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| The group of students who receive scholarships in Bucaramanga. Alexandra on the right, in the gray striped shirt, is the projects coordinator and scholarships coordinator for the foundation. |
I accompanied the foundation in about half of these workshops this year. This was an incredible opportunity for me to continue to get to know many more people from the different churches. The workshops were all a little different, but followed the same theme of "mi proyecto de vida" roughly translated as 'my life project' with a better idea translation being 'who I want to be'.
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| Hopscotch: family, school, church, friendships, work, profession, partner and children, health, hobbies, and finally my life project. |
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| Students in Tunja playing the hopscotch. Everyone was really into it - even the students in college. |
We used several different activities to talk about the different options students have, aptitude tests to help students find their strengths, and talked about the importance of having a plan for your life...being the protagonist in your life.
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| Zulma is leading jeopardy (which has become our go-to-game this year) to talk about the importance of our faith and God's plan for each of our lives. She used the exampleof Joseph (the prodigal son). The categories in this game were: Joseph, Trivia about Colombia, famous sports players from Colombia, Name that hymn, note-worthy youth from the Bible, and famous people from around the world. This photo is from the workshop in Ibague. |
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| In Sogamoso we made family trees to talk about family relations and how that can shape what type of jobs we choose. |
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| These footprints were in the faith part of the workshop (lead by Zulma), to remind the students to have goals and work toward their goals - trusting in the Lord. Each student wrote Psalm 37:5 "commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act". |
Another portion of these weekends is the opportunity to visit with the students who are receiving scholarships, see how they are doing, and just generally check-in. I also accompanied many of these visits. These visits are always interesting to me, hearing stories, talking about life, and just learning about people. We are always warmly welcomed into the homes and a large snack is given.
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| During our visits in El Cocuy, this young student proudly showed us her school uniform. Uniforms are used in almost all the schools in Colombia, and are usually very similar to the one shown here. Students have two types of uniforms, a skirt and shirt (or dress pants and shirt for the boys) and the other a wind-suit for the days when they have gym/sports class. |
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| Another visit in El Cocuy, these brothers were very interested in showing me the stuffed animals that their aunt sells... they normally are not allowed to play with them, but they were given a pass since we were there. After they showed us the stuffed animals they showed us their garden - huge garden where they grow a lot of food. |
We finished the last workshop of this year on Saturday, in Bogota. Where all the students from the different churches came together for a big workshop instead of several smaller ones. This workshop (because of the size of it) was totally different from the others. I was with Stella, the Executive Director of the foundation, with the elementary students.
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| In Bogota, all the students used magazines, newspapers, or their own art skills, to tell their life story. For the elementary students this was a rather easy task, however, for the high school, college students and parents, it was more difficult. Here Stella (in the back shirt) is showing the stories that were created and talking about the similarities and differences in all of them...similarities being family, animals, and technology, and differences being types of jobs they wanted, interests they had, and many more. |