Last weekend, the human rights program of
IELCO helped sponsor and organize the annual national retreat for the
prejuvenile group of the church (ages 12-15). The retreat was focused on
recognizing the past, understanding the present and creating a vision for the
future. There were over 70 participants from around the country from this age group that participated in
the retreat.
The human rights program was responsible
for organizing the activities for the “future”. After filling out an asset
inventory about their skills and abilities, the youth then broke out into
smaller groups to study people that have made contributions to making the world
a better place. Some of these people included Rosa Parks, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
and Jorge
Eliécer Gaitán. Afterwards, they discussed what these people and their
stories inspire in them. They took their inventories of abilities and developed
plans for how they would like to be involved in making the world a better
place. Some groups planned the development of a foundation that would assist immigrants, others wanted to work to end discimination, and others wanted to make sure that all had educational opportunities.
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| Zulma Ojeda, leading the opening devotion for the retreat. Photo by Curtis. |
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| Walking in and out of the doors acted as the "time portal" to go to the past and to the future. The youth were also invited to leave messages on it. Photo by Curtis. |
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| The small group that studied César Chávez presenting about what they are inspired to do in the future. They wanted to make sure that all agricultural workers were paid fairly. Photo by Curtis. |
