Summer Travel 2016 – Hong Kong, The Philippines, and Thailand

Well. So much for getting the blog up and running. Nevertheless, since I still have one, this seems like a good place to review what I did over the summer. I have pictures, too, but the phone I used to take them is dead and doesn't want to recharge at the moment. When I get it fixed, I will update the post.

It’s been a few weeks since my trip to the South Pacific ended, and I’m finally starting to feel like I am readjusting back to the US. It has been a great trip, and I’m very thankful for everyone who contributed to the trip, either by donating time, resources, or just moral and spiritual support. God has done wonderful things for both me and those I’ve been working with this summer, and I wanted to share what went on with everyone.

Phase 1 – Arrival and Arrival

My initial trip to Hong Kong in May was rather short – only a few days – before I continued on to the Philippines with Linda Smyth. Linda was nice enough to host me for the entire summer, and it was great getting to travel with her in the Philippines at the start of my trip. Upon arrival in the Philippines, we met Cody and Marie, who escorted us to Pastor Randy’s church in Arwas. Cody and Marie had scheduled an Insight Seminar at the church, and we arrived several days early to prepare. 

Once we got to the church, I led a short review/discussion session with Cody, Marie, Randy, and Linda. The session lasted for two days, and gave everyone a chance to refresh their familiarity with the seminar material, as well as discuss new insights into the ideas and theories underlying the program’s teaching and activities. Everyone had something to add to the discussion, but Cody, in particular, contributed a lot to the discussion, with many interesting and helpful ideas and insights that will help us develop better programs for future seminars. 

After the introduction session, the delegates began to arrive for the main program. We had around a dozen Christian leaders in attendance. Many were from the local area, but several traveled many hours to attend the seminar. Almost all of them were active pastors who were interested in learning how to better teach and minister to their churches and communities. They were an intelligent and excited bunch, and it was a pleasure to meet and interact with them throughout the seminar. Cody led the Insight training, and Marie focused on the IBS (Inductive Bible Study) program. (Cody and Marie ran both programs during the seminar, at the participants’ request). Unfortunately, I can’t say too much about the discussions that took place during the seminar itself, as the entire program was conducted in Tagalog (and, occasionally, local dialects), which I am unfamiliar with. My discussions with Cody and the participants, however, helped me see how they were learning and developing their understanding and relationships. 

In the Insight Seminars, we focus on these two main interrelated points. In order to build strong, positive relationships with God, ourselves, other people (Christians and otherwise), and our environment, we need to have the best understanding possible of the parties involved. Thus, the seminar focuses first on how we can gain understanding and discernment, and applies these ideas to the development of various relationships in the participants’ lives. Our immediate focus in on understanding ourselves (what Leonard, our Mozambican director, calls our “first environment”). If we don’t understand and relate well to ourselves, we are hindered in every other relationship, because every other relationship we have depends, in some way, on us. Controlling ourselves and taking responsibility for our actions is the first step in building strong, lasting relationships with others.

Of course, focusing purely on the self is detrimental, since life consists of far more than just “me.” During the seminar, Cody led discussions on our relationship with God, with the Church, and with others in our community. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the ideas being presented in the seminar, and more than one participant commented later that, until they attended the seminar, they had not thought about their work in terms of relationships, but more in terms of actions and procedures. They were delighted to learn how they could further develop their ministries through communicating an understanding of what a good relationship (with God or men) really means. 

As the program came to a close, everyone expressed satisfaction with their experience. The participants praised God and celebrated a better understanding of Him and His creation, and our presenters were blessed to not only help others learn, but to learn from their participants. Many of the discussions during the week were truly group discussions, with Cody and Marie facilitating, but not dominating, the conversation. I think, all in all, everyone left with new lessons and ideas. It was a fantastic trip, and I want to thank Cody and Marie for organizing the seminar, and Pastor Randy for hosting everyone.

Phase 2 – Hong Kong

When we got back to Hong Kong, I was asked to help Linda’s son, Scott, present a seminar for his church in Fairview Park. Scott had previously attended a seminar Al and I put on in the Philippines, and had worked with Al and I on subsequent training projects in Hong Kong since then. I met with Scott both before the seminar, and we had weekly reviews of the progress of the program during the 10-week seminar. Since Scott would be presenting the material each Sunday afternoon, Sunday became an extremely busy day for him. In order to give himself some breathing room, he asked me to cover preaching at his church while I was around so he could focus on the seminar training. The best way to learn is to teach, but “best” rarely equals “easiest.” I was happy to pick up the preaching to give Scott a chance to focus on the training. 

 The sessions went well. Attendance started very strong, which is good, but did fall off towards the end. This is expected in long-running free programs. The seminars are often taxing and can be frustrating, as learning new ways to look at ideas can be quite stressful. We often experience fatigue after several weeks of programs, which is one reason we prefer shorter intensive programs with long-term follow-up. Fortunately, Scott is well placed to provide such follow-up, and I have confidence he will continue to work with his church members to help them develop both individually and as a body. The participants themselves expressed interest in the material, though some expressed a desire to see more immediate application of some of our concepts. This kind of feedback is helpful, as it allows us to see where the seminars are strong or need a change in focus. Often details like this will vary from culture to culture, as different people require different approaches or points of emphasis. 

Both my sermons and the seminars were recorded, and can be viewed on the Fairview Park Christian Church’s YouTube channel [insert link to YouTube channel].

In addition to working with Scott, I was also able to meet with some local church leaders to talk about using the seminars as part of leadership training/discipling programs. These discussions are very preliminary, but the people we talked with were interested in finding new ways to help their church members understand more about themselves and God, and I am hopeful that we will be able to continue our discussions in the future.

Phase 3 – Thailand

Finally, I spent a week in Thailand attending a graduate course as part of my PhD program. For those who aren’t familiar with U.S. PhD programs, there are usually about two years of classes before work on the PhD dissertation/research starts in earnest. I chose this course in part because of the tuition discount – in general, the discount on tuition was equal to or greater than the cost of travel, making it both an economical choice, as well as a great opportunity to work more closely with students from non-western cultures. The differences in perspectives and history, as well as the students’ willingness to share their experiences and ideas made the course entirely worth the trip. 

The class investigated the characteristics of various cultural value systems: guilt/innocence, shame/honor, purity/impurity, etc. These cultural values have a significant impact on how different people view and understand the world, and understanding them helps tremendously in seeing how intercultural communication – including communication of the Gospel – must be conducted carefully and with deliberation. This is not to say that all communications must be slow, only that we must always pay attention to both what we are saying, and what the people we communicate with are understanding. Of course, this is true in any communication, and the more you know about the people you are talking to, the better you can communicate.

Workshops In Progress

IRI currently has two workshops underway in Casper, Wyoming. I am leading one at Casper College, for the custodial department, while Al is leading another for a local church.  This is the first time we have used our updated, shortened workshop format (8-10 hrs, down from 36+ hrs.) and it is working well. Feedback so far is positive, and the participants seem excited about the material.

We are hoping that this shortened format will give us more opportunities to hold workshops for other partners/supporters. In the past, the biggest hurdle for our seminar was the fact that it took an entire week's time. Now, while we still prefer a four or five day time frame, we only need around 2 hours a day, which makes it much easier for people and organizations to work into their schedule. The new format is also much more flexible, in terms of tailoring itself to its audience, than the previous seminar format. In our current case, we have one seminar focused on personnel training (the college), with no religious content, and one focused on spiritual discipleship (at the church). While it may seem difficult, it is really just a matter of focus. Both groups are learning how to think more clearly about themselves and their environment, but the former workshop focused on the practical day-to-day applications, while the latter focuses on the Biblical ties and spiritual implications of the material. It is great having a basic core that can be of benefit to all people, without losing its integrity or being dishonest about its intentions with one group or the other. We're having a blast, and hope that everyone continues to enjoy the workshops this week!

This Year's Travels Begin!

Today I leave Spokane for Casper, WY. As I have mentioned before, I will be working with one of our local Church partners, as well as putting on a secular version of IRI's human development workshop for Casper College. This week is travel and preparation, and next week the real fun begins! I am looking forward to working in both venues. We know that our work is beneficial for both Christian growth, and general human development, and are excited to demonstrate this at Casper. The college training will be held during the day, while the Church work will take place in the evening.

Once I finish the workshop in Casper, I will be heading back to Spokane. There is still work I need to do here, as well as additional plans to me made for the rest of this year. Things are starting to heat up; let's see where they go!

Philippines Log: Friday, 3/22/2013

We have made it to the Philippines! I arrived in Hong Kong a little over a week ago after a 23-hour flight. We stayed over the weekend at Ken’s church (Ken is hosting us in Hong Kong), and picked up a few final supplies before heading out for Manila on Wednesday. Compared to the flight to get to Hong Kong, the flight to Manila was fairly quick – only about an hour and a half in the air. We (Al, Ken, and I) arrived at the Philippines and were picked up by our host here, Marie, and Dave, an IRI board member who had arrived the day before. Marie took us south, stopping by a mall (to pick up a few more things we managed to remember only after getting on the plane in Hong Kong) and eventually crossing a lake to arrive at her home, a concrete and metal house on a mountain overlooking said lake.

Currently, we are preparing for the Insight Seminar next week. We arrived early, so only those of us from Hong Kong, a national minister named Cody, and Marie and her family are here right now. We expect the rest of the group to arrive today and late tomorrow. In total, there should be about 24 of us.

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique

The Insight Seminar here in Chimoio is wrapping up, which gives me an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, good and bad. This is the third seminar we have held in Mozambique and the second Portuguese seminar. It is the first seminar in which I did not act as presenter—instead, Leonard Chetechsi took on the role of presenter. I acted as assistant and coach during and after the seminars. My main rule this time was to coach Leonard on seminar presentation and debrief with him after each session. Leonard is one of our co-workers in Mozambique and was the interpreter for last year’s Portuguese seminar. When I leave, he will be responsible for organizing and leading seminars for the next year.

So how has Leonard been doing? Overall, he’s doing a fantastic job—he’s a natural presenter, and will be invaluable in helping Mozambicans understand the new concepts we are introducing. But generalities are only worth so much, so let’s get into seminar details, what they mean, and why they’re important. For ease of reading, I will break this down by point of interest (this will probably take several blog entries to completely cover):

Point One: Schedule

 We originally were planning for me to present/oversee four to five seminars while I was here. Unfortunately, due to limited funds delaying my departure and car trouble, we ended up with three and a half weeks in Mozambique instead of our original three month plan. This left us with enough time for one seminar. In keeping with our theme of “new scheduling plans”, we decided to implement an experimental seminar schedule—instead of holding the seminar for five eight-hour days, we thought we would try weeknights and weekends. This would give participants time to work during the day. This meant we had to extend the total time of the seminar to two weeks, but we thought it was a fair trade-off.

The result was mixed. While the participants were certainly able to get more work done during the week, the cultural attitude toward time meant that each session started almost an hour late—over ten days, that drops ten hours. In addition, they participants weren’t really keen on coming over the weekend, which meant we lost additional time. Between the two, our total seminar time was cut in half. On the plus side, the participants did have extra time to think through what they were learning. In addition, the participants indicated they wanted to complete the seminar as soon as Leonard gets back from traveling with Al and I back to South Africa. Overall verdict: while the five-day schedule is inconvenient for people, it seems to provide a more complete learning experience with the fewest difficulties.  Leonard wants to conduct the next seminar using the standard schedule.

 

Next Entry: Attendance and Participation

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique (2)

[note: these seminar posts are being posted in reverse order to facilitate easier viewing on the site - this is part 2 of 3]

Point Two: Attendance

Given the radical schedule changes and the fact that our Mozambican associates really have never scheduled a seminar on their own before, our attendance was pretty much what we expected. Our first night saw around six people; over the next few days, we lost a couple of people and gained about four more. By the end of the first week, we were averaging six people a night. The second week, however, saw a decrease in attendance. Whether this was due to a certain amount of miscommunication about what to expect from the seminar or participant fatigue is hard to determine—I am planning on working with Leonard to follow up with the participants to investigate the details. In any case, by the end of the second week, we were down to three people.

While discouraging, this is not unexpected. The seminars are far more complex than many Mozambicans are used to, and it is not unusual for the stress of the material to cause some to give up. 

On the other hand, the miscommunication regarding expectations has been identified and we will be able to better communicate what the seminars are about next time. In Mozambique, many nonprofit organizations have taken to offering people food or money to attend their seminars. The offer is appreciated, of course, but it creates a situation where participants attend not to learn, but to earn.[i]  While this may sound like a nice way to provide poor nationals with money and allow them to learn, all it really does is set an expectation that “classes” equal “stuff.” Thus, seminars and other training are often valued for the prizes, not the education, provided. Once we clarified that our seminar was there to give people tools in the form of information, a few of them lost interest. Others, however, were excited to learn something they actually considered useful, and saw no need to have any other incentive.

Point Three: Participation

Of utmost importance in the seminar is participation by the attendees (which is why I usually call them participants). The seminars don’t just spit out information at the participants—it is important to us that people understand the principles we’re trying to communicate, and are able to apply them to their lives. As a result, the seminar is geared toward a lot of activities to reinforce our ideas. This is especially important in Africa, where most of the participants have never encountered these concepts before.

This, thankfully, was a great success. The participants were very engaged with what we were discussing (even those who were just there because they thought they would get food were interested and participating). There was a definite level of excitement in the group, and we noted not only a steadily increasing level of engagement from the remaining participants, but also an increasing level of excitement. Some of these activities and discussion are quite difficult and complex, and the participants were definitely rising to the challenge. This was exactly what we wanted, and we are extremely happy with the results.

Next Entry: Conclusions

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[i] These same organizations often later wonder why there isn’t any long-term impact from their training. Here’s a tip for anyone who is interested in teaching people: if you have to pay people to attend your training, THEY ARE NOT THERE FOR YOUR TRAINING. People do not learn by infection—simply going to a training session does not guarantee participation or retention, and paying your students to attend will only get them in the seat. If anyone out there is considering or has been paying people to attend your training/seminar/workshop, please just stop (note: this does not apply to workforce training by businesses – if you want your employees to know something they don’t you should pay them to learn it). OK, footnote rant over.

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique (3)

[note: these seminar posts are being posted in reverse order to facilitate easier viewing on the site - this is part 3 of 3]

Conclusion:

So overall, how did things go? I think I can safely say that while we are happy with the response from the participants in the seminar, the scheduling and attendance shows that we still need to work on our overall seminar structure here. This was expected, given the difference in culture between where we come from (the U.S.), where the seminar originated (South Africa), and the local culture priorities. One of the major advantages of having Leonard with us is that we can ask him why various things are happening, and he can give us a response that comes from inside the culture. In the end, it will be Leonard[i] who makes the final decisions on how to adapt the material to Mozambique .

One key thing we took away from this session is confirmation that our previous seminars were not some kind of exceptional fluke – these seminars really do have a powerful positive effect on the nationals. The concepts they introduce, while common to many westerners, are virtually unknown here. One example is our session on categories. We spend a fair amount of time explaining what categories are and why they are important. After going through the session, Leonard noted that, while the participants were having a lot of difficulty thinking of things in this new way, they were rising to the challenge, and excited about what they could do with what they have learned. For those of you with strong conceptual backgrounds, I want you to try to think of how you would see the world if you did not understand categorization—then understand this is exactly the case in many Mozambican (and, from other discussion we have had, many African) cultures. 

It isn’t that Mozambicans can’t think in terms of categories, just that no one has ever bothered to teach them about it, and it is not native to their culture. This is why we’re here—concepts like these are critical to developing large-scale economic as well as individual personal development. Mozambique is a place full of potential, and once the Mozambicans are able to see how to take advantage of that potential, we expect great things from this culture.

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[i] I should mention that Leonard is acting as a kind of proxy here – we actually have several other Mozambicans we are working with who are working alongside Leonard to refine the seminar in Mozambique, but because of the unfortunate schedule changes, they were not able to be here for this seminar, so I am focusing on Leonard for this account.

Incoming Workshop!

So I've been away a while again. Originally, we were planning on me being in South Africa by now en route to Mozambique. Unfortunately, a shortage of funds (airlines actually want you to PAY them to fly you places...crazy) demanded that I stay in the U.S. for another month. On the plus side, this provided an opportunity to conduce a pilot workshop here in Torrington, WY. One door closes, another door opens...

The workshop is designed to be a short "core principles" version of the full Insight Seminar we use as part of our work in Mozambique and elsewhere. The full seminar tends to run about 40 hours - a huge time investment for most people - and costs, at minimum, around $600 per person,* making it quite pricy. While I believe the seminar is worth both the time and cost, I have wanted to put together a simpler, more basic presentation to help people grasp some of the core ideas and raise awareness of the principles behind what we are doing. Thus we came up with the idea for the Insight Workshop - a 9-hour workshop which costs substantially less than the full workshop, but still helps people develop new ways of thinking about their lives that can help them live better. I will be posting our full "workshop notice" soon, so anyone who is interested can make reservations.

IN OTHER NEWS...

We are in the process of creating a new website! The new site will combine the old Safari Insight Mission website and the Insight International website into the Insight Resources International website! We're really excited about having a new site with updated information (and working links). I will post when it is up, so please get ready to check it out when it comes - look for the new site in about a month or so.

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*That's just to cover the cost of venue and materials. To generate any kind of revenue (or pay any of our staff), the seminar runs closer to $1200 per person.

Reporting In

I've been away from the blog a bit, despite my best intentions. I have completed my tour of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. During my time traveling, I was able to visit several of our supporters and talk to a large number of people about what we've been doing in Africa and our plans for the future. I've fielded a lot of questions about what we are planning and why we are doing what we are doing. I've also gotten to talk about our vision for the future. Most of the people I talked to were enthusiastic, some were confused, and a few were concerned about some aspect of our work, but all were open and welcoming. In short, it was a lot of fun, and I want to thank everyone I met for taking the time to hear about the exciting work we are doing.

I still plan to write up a few articles to help explain more about the seminars. I did not forget—the seminars are just hard to describe. There are a lot of ideas that have contributed to their development, and I want to make sure I do them justice.

One quick point—when I post about the seminars (or anything else), please remember that I am speaking as a person, and my views may not reflect Safari Insight Mission's official position. Just needed to throw that out there for legal reasons, so no one takes something I am musing over and presents it as the SIM gospel.

Next up: what the seminars are really supposed to do.

Arrival in Mozambique

After approximately 20 hours of travel time (not counting my layover in Johannesberg, South Africa), I finally arrived in Mozambique. I have several pictures that I plan to post later, but for now, let me give some initial impressions:

• Mozambique is different - you might think this is an obvious statement, but that's probably because you've never been in a country like this one. If compared to US concepts of wealth, Mozambique is clearly poor. Once you get past the superficial differences, though, you can see the kind of lifestyle the people here live isn't intended to match up to western norms. It will take me a while to disentangle my conception of prosperity and poverty from my impression of Mozambique's people, but in order to understand where the real points of concern are for the people here, I will have to try. If you try to help with a problem that is only a problem for you, you don't end up helping much.
• I am a definate minority - this isn't the first time I've been a minority, but it's always a little disorienting at first. Right now, my most important task regarding the people here is to get to know them. Most don't trust Americans in general, though my hosts, Al and Vel Corson, seem to have a pretty good relationship with many of the people here. It will be a bit difficult getting to know people myself, due to my lack of Portugeese-speaking power, but there are enough English speakers here that I think I will be able to get to know people fairly well before I leave. I have a couple of guys here who have already informed me that I will know at least a little Portugeese before I leave.
• I have already met several people who are coming to the seminars, and interest is high. I look forward to the experience of presenting the material, as I am sure the feedback and questions will be much different from what I have recieved in the States.

That's all for now - more information to come later!

NMC Expenses and Follow-Up

Happy New Year!

It appears the holidays kept me a bit more distracted than I had anticipated. I was planning to post the expenses for the Lexington, KY trip in November after the National Missionary Convention, but I see it is now the 1st of January. My apologies.

I have the totals for the November convention expenses, and a quick summary of how things went at the convention:

NMC Expenses:
Transportation: $518.00
Lodging: $449.16
Food: $85.90
Misc: $89.00*
TOTAL: $1097.56

*Misc. expenses include cash food purchases and other untracked items. As not all misc. expenses may be convention-related, the final total only includes half of these expenses.

Post-Convention Debrief:

Going into the convention, I had three main goals:

• Meet with organizations that have expressed interest in seminars to see if they would like to pilot a seminar.
• Identify new organizations who express interest in the seminar.
• Identify organizations with resources that can help Insight International advance or promote the seminars.

So how did we do? Pretty well, I think.

During the convention, I was able to follow up with organizations that have expressed interest in the seminars in the past. As we expected, there was a unspoken concern regarding the effectiveness of the seminars. Everyone was too polite to straight out ask us to prove our claims (that the seminars create lasting change in the participants's perspectives and lives), but the implication was clear. This was far from discouraging, however, as we expected this response, and most people still seemed interested in the potential to do what we claim. We just need to provide some "proof-of-concept" in order to get people on board. I think the data we gather in the 2011 seminars will help us tremendously in providing the kind of data these organizations were looking for.

I also identified a few organizations who may benefit from the seminars in the future. I plan to keep their contact information and speak with them again once we gather some of the aforementioned data. For the most part, I looked for education-focused or lifestyle-focused organizations, including orphanages and inner city missions. Many of these organizations have programs that could benefit from using the seminars as a foundation. I have also targeted a few select colleges to ask to sponsor or host pilot seminars.

Finally, I have identified several organizations whose resources can help us. These fall into two main categories: logistics (travel agencies, insurance, etc.), and what I will call "networking" groups - groups which help other organizations coordinate and share resources in the field. The first can help us keep overhead down or give us access to better resources - the latter can put us in contact with additional organizations who may need the seminars.

Eventually, I plan to invite representatives from various organizations to pilot seminars over the next several years. I find it is much easier to explain why the seminars are important once someone sees what the seminars actually do. Once we get through our first seminar in San Antonio (see below), we will start planning additional seminars based on the feedback we receive there.

That's the end of the convention summary - it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back next year armed with some real data from the 2011 seminars. The first of these is coming fast - our San Antonio leadership seminar hosted by the Heart of Texas Evangelistic Association (HOTEA). The seminar is scheduled for February 9-13. Registration will be available on the Insight International website; there is a $295 registration fee that covers the seminar, lunch and snacks for all five days. Registration will be capped at 30 people on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have a standby list for anyone who is interested but registers after we have reached capacity. More information coming soon on the Insight International website.

Have a happy new year, everyone!