We have finished the theory part of our counseling school! The last two weeks are known as the sleepless weeks... they involve a paper writing out the 15 sections of a class called “The Divine Plumb Line,” end of the school journal, and presentations. Each outreach team has to practice teaching the divine plumb line, but we have to pretend like we are in a church and have ministry time and everything. Our group did very well, we have some good teachers! And now we are finally catching up on some things like sleep and talking to friends!
Tomorrow I leave for Armenia to visit a friend, Katerine, for a couple days. Armenia is the smallest department in Colombia, but it is the heart that grows a lot of coffee and plantain. Then Sunday we leave for outreach!!!! We travel to Bogota (the capital) by bus and Monday fly into Leticia. Then we get into boats to go up the river to spend two weeks at a community off the Amazon River. We will be spending some time in communities, and two weeks in the city of Leticia, and also some time in Tabatinga (it is the same city on the Brazil side).
A counseling outreach is going to be different from anything I have done before. We work in the churches teaching themes like family systems or identity or restoration or things like that. Then, daily, we also have times for counseling where people will come to us or we might go to visit families in the communities. The counseling is a bit scary to all of us, but we will work in pairs, and the game plan is to just listen to people and be totally dependent on hearing God.
This is what our team looks like: Our leader is Desteni! Amazing counselor, translator (in Spanish and Portuguese) and hilarious best friend. There are only three students in our group: me, Lorena, and Stephanie. Lorena is 20 and her family has pretty much grown up in the base. This is a big growing experience for her, but also wonderful to be able to grow away from her family and let her beautiful, funny self come out of her shell. Stephanie is my Colombia little sister. She is only 17, but an amazing teacher and woman of God. We are all good friends and also have seen eachother’s vulnerable, inner side. It will be an exciting group, but we are also very young and all female. So, please pray:
•Safety for our team
•Wisdom from God in counseling sessions
•My ability to understand and speak Spanish in counseling sessions
•Our leader Desteni, for wisdom, support, peace, ect.
•Insight for what themes to teach in churches and what age group (in some communities there might be great need in the youth and sometimes we might be working with kids)
•Group unity and communication
•Spiritual awarenes
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