Monday, July 14, 2014

Making Friends, Finding Courage, Praising God - FIJ 2014

Foro Internacional de Jovenes
Central America
La Buena Fe
July 5-10, 2014
Countries Present: Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and USA

Last week, we attended the International Youth Forum (IYF) in Honduras. It was an awesome time and by far the best IYF I have attended (this is my 3rd).

I was very nervous about going at first. For one thing, Spanish is still a bit of a barrier when it comes to meeting people. At first, it seems like I can't understand anything they are saying and they don't understand what I'm saying. It takes adjusting to the accent to get things going. For the other thing, we had just been asked to help out with the daily class and we hadn't completely worked through our plans to have an idea of how they would play out. We also didn't know how many youth would be in said classes. Many many unknowns. Ahhh!

As someone very smart posted online, "pray more, worry less."

As everything seems to do, it all worked out. GOD IS GREAT.

This week we studied the theme of Courage, so I will tell you about the week, by theme. Everyone arrived on Saturday, so everyone was just getting settled into their new sleeping arrangements and we had a church service with Carlos giving the sermon. Then, we got things rolling...

Day 1, Sunday - VALOR PARA AMAR (Courage to Love):

Each day started at 8am with breakfast, which always included beans, corn tortillas, and butter. So, I will remind you, this is a camp of youth, ages 14-24. Everyone was up and eating breakfast before 8am. What?!?! Then, because they got up so early, they all went in to the classroom to get ready for class around 8:45, that wasn't planned to start until 9:30am. So weird.

Anyways, we started everyday with a game and Sunday's game was Cliques. For this game, the caller says a number, and the players have to form groups of that number. If the caller says 5, you have to find 4 other people to be in a group with to equal 5 people. I think it is Carlos Mejia's favorite game. Other than playing in the sun, the kids seemed to enjoy playing it as well. This was the lesson on how not to love as many people got tossed out by their friends in their attempt at self preservation. It was really funny.

Then, we had class with Barb Carter. She taught them about Dwelling in the Word using the scripture 1 Corinthians 1-13. She shared about how our highest calling is to accept God's love and that we can only do that by spending time with God.

After class, Melissa and I organized activities and discussion questions for the small groups to go along with class. I was with the red group! Today, they decorated paper bags and then on 3 triangles, they wrote something they loved about 3 people in their group. Decorating their bags and talking made for some good first day bonding time.

The rest of the day went to eating, free time, a class on the sacraments with Gonzalo, and church with Steve giving the sermon on taking advantage of the different perspective they have as youth.

Day 2, Monday - VALOR PARA CAMBIAR (Courage to Change):

People were a little more normal and didn't wake up so early, but they were still on time. Erick, a translator for the church from Nicaragua, shared a game about fish and nets with us. It was kind of like a version of tag-ish.

Barb Carter preaching with
translation by Erick Potosme
Then, we had class where we practiced more with dwelling in the word. After that, we moved class outside and it was wonderful. It wasn't nearly as hot as in San Pedro Sula, because we were a little more in the mountains, but it was still quite warm. The breeze was very welcome. For class, we did the cross the line game where people had to stand up for what they believed and go from side to side depending on which thing they sided with. In case you were wondering, hamburgers are more popular than the local food called baleadas. I was surprised that more kids prefer to use the Reina Valera version of the Bible rather than the more contemporary language of the Dios Habla Hoy version. It was beautiful at the end of class when Barb said she stood with God and asked the kids if they did too and they got up and formed a circle around her and she said a prayer.

After class, we played Fruit Salad (Ensalada de Frutas), which then played into our discussion on change in the small groups. Also, on 3 leaf shapes, they were directed to write down something that someone else in their group did that they wanted to change in their own lives.

After free time, Carlos taught a class on the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood offices. That evening for church Barb shared the sermon on how we need to recognize the "invisible" people in our midst.

S'mores!
After the service, we had a campfire! It was a lot of fun to do, even if it didn't go perfectly. As it turns out, when people say they know a song, they don't actually know it well enough to do it. Note to self, always teach the song! During the campfire, Melissa and I had a chance to share about World Service Corps and strike up some interest in the kids. A lot of them seemed interested in participating. Hopefully, we can encourage them to participate. For many, it could be the only way that they ever could get to know a country outside of Honduras. And of course, no campfire is complete without s'mores, so we made those! A good number of people even came back for a second one. Success!

Day 3, Tuesday - VALOR PARA HACER LA DIFERENCIA/SERVIR (Courage to Make a Difference/Serve):

We were quickly running out of time, so we squished two classes into one day!

For the morning game, we played Who Started It? In this game, someone leaves the circle and a leader is chosen to decide when movement would be changed and to what. The person then returns to the middle of the circle and has to guess who the leader is, so you have to pay attention to who people are watching and try to catch the leader in the act of changing to get out of the middle.

Class Themes for the Week.
In class, Barb taught about Esther and how she put her trust in God to make a difference for her people. We did trust falls during class. Then, for the small groups time, everyone was given a mirror and popsicle sticks to make a frame. The idea was that they would say an affirmation while looking in the mirror to remind them that they can make a difference like Esther if they are willing to take a risk and have trust in God.

After lunch and a quick lesson in kickball, we had second class with Barb, this time about Jonah and the Whale. We talked about how we may make mistakes, but God won't punish us for them. No matter what, we should be ready to answer God's calling and serve. As it goes, we went to the background of the church's new campgrounds and started raking up the weeds. As we only had a few rakes, most of us were using sticks to push around the weeds, which oddly enough was semi-effective, but definitely not easy or the perferred method. I was miserable as I was hot, sweaty, bleeding from being attacked by a stick, and got my ankles got bit to pieces by ants. The kids seemed to be enjoying taking part in the work though.

That night, after everone was cleaned up, we went to church. Luis gave the sermon. It was so awesome. It was my first time hearing one of those booming, on the verge of yelling, type of sermons in person. But what was so great is that he was able to work in some modern day examples and even some jokes, while he was preaching in the tone of hell, fire, and damnation. It was a very inspiring sermon actually, but you had to listen carefully to it. He always wore a Looney Tunes or some sort of cartoon Christmas tie. It was hilarious.

The ol' boys were jammin' at the end of the talent show.
After church, we had a talent show. All of the kids that shared sang their favorite song from church, sang some inspiring song that changed their life, did some drama that depicted a story in the Bible, or a drama that had a meaningful message behind it. It was really awesome and they all did a great job. However, no one gave us the memo that talent show meant some talent that was churchy. So, when Melissa and I were asked to do something, we immediately started thinking about the campfire songs we knew in Spanish. We even found people to help us perform it, Erick and Jesus. So, right about the middle of the show, the 4 of us walk forward and start teaching/performing none other than "The Funky Chicken." It was hilarious and so much fun! But oh how it did not fit in with anything else any one was doing. Deborah, our MC, even said after us "back to the religious part of the show." So it goes. Everyone loved it.

Day 4, Wednesday - Pulhapanzak:

Love these kids!
Our last morning together started out with a photo shoot. We received our IYF shirts and then all of the kids wanted to take pictures. Each person had their own phone or camera and there were about 55 kids. You do the math. Lots of pictures.

At 10am, actually on time, we left to go to the waterfalls. We loaded up in a school bus. I sat next to Barb who got to sit against hot rice and the bus was blazing hot when still, so that was less than ideal. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day. We got our group photos done and then everyone was off in various directions. After enjoying some arroz con leche, I went with a group down to the bottom of the waterfall. We were a group of people from 4 different countries - USA, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. Then, we went swimming, ate lunch, and did more swimming.

In the evening, once we were all cleaned up, we had the closing church service. The kids were not quick to talk, but once they worked up the nerve, man they could go on for days. It was nice to hear from them and we got a little bit of feedback on how everything went for them.

On Thursday morning, we took off at 6:30am. Not too many of the kids woke up to say goodbye, but some people sent us off. :)

Thank you to all the wonderful people that made this week so special!!!!

Foro Internacional de Jovenes, C.A. 2014
~nos vemos~

No comments: