Six Days - Forty Two Hours of Training = More Hope

We arrived in Mazatlan, Mexico one week ago tonight.  Eight days later, we are preparing to leave and words just cannot describe what the experience of working with the folks of Back2Back ministries has been like. Truly amazing young people dedicated to the care of the orphan in every way - spiritually, physically, educationally, socially and emotionally. We have learned much from them.  It is our hope, we have left something for them as well.

During our time here  we provided six days of training to children's home staff and Back2Back staff on trauma informed care for wounded, at-risk children. The title of this first in a series is Building Trauma Competent Healing Caregivers. Seventy some participants came from a number of locations around Mexico in the two three-day trainings. We also spent about 2 hours each evening with seven young people preparing to take the training material around the country.

Here are sights from the training 

David and Gabriel,  the Site Director in Mazatlan open the training.

                                 

Doing a first assignment - Teresa, Lizy, Ana and Ana - future trainers

                           

Kelly,  Johanna Buchman, LAMb co-founder and daughter-in-law, Adrianna 

           

Matt, Dana, Kirsten and Chad - B2B staff 

Looking through the lens of a wounded child

Processing a group activity. Kelly, with the mic is the wife of the site director.

Discussing an assignment

Johanna shares about LAMb

Preparing for a demonstration

Soon to be demonstrating a life value script

Each evening, we met with this incredible young people discussing training content
 and presentation skills for trainers. These young trainers far exceeded my expectations as they help present on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  We were so excited for them - they get it!
(ltr Ana, Theresa, Rachel, Lizy, Ana, David Domingo, Juan and Dana)

Giving instructions for role plays.

Ana asks David to participate in a demonstration.

                       

The Salvation Army has 19 children's homes in Mexico and their staff was
well represented.

Finishing the last day on Saturday - this is the second group of some
of the finest folks we have met.  Among these folks is also a key government leader who
expressed great interest in spreading this training.  That is why we were there - to prepare, support, and mentor trainers to carry on the work.


Our prayer for this week continues to be that the hearts and minds of wounded children will experience healing by the touch of these caregivers and supporters.

Our Next Steps

Journeying with God's call is one step at a time...waiting, listening, and watching. Today, David and I take another step in ministry as we are heading to Mexico to partner with Back2Back. ministries to share our first phase of Wounded Children, Hope for Healing Series. We will be there six days training two groups on trauma informed care for at-risk children, most who are in an orphanage or foster home setting. LAMb founder, Johanna Buchanan will be joining us for this next new step.

Check back later this week for pictures and updates.

Also, please check the blogs of our team members and friends:

LAMb International   www.lambinternational.blogspot.com 

John and Juilie Wright  www.actofkindness.blogspot.com  

A New Territory and New Opportunity

Tonight David and I are busy packing for a new adventure.  As a result of our (LAMB) partnership with Orphan's Promise, we have been given an incredible opportunity to work in a number of their training centers in Eastern Europe.  These training centers are community outreaches to at-risk children - actually, many of them street children or nearly street kids.

Our first training center is in Armenia, which is a brand new location for us. We will be taking our trauma informed caregiver series to them, adapting it to the needs that are there. Following three days of training there, we will fly to Ukraine and then drive to western Ukraine to share with foster and adoptive parents. We hope to be a support and encouragement to them.  The final stop on our  training trip this time will be back in Kiev, at the CBN (Christian Broadcasing Network) training center for youth there.

In mid-September, I will return home and David flies on to Krygzstan for a week of meetings as he is the Chairman of the Board for IUCA, International Univeristy of Central Asia.

We are so humbled by the passion God has placed within us. We are so appreciative of the opportunity before us....the journey continues...Please check back as we will be sharing how we encounter God throughout our time with some very special and new people to us.

Announcing An Exciting Training Opportunity - Please Pass the Word

Last May, we had the opportunity to meet with many folks at the CAFO Summit as we shared our vision for equipping caregivers to care for wounded, abused and neglected children. Our vision has greatly expanded and we would like to announce a three day training series that will prepare leadership and support staff to train others. This first training is part of our Wounded Children, Hope for Healing series. 

Each year, hundreds of children around the world enter orphanages or foster homes and into the caregiving of people with giving hearts and a desire to help children. However many not equipped for their responsibilities. It is our hope to help equip the caregivers for their challenging role in the life of a wounded child.

In partnership with Christian Alliance for Orphans, (CAFO), LAMb International will be holding a training series with Phase One beginning on February 18-20, 2014 in Dayton, Ohio.  

Here is all the information.  To register for this event, visit  www.cafo.org/trauma  

Poland Update - The Rest of the Story

This is the rest of the story of our journey with our dear Polish friends. We spent three days of training foster parents, therapists and trainers on our trauma informed series. There were 33 participants from all over the country.  They loved the Trust Based Relational information - the work of Dr. Karyn Purvis and colleagues, that we we integrated into the three day series.

Here are pictures from a week we will remember....

 Discussing a group activity.

Everyone jumps in to contribute to the activity on child development.

 This group is discussing their presentation for the last day

 Not sure what I am doing here....sometimes candid shots are not that complimentary.

 Ania, the 19 year old daughter of Jurek and Edyta, foster parents, was indispensable for the week. We hesitated to have a need because she would move to meet it immediately.

 The workshop was full of opportunities to process the trauma information.

 Jumping to answer a question and winning Wounded Children Healing Homes in Polish.

 David's contribution in the workshop was invaluable.  His insight and depth of knowledge in this area was so helpful to everyone.

 Our group...and we hope to see them again.....

Nothing of this magnitude happens without leadership.  Joanna is the executive director of  "Koalicja na rzecz Rodzinnej Opieki Zastępczej" - a coalition of foster parent associations around Poland.  Thank you Joanna for the opportunity to share.

Our time in Poland is over for now, but we will continue to work with them on several projects...just hoping also to get back there and see those beautiful children  (see blog entry below)....

Poland - Beyond Expectations

From meeting incredible foster families, to spending time with social work professionals and therapists, to sightseeing the beauty of a country, our week in Poland, as David said to our friends as we were leaving - "exceeded our wildest expectations."

During our week there we attended and spoke at a national foster care conference, conducted three days of training, spent time seeing the country, but most importantly connected with people of like mind and heart.  It is best shared in pictures....

First - meeting a beautiful special family
Jurek and Edyta have been foster parents for 17 years and have cared for over 40 children, many of whom they keep active contact today.  This was our introduction to the hospitality of Poland.

Jurek..he looks so serious here but he is a wonderful, caring, fun-loving foster dad..

Eight of the ten children who live in the foster family....We can almost tell you everyone of their names.

David was thrilled this little guy wanted to hold his hand..he soon learned he had a plan. . Edyta is a gentle and compassionate foster mom.

 Out on a walk and taking pictures of each other taking pictures.

 Dinner with the young adults who are still very connected to the family. Ania, the biological daughter of the foster family is sitting behind me.  This is an incredibly gifted, compassionate young adult who is deeply involved in the lives of the children in their homes. She has grown up with this as the only way of life she knows and will have a great impact herself on the future of child welfare in this county. I just know that.

 Dora caught our hearts...as did all the children.

C




























Chris, his American name, really connected to David.


Sight-seeing before the serious work

 Visiting an historic church.

 Behind us, across the river is Belarus.  This was a wonderful drive through the countryside.

David's right foot is in Poland and his left is in Belarus....Quite a feat to have your feet in different countries!

The Serious Work Begins

First stop the national conference

 Between 300 and 400 foster parents, social workers, members of the legislation and judicial branches and others attended this first time Foster Care Congress. This was during our presentation as the audience listened to the translation.  We spoke on the Three Essential Tasks for Foster Caregivers.

These foster care youth served in many ways throughout the conference.

COMING TOMORROW - MEETING OUR TRAINING GROUP - THEY WERE AWESOME!

A Week of Preparing - Our Privilege

We hear it everywhere - whether home in the US, here in Ukraine and I know we will hear it next week in Poland. Adoptive and foster families struggle with the issues facing them. Often facing unexpected behavioral and emotional issues in their children,  families discover the dream of caring for an abused or neglected child is evaporating into hurt, chaos and confusion.  They find themselves in a situation in which they see no answers. This leaves many hopeless and beyond discouragement.

It is this reality that fuels the passion that David and I and our team members, Lynn and Ruby have for our newest training focus - preparing families and those who support them to grow into becoming a trauma competent healing presence in a child's life.

We spent the first two days of this week concluding our trauma informed care training at SOS Village in Kiev. We began the series in late March and finished it on Tuesday.  The training day turned from just being informational to transformation as the participants really connected with the healing principles of TBRI( Trust Based Relational Intervention - Dr. Karyn Purvis.)

Connecting with children comes through the five senses.  These workers are creating fun lists of connecting through vision activities, hearing  activities, touch  activities, smelling  activities and tasting  activities.  Their lists were very creative. They were excited about the useful ideas.

Beginning this week at SOS Children's Village in Kiev, we completed two days of training
with social workers, psychologists, and foster moms on trauma informed care.

We have focused the last portion of this week on training ILDC (International Leadership and Development Center, Kiev) trainers. These trainers are charged with the task of taking the material back to their agencies to train social workers and families in principles trauma informed care. The same thing is happening here as it did at SOS...our trainers are experiencing real insight in how to teach principles that will strengthen families.

A Glimpse of  Working with ILDC Trainers - Our Privilege

Natalia and Luba are planning their trainer's presentation for Friday afternoon.

David is sharing about sensory processing issues with traumatized children

The trainers are learning how to conduct the sensory processing activity with future participants.

                       

  Lena and Natasha, both adoptive/foster parents, are planning their presentation for Friday.

       

Sharing a group assignment, Luba, Lena, Natalia and Natasha are discussing ways to maximize a child's sense of safety in the foster/adoptive home.

We finish with the ILDC trainers on Friday afternoon, have a down day in Kiev, before leaving early Sunday morning for a conference in Poland and then training the trauma series.

Before Lynn and Ruby left Ukraine on Sunday, we had a rare opportunity to connect with them this trip in Kiev.  We are so thankful for the opportunities they have opened to us both in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

                Outside a restaurant Saturday evening in Kiev. 

                                        

David and I look at such opportunities as God's gift to us to be able to share. What we have been given, we want to pass on....and it is our privilege.