Greg Burch- City Wide Strategies and Child Participation

This week was good, it’s a little hard to put it into summary. We had two speakers come- Greg Burch and Brooke Burns. Greg taught more on how to approach starting or joining a ministry. He gave us a lot of good examples on what not to do and strategies on how to go into a city or town. He emphasized on doing your research before entering a place and being aware of the atmosphere/culture. This helped out a lot and made me realize that I can’t just walk into a place without knowing what these children have been surrounded by all their lives and things that have been impacting them or taught to them by their culture. Brooke Burns taught on child prostitution and her experiences she has had with it. She taught us a little on how to manage a child who has been through prostitution. One thing that she said that really stuck out to me was “Be focused more on a healing journey, not moment.” This helped me realize that it is a process and God’s going to have to walk them through it and that there are not necessarily words that you can say, but it is a journey with each individual. She went on talking about how she has been working with a girl for a little over a year and just recently went through a breakthrough with her.

This week I got to help clean at Casa Viva. It was nice to serve the place after all they are doing for the children. We split up in two groups while some of us helped at Casa Viva and the other group went into town and played music and hung out with the locals. The other group had a really good time and met a girl that lives somewhere around us. I also got the chance to work with Metro Ministries again this week. It went well and this weeks topic was the power of words. I got to do an illustration of throwing trash into a trashcan. The moral of it was that what words you let into your life is what you are going to get out. As well as the importance on how you talk to people and what you say.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/02/13/darfur-youth-keep-crisis-in-the-spotlight/

In this article it is talking about what is happening in Darfur, Western Sudan. Since 2003 there has been a war between the rebel groups and the Sudanese government forces. Since then 300,000 people have died, 2.7 million Darfur people have been forced into refugee camps in Sudan and Chad. The crazy thing is that 80% of these deaths during this time were caused by disease, not violence. But the children are being affected by all of this. There is an estimated 1.8 million children affected by the armed conflict, by having a disrupted education, exposed to health concerns, and brutal violence. Along with that there is an estimated 4,500 children associated with the armed forces and groups.

Prayer points
*Protection from violence
*Protection from refugee camps
*Awareness of disease and how to avoid it
*Education for the children

Teenchallengeusa.com

This is a christian organization focused on helping kids with drug and alcohol problems. They use biblical principles in order to free them from this. Their goal is to have the kids mentally sound, emotionally balanced, socially adjusted, physically well, and spiritually alive.