a week in Jaco

Speaker and Topic:

·         Leslie Freeman

·         Child Development

Two or three main concepts I learned

·         We must learn about Respecting children

·         Value children the same way you would value an adult

·         Children are usually overlooked, there is something really powerful about getting “eye” level with children

·         Respecting children: putting yourself in their position and believing their feelings are REAL, and validate their feelings.

o   A little compassion and empathy can go a long way.

·         You are valuing the children, what they have to say and how they feel.

·         James 1:19. If you listen to people it has more valuable outcomes that imparting your own advice.

·         The principle of “listening”.- by listening to a child thought, feelings and emotions you can help them understand their own feelings better.

o   What happens when we don’t listen??

·         You can miss the opportunity to hear their hearts

·          

Personally challenged by:

·         I was challenged in my views of discipline towards children and how we must do it in a Biblical way.

·         I was also challenged to view the Bible in a way that is applicable to children. And not only to adults.

Unanswered questions:

·         I have no unanswered questions, our speaker was really informative.

Outreach:

·         This past week I was able to go to the location were I am planning to do my outreach, it was a great opportunity to meet all the people I will be working with and get to know the youth I am hoping to share what I have learned with.

·         I am excited about all the ideas of ministry that we will be doing, such as prostitution ministries where we will be trying to develop friendships with the prostitutes and their families. And also with children as we teach them, by example, what it to be a good follower of Jesus.

human trafficking

Speaker and Topic:

·Rochelle Potter

· Human Trafficking

Two or three main concepts I learned

-          Human trafficking As defined by the UN is:

·         The recruitment, transportation or harboring of a person by means of threat, force or deception for sex, labor, slave-like exploitation or the removal of organs.

Five types of human trafficking

·         Sexual trafficking

·         Child soldiers

·         Forced begging

·         Prostitution

·         Labor

Trafficking victims are:

·         Young, seeking opportunities, and/or poor

·         Trafficked by a close family member or friend, taken to a culture that is unfamiliar and then isolated

·         Family’s safety or their own safety is threatened if they refuse to cooperate

·         Afraid to seek help

Personally challenged by:

·         I was personally challenged with the fact that I must love victims, traffickers and “jhons” the same.

Unanswered questions:

·         I have no unanswered questions, our speaker was really informative.

Outreach:

·         This past week was very eye opening to the problems that exist today, and I feel my call to work with children at risk, prostitutes and their families confirmed. Out reach will be a time where I will be able to apply everything I have learned and share the love of God with all the people I meet.

Project Planning Week

Speaker and Topic:

·         Lance Rawlins

·         Project planning

Two or three main concepts I learned

-          Why should we even bother to plan?

Ø  To evaluate which is the best way to see a community develop

Ø  To clarify our visions and goals

Ø  To give God a chance to speak

Ø  To optimize the use of resources

Ø  To allocate responsibilities and organize staff efficiently

Ø  To help motivate staff and people that are working with you(and yourself)

Ø  To hear and include others and give ownership

Jesus, in the Bible, planned things out. Although he was led my the spirit he was also practical and planned his events and his ministry.

Personally challenged by:

·         I was challenged by the model the speaker presented as the one we should follow while we are project planning which was the acronym “SMART”:

S--à Specific

Ø  Is it well defined

Ø  Is it clear

Ø  You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother – Albert Einstein

M --à Measurable

Ø  Can y quantify your progress so you can track it?

Ø  Are you able to asses your process

Ø  How will you know when you have reached your goal?

A -à Attainable

Ø  Is your goal within reach

Ø  Is your goal a challenge, but still possible to reach?

Ø  Goals must be achievable. The best goals require you to stretch a bit to achieve them but they are not impossible to achieve.

R --à Realistic/ Relevant

Ø  Is your goal realistic with the resources, knowledge and time that you have?

Ø  Is it in line with your beliefs and values?

Ø  Consistent

T --à Time

Ø  Starting date, deadline and significant milestones

Ø  Do I have enough time to achieve the goal

Ø  Too much time can affect progress/ results

o    

Unanswered questions:

·         The question I had was when the speaker said we had to be ready for a 007, by this he meant we needed to be prepared to drop it all at one point and leave. At first I couldn’t understand this concept, because of the fact that if you commit to something you MUST see it thru, at least that is what I believe. But it was very important to understand that you really must abandon something if God asks you to. We might not understand the reason why He is asking us, but if we are sure and completely certain that is God that is asking us to abandon the project we must be obedient. Otherwise we must stick to our word and fulfill our commitments.

Outreach:

·         I am so excited for my outreach after this week, me and a friend worked really hard on a project plan that included many things that we want to work within our outreach.

·         We are going to be working with a ministry that focuses on street children and speaking into their lives.

·         I know God has a huge plan that He wants me to be a part of, and I cant wait to be there!

an overall of what Ive been learning

Dear Friends,

It has been a little over a month since I arrived in Costa Rica. The time has flown by! My weeks have been packed with speakers, events, and activities. The school I am a part of, the Children at Risk School, has been challenging me in many areas of my life. The speakers have had great messages that are bringing me closer to God’s heart and the plan He has for me.

One of our speakers encouraged us to THINK LIKE GOD THINKS - ACT LIKE GOD ACTS. She spoke about the value of children and how close they are to God’s heart. Something I learned about as she shared was a charge that we have as Christians to “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the week and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” -Psalm 82: 3,4. The reason I am in Costa Rica is to receive training so that I can be of better service to the children that have lost their voice because of injustice. I have been hearing of the importance of children and how much help they need to find their way back to God’s intended purpose.

Those I want to serve, are children (0-18 years) who because of their environment (family, political, natural), are denied basic human rights such as food, housing, security, education and identity causing them to be in critical danger of missing out on the future and hope God intended for them. I believe with all my heart that God wants to restore these children; He wants them to be able to go back to their childhood and dream again. I want to be a part of the process.

Jeremiah 30:3 says, “for behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD ‘that I will bring back from captivity my people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘ And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall posses it.” I believe God wants to free all of the children from any danger. I am excited to be used by God this next three months.

God has given each and every one of us different gifts; I believe that these gifts are given to us according to the purpose and calling that God has intended for us. You see, Jeremiah 29:11 says we have all been created with a purpose, a plan. This plan is to give us a future and hope. I whole-heartedly believe that this plan is not only for us as individuals, but that we are part of a much bigger plan that involves all mankind.

These gifts provided by God are the tools He has chosen for His purpose; to not use them will be a sin and a waste of our lives. Something I’ve realized is that we must be willing to use our gifts, and then we must be willing to use them correctly and appropriately according to God’s guidance.

These tools are meant to aid in the abolition of violence, abuse, and corruption. We can be ambassadors, teachers, rescuers, or shepherds. We all have a role to play in the process of achieving justice. Something that I found to also be a gift from God, that helps us towards achieving our goal of helping the less fortunate, are the different attributes you can develop as you grow in your relationship with God and you further the calling that He has given you. The attributes that help most as you work with injustices are: humility, we must remember that we are merely humans. We do not possess the answer to many questions the victims may have. And whenever we see deliverance, we must never take credit for it, because it most certainly did not happen because of us. We were simply tools used by God to fulfill His plan. Also, we must always remember to be respectful as we battle in different cultures, with different people and in different countries. We must ask God for wisdom as we encounter the difficult situations around the world, because we should always be operating underneath God’s guidance. Always seeking God’s will and not our own. We must never lose hope, hope that the battle we are fighting is a step closer to the victory our God has already delivered to us. We must never stop loving and never stop speaking words of love, words of encouragement, words of freedom and words of life. All of these teachings have helped me as I talk to the abused women on the street that sell their bodies so they can feed their families or play with the children that run to us whenever they see us coming. It has helped me be a better counselor and listener. And it has helped me represent God in a more genuine and true way.

I know without a doubt that God has called me to “ seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan and plead for the widow” -Isaiah 1:17. And I feel confident in my mission because my more than capable Father will carry me the whole way, and I follow Him with the reassurance of His calling as I boldly say “the Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” -Luke 4:18. As I do that with the children and their families here in Costa Rica I feel God’s blessing and prosperity.

Thank you for supporting me as I continue my walk with God.

God bless always!

Brenda Luna

one month mark

The first full month of me being away from home has come to an end. I think that to me it is about the time where I begin feeling homesick, I begin missing the little but very meaningful things from home. But I know that because I am outside my comfort zone and willing to be to stretch God will take this as an opportunity to help me grow and mature in Him.

This past week was a very hands on kind of week, our speaker was Michelle Grimes a teacher of fifth grade. We worked with made up scenarios that could potentially come up as we work with children. At first it was a little slow and I was not motivated. I kept thinking that I knew this and that I was already prepared for this kind of stuff. Little did I know, we were presented with scenarios that I could only picture in movies. But I know that these also happen in real life.

As the week progressed I was able to think in a way that I know God would be pleased. You see we are to treat children the same way we would treat God, because Jesus said “however you receive one of these little one, you will be receiving me”. This to me is so important, because I have always believed that children should be respected and definitely treated appropriately and to know that the Bible reinforces this belief means that my God is greater even more than what I believed before.

Yes the challenges of this past week were different from the ones I’ve had in the previews weeks. But they were also helpful in the development of my character and my walk with God.

Another thing that was very interesting to me as I had my quite time and as I heard one of my staff’s testimonies was the question “Why am I doing this?” or “Why am I interested to work with children?”

As I thought more and more about this question I came up with a couple of answers, first I want to work with children because I know that this will honor God and because I believe it is a calling that he has given me. Second, I want to work with children and listen to them and be there for them because I believe that it does take one person to care to change a child’s life. I can say from personal experience, that only because a person obeyed God’s calling  and listened to God’s voice I was able to fulfill God’s plan in my life. It took people persevering in spite of the circumstances, ad staying true to God’s word for me to become the person God planned for me to be. And because I lived this first hand, I want to be that person a child can count on whenever they think they have no one else.

The speaker was an excellent teacher, and she encouraged us to become the teachers God will be pleased with. And I intend to do just that, so that I can help as many children in the future as I can.