Training Season...

Training season.  At the beginning of the year, many of our programs are in the training 'mode'.  Everyone is busy hiring and training new staff, training program staff on new curriculum, training staff on leadership and management of their programs...everywhere you look some sort of training is going on!

This past month I have had the opportunity to go to all three of our bases.  In Foya, the CLP (literacy program) spent a week training new trainers and facilitators as they prepare for so start their classes.  It was great to see our CLP management staff teaching, leading this great group of people through the different areas of the program; literacy, numeracy, business skills and Bible study.

CLP staff working hard during their training...

I walked past the CLP training to the next meeting room where another training workshop was being conducted.  This one was a training workshop on photography..."what?" I know sounds weird right?  But there are methods to our training madness! Every program has a responsibility to send pictures from the field (every program has a field camera) to Joni our Communications Manager.  Joni then collects these photos along with stories about the project or the people in the photos to send to our SP office and donors.  These are crucial.  This is our opportunity to SHOW and TELL our funding offices and donors the impact their investment is having in people's lives and for the Kingdom of God.  But we can't just send poorly taken pictures!  They have to be a certain size for the communications departments at SP and they need to be good enough to use.  Joni was being sent a lot of pictures, but not many of them could be used due to their quality-so, she has been giving our program managers and coordinators a one day workshop at each of the bases on how their camera works with all the settings, how to take good pictures and what information is needed for impact stories.

Joni teaching her 'area'

It was fun to watch the staff practice taking pictures of each other in different settings.  It was even funnier when Joni took every one's memory cards and put the pictures they took on the projector to 'grade' each others photography skills!  

I left the base to go and see the WASH training that was happening at a nearby church.  CMP and CDF staff that work in our communities in the area of WASH were also present to learn about our new WASH programming.  Having other program staff present helps with consistent messaging to our beneficiaries.

Taya and her staff at their training

The training didn't stop in Foya!  Last week Joni did another photograph workshop at our base in River Gee.  Here, in Monrovia as I type this our Program Development staff are training our program managers on monitoring and evaluation, activity planning and reporting just to name a few of the training topics!  

Building capacity within our staff is key for the success of our projects.  But it's more than that-we are investing in our staff so that they can continue the good work that God has started in them. For some the training is just for one day-but the skills they learn will last them a lifetime.  For others training is a week long, very intense-but at the end of it they are ready to head out to the field to implement their programs with confidence!

In running, training I believe, is more important than the race or run that you are training for.  Training is hard, very hard, it's the runs and work outs that take place in the early morning hours, when you are tired and don't feel like running.  These past couple of weeks our SP London marathon runners have been training hard.  I mean they are in the THICK of marathon training-anyone who has trained for a marathon knows what I am talking about.  Those long runs of 16, 18 and 20 mile runs.  The long week day runs-anywhere from 5-7  miles.

Two very tired runners training...

It's during training, when you realize how far you can push yourself physically and mentally.  It's during training that you realize that every long run is a run into new 'territory' and new mileage you have never run before.  It's during this training that you start to realize how strong you really are and that you can accomplish the goal set before you.  I love training-sounds weird but the journey that one goes through during training is amazing.  In every training season I learn something new about myself-how much more I can do how much more I can push through obstacles and focus on my goal.  Paul talks about this in Philippians chapter 3:12-14. Go look it up-great verses on perseverance and focusing on the goal that is ahead of us.  Training is all about this-pressing on-forgetting what is behind-and pressing onward to the goal that God has called us.

 Great quote by a great guy!

Pray for our staff who are going out, that they will trust the training they have received and be ready to do the job God has called them to do. Pray for our marathon runners that they will press on through their training as it gets harder. So that at the start of the London marathon they will be confident and trust the training and hard work and long hours they have put in.  To reach a goal or to do our jobs, training is necessary-but we have hope that when we do the work we can trust God to see us through to the finish.

For more information on how you can encourage our marathoners and give towards our SP Liberia hospital project and other projects please go to: 

http://runtolove-liberia.blogspot.com/2013/11/running-to-love.html 

It would be a HUGE encouragement for them if you gave!