Thursday, November 13, 2008

Last Week

Our internet was out for 4+ days. Sorry for the delay. Stay tuned for another entry before I leave for Cape Town on Monday!

Last week we had six South Africans visit us on the base. They were part of their own ministry and were here to learn and be trained in what Leadership Summit was about. They were busy in classes most of the time but we did get to eat meals with them and they said two things I want to highlight.
First they said to just about everyone they saw that they could tell the ministry here was run with excellence which is uncommon in Africa. This was a big deal because while excellence is one of the core values at Thrive it’s not that often you hear it recognized by people who actually live here.
Second one guy made the point that if we tried teaching our curriculum by ourselves that is, without Basotho coaches the students simply wouldn’t get it. I had not thought of that in the 9 previous months I’ve been here but it rang true. The curriculum Thrive makes and teaches is just so radical for these kids that if someone from their own culture doesn’t explain it, it won’t sink in.
A lot of ministries that seek to build up nationals into leadership are overly hesitant in letting the nationals actually take those positions. They wait so long for the nationals to be “ready” that it just doesn’t happen. Thrive is being bold in utilizing coaches and having Basothos be on their staff when their ministry is still so young. But their vision is to build up leaders and while Thrive may not be huge just yet it is accomplishing just that exact vision. It’s not always easy to put so much faith and training in nationals so quick and Thrive I’m sure has had (and will continue to have) its up and downs with training Basothos but they are being effective and doing God’s work and that is the ultimate goal.

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