This weekend I had the privilege of traveling to the coast of Colombia, to the city of Barranquilla. (Pictures posted here). I traveled with a friend and fellow missionary, Holly, and we stayed with another short-term missionary couple who lives there, the Posladeks. What a great weekend! Barranquilla is quite different from Medellin – smaller, hotter, more humid, different food, etc. We had the opportunity of seeing the work that the Covenant is doing there through its churches, schools and social projects. The Posladeks have been working in the area of education, helping to train the English teachers who work at the 4 Covenant Elementary schools. They have done a great job of walking alongside the teachers and helping to create a spirit of unity and of confidence, as these teachers work on lesson plans for their English classes.
Groups of teachers working together
My role there this weekend was to encourage and help equip the teachers from the 4 different schools, as they teach Christian Formation classes, as well as to work with the children’s ministry volunteers from the 5 Covenant churches. I spent all day Friday with the teachers. There was a big group of over 2o people and it was such a fun day. These teachers are so gifted and have so much energy and creativity. It was a good time of getting to know them and learning from them, as well as helping them to think through how they’ve been using “El Pacto con Dios” curriculum and how they can get even more out of it and help the children in their classes to go deeper with Jesus. We did a lot of group exercises, I spent some time giving examples of different ways to teach the various parts of a lesson, and in the end they had time to work in teams to plan a lesson and then present it to all of us. Such great ideas were shared and I’m so glad that I could be there to encourage them.
Acting out a drama from the curriculum
Giving an example of a lesson
On Saturday I spent most of the day with children’s ministry volunteers from the churches. Many of them have been serving in children’s ministry for a long time, while others are relatively new. It was fun to see some familiar faces and meet a whole bunch of new people. Again I was encouraged by their enthusiasm and participation. We had some great moments of reflecting on why we minister to children and how we minister to children. I was able to answer questions they had about the curriculum and give them some new creative ideas and ways to use it. They also showed their creativity as they worked together to put together a lesson and then presented it to the larger group.
Wonderful group of children's ministry volunteers
It was a joy to do what I love to do – teach, encourage, walk alongside. I’m thankful for Julio who took such great care of the boys for 4 days by himself!
