Take a Risk, See Results!

Highlight Story From My Week:

Every Friday, Jackelyn has a class for teen girls with ages from 11-14. The past two weeks I have sat in on her class and participated/observed. This age group makes me very uncomfortable back home even, but here especially. It has always been a weakness of mine, teaching older children. My passion is with the younger ones. This class is so important for the wellbeing and lives of these  pre-teen girls. They are taught at home that their main goal in life is to get married and have children...young. They are not driven to be educated. And most likely, their husband will leave them or have other women on the side. It is a terrible cycle that continues to be passed from generation to generation. Jackelyn's class teaches these women about morals, values, responsibility, independence, integrity and dreams. As I have been observing I have noticed these girls are SO shy, and it is like pulling teeth to get them to talk and answer questions. The past two weeks the theme has been about integrity. Jackelyn has been struggling to motivate these girls to participate, they are SO quiet. Last week I told her, we need to do something different. And all week I have been brainstorming. Today we tried one of MY ideas.  AND today I taught the class!!! Before I stated the lesson, I asked the girls, "Do you want to dance?" I love to dance, even though I am terrible, it can be so much fun! We put on some music, and everyone just stood there. These girls are not used to dancing, or moving at all! I started to dance and literally make a complete fool of myself! I was able to get all the girls laughing, and participating!! We did a congo line around the chapel and outside. It was literally ridiculous, but in such a good way. I wanted to get the girls warmed up to participate. When it came time to teach...I was so nervous I was shaking the whole time. I had prepared notes and everything. We started by making self-portraits. Then after, the girls independently had to write 10 different words all around their self-portrait. These words were words that described their personality, their values, their passions, and beliefs. These words could describe who they are now or who they want to be. They had to think past words like pretty, and nice. More complicated and meaningful words like sincere, loving, compassionate, independent, responsible, faithful, mature, passionate, patient, and so on. I had an example prepared to model to the girls. I made it very clear that they have to be able to explain WHY each word is on their paper and is important to them. For example my examples were "loving: I want to be loving to my family and my boyfriend because they are important to me." "educated: I want to be educated so that I can get a good job and support myself." "honest: I want to have strong relationships with my friends and family so that they trust me." This activity challenged the girls to reflect on their life, and them self. After the portraits were made, the girls then had to present and talk about their words and why those words are important to them. Their responses melted my heart. One girl said, "I want to be educated so that I can educate my own children one day." The girls are normally shy and quiet, but this activity allowed them to really jump out of their shell and have a very powerful discussion. Every one participated, and it was more than a success. I could not stop smiling afterwards. Its moments like this when I know I am a role model in their life. I am impacting their life! Today I faced a HUGE fear...but lets be honest, every day I face a new fear...but this fear left me feeling more proud and fulfilled than anything I have experienced yet.