Impact Clubs

I just attended a really great week of sessions on a model for working with youth called Impact Clubs. It was born in Romania and focuses on experiential learning and community service-learning projects. Therefore, I got to meet two people from Romania! It was my job to "be their best friend" in the words of my supervisor, Steve. They arrived the weekend before the training, and indeed, I got to know Octavia and Kelly as friends. We went out to eat, prepared materials for the training, and talked about cultural differences among Nicaragua, Romania, and the US.

On Monday morning when the training began, I was both a participant as well as a resource person for logistics. We had a group of 31 participants including 2 Hondurans, 2 Mexicans, and Nicaraguans from ETU as well as partner organizations in the Nehemiah Center network. Throughout the week, we formed good relationships and got to know each other better. Because the Caminantes (Cohort of Missioners program) had already scheduled a visit to Guatemala to visit another group of the Cohort, we had to leave the training two days early. But I was comforted because I'll get to see the majority of the participants again within the next few months.

You see, we are going to start using this program in Nicaragua. And I have been chosen to be one of the local coaches, along with Roberto (my boss in ETU at the Nehemiah Center) and Guissel (my fellow member of the Cohort). So we will do follow-up visits with the leaders who were at this training week and encourage them in the process of starting a club.

These clubs are weekly meetings with a group of 10-20 youth in approximately the same age range. They meet weekly to play games, reflect on different themes, and plan community service-and-learning projects. The leaders' job is to FACILITATE discussion and learning. This will be a challenge in the Nicaraguan Christian community where preaching and teaching is more common than questioning and listening. However, it's a good thing for us to learn. I hope that God will give us as local coaches the skills, attitudes, and values we need to be good local coaches. And that we can be leaders of clubs in León, too!