The Cercadillo Project

Children's Leadership Team of Cercadillo

So proud of Ricki, Elida and Joelina who completed 30 hours of AMO training, focusing on social and spiritual education of children!  The training was held in an upscale private school in downtown Santo Domingo.  Not only were the days long for people unaccustomed to a full day of school (We left Cercadillo around 6:30 each morning and returned around 6:30 each evening), we were being trained with professional teachers.  Ricki is currently attending night school, Elida has never had any formal education and Joelina is the equivalent of a high school Junior.

I worried that they would feel overwhelmed, that they would be discouraged, that they wouldn’t complete the training.  All needlessly.  Our three Cercadillo women were definitely devoted to the tasks at hand, trying to absorb as much as possible during each session.  I was amazed each day at the conversations we had in transit.  They not only understood the philosophies and principles, they were applying them to individual children/youth in our village.

My favorite insight from the five day training:  Moses was born into the home of slaves and yet became an incredible leader.  Just imagine what God can do with our children in Cercadillo!

And just for fun . . .

. . . The room where we were meeting had a cooling system set at about 68 degrees.  We “Cercadillo-ans” aren’t accustomed to air and had to wear jackets the entire time.  We joked about looking forward to when class was over so we could go outside and warm up.

Oh, and one more bit of fun . . . The last day of training was Sunday afternoon.  I took the ladies to lunch down by the ocean to celebrate their completion of the course.  It was the first time that  17 year old Joelina had seen the ocean.  Remember, she lives on a Caribbean island, about 15 miles from where we were standing. She was totally amazed by it and said, “I want all our kids to see this, too!”  Ah, a children’s leader is born!