Thursday, May 20, 2010

Not Exactly An Office Job


Break Time with a Learning Activity

For the first quarter since the EJ Institute for youth leaders started last August, Tim and I are not teaching classes. This frees us up to focus on our primary role at the school, that of “spiritual directors” or as we see it, being the youth leaders to the youth leaders studying with us. This means being present every evening for the classes, looking out for the students well-being (including making sure there is fresh, good coffee and clean mugs for the 20 minute break half way through the three hour class), fostering community building during the breaks, and spending time one-on-one with the students.


The fifty-five students are very diverse. They come from seven different Spanish-speaking countries and range in age from eighteen to fifty-two. Some of them walk a few blocks to class while others make a ten hour round trip. But they all have a long term commitment to working with teenagers and young adults.


Some of our best mentoring time is the walk home after class

This weekend we take the mentoring program into new territory with our first retreat. Thirty four students are entrusting us with their weekend with no idea what awaits them. For weeks they’ve been trying to get the details out of us, but they don’t have a clue. It’s gonna be fun and like nothing they’ve experienced before. We’ll post pictures soon.

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