recent email

I just wanted to share some of the recent emails I have gotten for those of you who are interested in keeping up with what the girls are learning and doing.

Hi, This week lecture is emotions Monday through Wednesday, and critical trauma response Thursday through Saturday. We also have a test on the memory verses we have memorized.
There has been kind of a lot of high emotions and stressed out people. Some people have really been struggling with the class and the work the whole time. Lots of people have been getting sick to which is partly due to stress and staying up late working on assignments. It is kind of a lot of work, more than any other ywam school that anyone in the class has done. There is one lady who has done 5 other schools and several of us who have done other secondary schools and this is more work plus class can be emotionally challenging. It is stressful at times, especially when we have to share in front of the class or minister and it is a very high participation school. And we are given a lot of articles to read and hand outs to fill out. I found it hard at first but have gotten used to it and have been able to get everything done and get really good grades so far.
Hi
Today was really good, we had an amazing class. The speaker for the seminar is really good speaker and really interesting. We couldn't actually talk about the seminar stuff because it is just a 2 day seminar and other people who will be taking it with us have to hear it all to get certified. But the guy who came gave his testimony and then we just asked a bunch of questions. The guy has had a hard, crazy life and he is only 25 but he has been through much of the same things that all the people we will be counseling so we had a ton of questions. He also struggled with homosexuality so we disused that for a long time and why people develop the life style how to help them and just questions about how his counseling and rehab went and what helped and what didn't and how being a Christian effected him during it all. It was a good class and maybe the quickest 4 hours has gone by in this school. I am very exited for tomorrow. We aren't quite sure what it will look like, but he is a good speaker and very good at answering questions.
We also had another guy come talk about Haiti and tell us again how hot it it will be and how he slept on the floor instead of the bed to try and get cooler and that it will probably be even hotter when we get there.

The homework is the main reason people are stressed but some people really did need counseling when they came so they are struggling a bit with the lecture and all the stuff that is coming up. For some just sitting through the lecture is all they can handle but for most they just can't seem to do all the homework or get stressed out because they have to spend so many hours on it that they don't get enough rest and can never just spend a day relaxing.


Hi,
The lecture was really good today this guy has only been doing this for a short time but he is a great speaker and really knows the topic. I don't really know how it works or quite how it works or anything but apparently the certificate will get us into ground zero areas. I don't really know what that means but apparently people who had done this training helped during 9/11 and where right there on scene and that if we show up at disaster sights with the certificate we might get assigned groups of people do be in charge of and expected to help make decisions but we also might be told to do any little job that needs done but it is still really good training.

They haven't told us much about outreach but I assume we will have to start meeting soon but with so much going on and so many people stressed already I am not sure how that will go.
We will do local outreach, it is required to pass the school. They have one next Saturday for sure where we will go help out a group called angle food that delivers food to the needy. They also said we might have something next week but they didn't know yet if we would or when for sure.
We we will have to minister and maybe teach in the next 2 weeks. The say that everyone does need counseling and that is one reason why this school is so great because we are all getting some counseling and then no matter where we go or who we are around we can assume they need counseling.

Foundations of Counseling School

I asked the girls to make a list of what they have learned so far in their school. They started
April 5th, so in just 5 weeks this is what they have done.

The topics we have had are-

Active listening and renewing the mind by Eric Spady
Developmental issues and Myers Briggs by Sheron Ohai
Theophostic prayer ministry Edward Smith
Theophostic ministry class practice Marge Miester
Strengthsfinder and how to teach Mary Hagland
Today we are learning about strength finders. We all took the test and got our 5 strengths and then we had some teaching on it, which was mostly learning what they are and how to live in them and how to bring out the strengths in others.

Books we've read so far-

Strengthsfinder 2.0, by Tom Rath
Walls of my Heart, by Dr. Bruce Thompson
Listening for Heaven's Sake: Building Genuine Trust and Openness, published by equipping ministries international inc
Renewing the Mind: Thinking Feeling and Acting more like Jesus, published by equipping ministries international inc
Theophostic prayer ministry student workbook by Edward Smith it was 200 pages long and we filled it all out
We also both did book reports mine was on Why We Do the Things We Do, it was about healing relationships and recognizing the 4 relationships styles.
Jadie's was on abortion, Her choice to heal, by Sydna Masse

We've also had several hand outs on: where did my expectations come from, on developmental freedom, and on Myers Briggs.

We've had to do a lot of journaling and Bible memory also.

Other topics we will have are: crises first response, sexual abuse, plumb line, and something to do with emotions.

We have to do an 8 page paper on a counseling topic of our choice such as abuse, eating disorders, addictions.

We will become certified in the crises first responders course and can become certified in Theophostics if we can do the extra hours of ministry.
We have learned and practiced the basics of both Christian and secular counseling.

We will start local outreach soon and in June we go to Haiti and actually counsel the people in the trauma areas, helping them to deal with the grief, shock, fear, and to find healing.

Our teaching covered how to help people realize why they are feeling what they are feeling, how to identify lies believed that are preventing people from changing behavior, what, questions to ask to help people talk through their problems and feelings. How to help abused children, different types of therapy, how to deal with DID or dissociated identity disorders ( people with multiple personality's), reflective listening, which is like active listening only it is an actual skill counselors use to ask questions and get clarification from clients. We learned how to read body language, how to start session, and basic counseling tips, like how to arrange an office and how to use our body language to get clients to open up. We did basic counseling drills in the first week with a secular style and did real theophostics on each other where the person had a problem and we went from them walking in, to them finding peace or healing. We would have to get 30 hours of practice before we would be certified and most of us only did about 2. We watched several live demos and I have sat through at least 6 hours of ministry as an intercessor and note taker. It seems like we've done and learned a lot more but it is late and this is all I can think of.

Sounds like they are keeping busy. :o)