Everything about the Estrategia de Transformación, on our website: www.estrategiadetransformacion.com
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THOSE YOUTH OF THE STREET "I use to say about
the street youth of my neighborhood that somebody should shoot them"
-Elías Quintana- "When I use to walk to my Church and
see the young people who hung out on the street, I would walk
by them as fast as I could..." -Martha
Fornos.- Elías, once a military chief during Nicaragua’s
civil war, became a Christian and joined the Christian Reformed
Church of Nagarote, a very poor community in the department of
León. However, even after becoming a Christian, he harbored
in his heart incredible amounts of disdain towards the problematic
youth of his neighborhood. |
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Art
Camp at La Limonada |
A
story to tell... |
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 When one enters the community known as "La Limonada" the tell-tale signs of violence, the smell of decomposing garbage and the sheer congestion of people, especially children, are overwhelming. The ditch known as La Limonada is home to some 60,000 people, a huge percentage of which are small children. This Thanksgiving a team of BuildaBridge artists joined hands with three collaborating organizations in Guatemala City to conduct an arts camp for 200 children ages 3-18 in the heart of La Limonada. The Strategy of Transformation invited BuildaBridge to join efforts in short and long term projects (both in prisons and marginalized communities) to impact and change lives in Guatemala Cit utilizing the arts as the primary tool of expression. |
Chaplains, staff, Barrio4Christ and other friends of the Strategy of Transformation were invited guests of the Guatemalan Penitentiary System to attend theater presentations of plays written and performed by gang members of the Barrio 18 from Preventivo Prison and women prisoners of the Santa Teresa prison. Both groups of men and women were responsible for writing, choreographing and making sets for their respective plays under the tutelage of professional drama instructors. When we officially began the gang chaplaincy initiative with Barrio4Christ, the prisoners were confined to their cells for up to 2 weeks in a row. Now, just one year later, they are writing and performing dramas with amazing charisma and incredibly creative artistic back-drops. They were allowed to leave their maximum security sectors for the first time to a special multi-purpose room where we saw the presentations. It was a huge blessing to see representatives of diverse sectors of society opening their ears to the voices behind the bars. In attendance was one of the recent Guatemalan Presidential Candidates as well as the wife of the current president of Guatemala. This activity opens the door for new opportunities of self-expression in the future such as an international sculpture symposium that is currently under consideration. This coming year the prisoners are planning to represent The Passion of Christ from their unique perspective as gang members rejected and hated by society. This is one more of the many exciting projects that we hope to continue actively supporting as part of the focus of the EdT.
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Voices from the Streets
In this section, we want to share three brief testimonies from different countries where leaders are engaged in the training of The Strategy of Transformation. We give thanks to God for each participant's life and involvement in the training and for the way that their ministry perspective has been enriched through the trainings and the community being formed in the training cohorts.Lucía Elizabeth Chach, Quiché, Guatemala.
"... I am 21 years old and I have received these trainings because I no longer want to see more pain in the youth, in the children, in the mothers and in the families of those, who like myself, have alcoholic fathers or former gang members as brothers. The society and the church does not understand the situation and that leads them to condemn and judge instead of helping or looking for solutions. There are many Christians that are not willing to work with these youth for fear, selfishness, etc. But when you understand the true love of God, you see with God's eyes the heart of hurting people and can look beyond their appearance or their past. I look forward to continue on with the training to learn how to be a tool in God's hand to see how these beautiful lives soon will be transformed by God. My sister and I travel four hours every month by bus to attend the trainings and then have another four hour trip back home by bus when it is over. The trainings and the fellowship make the trip worth the effort every time."Jackarellys González, Nicaragua.
"... In June of 2005, at the first training I attended, I was the youth pastor of my church with around 300 youth. My plan was then to give up the leadership of the ministry after the training because I felt that I was failing the youth and their families in every way. I was tired and burned out. I felt like I had nothing more to give them. But today I give thanks to God for the blessings that these courses have been to me both personally and professionally. God has filled me again with passion for working with youth, especially those in hard places. The Strategy of Transformation has been a huge blessing for my ministry and as a result of what I received I never gave up doing what God had called me to do.... the whole process has been a huge help and not only for the ministry but also for my personal spiritual life. It has been an awesome experience to share with the other members that participated in the strategy process as they have been God's blessings in the happy and difficult moments of my life."Sandra Carrillo, El Salvador.
" I would like to share so much more...but these few days were enough to know that The Holy Spirit is hovering among us as well as in the hard places we are called to serve. I want to share my deepest gratitude to God for your willingness to share with us by opening up a place in your heart. Together as a group we have learned so much... now, it is the time to put it all into practice!! I can't wait for the next course and for our cohort group meetings.
Carl Most
hultner1@yahoo.com
cmost@ibw.com.ni
Organizational Partner:
Centro Nehemias
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| Training
in El Salvador |
Trainers
and participants on the Closure Activity in Nicaragua, for the 2005-2007graduation. |
