Borrowed from Noelle in Africa...
We have taught our main course, The 10 Principles of
Leadership in all different places, for a hugely diverse audience. Everywhere it is taught, it has an
impact. And this time, in Shinyanga, TZ
it was no different.
This was the first time we had taught this course A) Outside
of Uganda and B) In translation. It was
a new experience for sure!
We had over 50 people the first day. Of course, throughout the week we lost a few,
but overall we graduated just under 50 people!
We had a fantastic team that helped with music, a wonderful venue, good
food, and a reliable sound system.
John Bahati, our translator (and trip hero!) did an
incredible job. He wrote summaries of
each talk in Swahili, so that the participants could have some basic notes. The participants were engaged and very ready
to learn. It was great to have a
wonderful interaction with them, even though there was a language barrier.
Because of translation, we made some small changes to the
talks. But we were able to do well and
stick to the time we had. I had asked
that we have 6 days, in case translation was very slow. But we finished in 5...
so the 6th day was able to be a big party! Wow, they can celebrate! So much dancing, so many photos, and a ton of
excitement! Our courses usually end
well, but this one ended fantastically!
Throughout the course there were various profound
experiences and moments. The time of
footwashing, which shows Servant Leadership in action, was especially beautiful,
there were so many people! We had the 3
team members from Cornerstone Veritas, and then 3 men from different Christian
denominations wash feet. In Africa, there
can sometimes be a lot of tension between different Christian groups. This was such a beautiful moment of
unity!
The course was comprised of people from every Christian
expression in Tanzania. It was
incredible. We broke them into small
groups, which met every day. This was a
time to process what they were learning.
These groups were totally mixed, and you could tell that people began to
really loved each other and got to know each other by the end of the
course. What an incredible opportunity
to build bridges.
Several moments while teaching were very profound as
well. When teaching about Seek First to
Understand, I was speaking about not trivializing pain. I used a random man as an example, in the
group. I said to imagine that he had
lost a child, and then proceeded to teach about how we should respond to someone
who had experienced something truly challenging. I didn’t know this man, or anything about his
life. Later on, one of the men whom we
spent lunch with each day, told us that the man I had randomly chosen had
actually lost 3 sons. My using him as an
example was actually a moment of healing for him, because I acknowledged the
pain of that loss, and didn’t just brush it away.
At one point in the session “Resourcefulness”, I was talking
about the fact that life is difficult.
When we believe this, and live embracing it, then we are able to not be
so caught off guard when hard or challenging things come our way. As I taught, you could see from the people’s
faces, and the atmosphere in the room that people were really understanding and
that, somehow, their perspectives were being changed. Many of them nodded and were obviously
agreeing and understanding how this reality can improve our lives.
And finally, we had 2 sharing at the end of the course, one
from a woman and another from a man.
Both of them were breathtaking, and overwhelmingly beautiful. The woman shared deeply about what she had
been going through, and how what she had learned that week would enable her to
change her own life and come out of the previous ways she had been living. The man who shared talked about how learned
about the idea of “Covenant Relationship” had inspired him to refresh and renew
his relationship first with his wife, and then to invest more time with his
children! At the end of his sharing he
said “At the beginning of the week, we were told that we had tool boxes, which
were going to be filled with tools. Mine
is full, and I intend to start using them to improve my life and the life of my
family.”
We talk about tool boxes in our course introduction. That’s the best description I’ve been able to
come up with. The myriad of things which
we teach throughout our course; Emotional Bank Account, Paradigm Shift, the
problem solving line, Personal Weekly Schedules, how to write a Vision and Mission,
Circle of Influence/Circle of Concern, Think Win Win, Listening skills in Seek
First to Understand, how to become resourceful and creative, how to maintain
balance... all of these and more are incredible tools. Even if only 1, 2, or 3 are actually applied,
they will make a tangible difference in the life of that person and in their
community.
I can see the impact of what I teach, most of all on
myself. It is so beautiful to see my
life change, and to see the glimmer in a participant’s eyes when they get it...
when they realize that they can change, that there is hope, and that with a
little creativity and perspective, they can do something worthwhile with their
lives. That is what our course is all
about. We empower people, and those
people go and change their worlds.
This is why I work in Africa.
Next Post... all of our crazy adventures while in Tanzania!
