Part 2: What I learned in the IFI Argentina (2011)

Karina Echavarria de Zara from Marcos Juarez, Argentina

Karina serves as a pastor and has traveled through-out Argentina and Brazil ministering in song, she shares a bit of what she learned.

I was welcomed with games

I was taught with opportunities to practice what I was learning.

I was accompanied in love.

I discovered God’s design in community.

I was prompted to take a “leap of faith” (really a trust fall).

I was oriented with the teacher’s guides.

I recognized my need to grow through supervised practices.

The evaluation sounded like a sweet melody.

My perspective on God and His heart’s concern has been renewed.

This IFI has marked in me a BEFORE and AFTER.

Beatriz Bornschein Alves de Souza, Brazil

Beatriz recently left a 15-year career of teaching speech therapy at a University in Brazil to join her husband serving full-time in CCI Brazil in the training department. We found we clicked very well since we both do training for CCI.

As I sat one day during my quiet time, facing the mountain of Ongamira, I dedicated my life to be used by God in the ministry of camping. Glory to God!

I have learned that there is another way of doing things. I can change and better impact lives for Jesus in my country-Brazil.

I have learned to have a different perspective of Christian camping—and that I can, with God’s help, have a passion for it—a passion for the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

During this IFI, God has touched my life and I could get rid of things that were keeping me from being fully used by God. I will carry in my “backpack” only what I can carry and I will not walk alone. I feel equipped with some important and useful tools.

Part 1: What I learned in the IFI Argentina (2011)

Here are some quotes from the folks who attended our Institute for Forming Instructors- Argentina. On the last day of the 17-day long Institute for Forming Instructors (IFI) we just held last month in Cordoba, Argentina, the graduates filled out an evaluation entitled: What I learned in the IFI...

Edwin Velasquez, Peru:
I learned to make mistakes and let someone help me learn from them. (Here he is doing a practice teaching of session 3 of our introductory course to camp counseling: Building Relationships.)




Edwin, far right, tended to take over the leadership during the team building initiatives, his leadership being so skilled and capable that it opaqued that of others.

I discovered a new way to lead... from "one step back". I don't always have to lead from the front of the pack. I can stand behind others to help them learn to lead.

(By the way, the goal is for the group to maintain the pole upright while pulling it through a maze...until it comes to its final resting stop-an upraised platform.)


Claudia Aguirre from Salta, Argentina:

* I learned to value learning in community.
* I learned to recognize my weaknesses and strengths honestly.
* I learned to experience evaluation as a true instance of learning.
* I discovered my own unique form and style of learning.

I also developed the capacity of self-evaluation and reflection.

Claudia works as a teacher with blind pre-school students in the northern part (Salta) of Argentina.



Carlos Luyo, Lima, Peru:

I learned to aadminister the time I'm given to teach and the content through the use of a teaching agenda.

Carlos has graduated from Seminary and serves in a church.

Andrea Torres, Buenos Aires, Argentina:

She is one of our graduates from our first IFI in 1992 and she wrote this about her second IFI where she got "updated."

I got re-activated with the pleasure of teaching, as well as found once again the pleasure of sharing in community and enjoying being in a 17-day long camp!