wife and I took our 20-volume Games Encyclopedia and although the Cuban leaders initially rejected the idea of substituting their annual camp soccer tournament with cooperative games, after the training camp they were all convinced. They came to that conclusion once they noticed that there had been less discrimination against the women who were no longer just cheerleaders but participants. They told us the story about how one of their churches had canceled having any camps whatsoever ten years prior because their pastors had gotten into a fistfight during a heated soccer match. After attending the “hand-on” training camp where they experienced a camp program that created an environment of camaraderie, full participation, free of rivalry, discrimination, hostilities, and ridicule, these pastors re-initiated their yearly camping program. They invited us to return each year to do the training and each year they invite more and more churches to send their leaders to attend. We have been doing this for four years. “

Leaning back in his chair, Victor Hugo concluded: “That, Professor Plueddemann, is why I believe in and teach purpose-driven recreation.”

Jim smiled and reminded us all of the need to be conversant in the vision that drives us. 

If you have the opportunity to promote our 20-volume Games Encyclopedia to Spanish-speaking people, please direct them to amazon.com where they can place their orders or have them get directly in touch with me at capacitacion@ccial.org
(key words for amazon.com are: ENCICLOPEDIA JUEGOS CREADORES DE AMBIENTE)

What are we going to do when you die?

Victor Hugo Martinez, former Chairman of CCI/LA's International Board of Directors

Testimony from Victor Hugo Martinez, Monterrey, Mexico:

“I looked around the room as our team of professors assembled and a memory came to mind: It was Fall of 2008 and we were in CCI/LA’s International Board of Directors meeting. Lisa had just given us her annual report as director of leadership development and in private I asked her: What are we going to do when you die? Somewhat surprised by my question, I challenged her to build up a second string for when she and Bob Sabean were no longer around. In Feb. of 2009 she invited my wife, Gloria, and a number of other key CCI/LA leaders to serve on the fledging team of professors-to-be for an Institute for Forming Instructors. I never imagined, four years later, I would be invited to form part of that team of professors as well.”

Bob Sabean, missionary with Christian Camping International for the last 48 years!