“Marketplace Revolution is a unique conference which brings together professionals, business people, international workers, university students, and church leaders from over 22 different countries—all passionate about partnering to end poverty. Come be encouraged, equipped, and connected to a global network of Christian professionals following their call to business and their commission to be light to this world.”
— http://marketplacerevolution.org/
The conference was incredible, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time. I attended different workshops and had a lot of time to reflect on the workshops. My favorite workshop was called The Entrepreneurial Calling. We watched short films produced by Poverty Cure. I loved the films so much that I bought the entire DVD collection, which contained six 25-minute long DVDs. I hope to show the DVDs at Hope and have discussions after each session. I already asked one of my professors about showing them at Hope, and she is so excited!
I have learned so much about poverty this semester and how to help to poor without hurting. In my microeconomics class we have read several articles about development in poverty-stricken communities. I hope to use all of the knowledge I am gaining now in the future. After college I hope to spend some time in a different country doing mission work.
I feel so incredibly blessed to be at Hope and in an environment where people care about people outside of their communities. I am looking forward to continue to learn about how to help the poor and develop dependent communities.
Below is a clip from Poverty Cure:
PovertyCure is an international network of organizations and individuals seeking to ground our common battle against global poverty in a proper understanding of the human person and society, and to encourage solutions that foster opportunity and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that already fills the developing world.
Woah. I feel like I always start blog posts with woah. You know why? Because college is so freakin’ cool. No, really. I honestly hope that you have as much fun as I am. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
I know a lot of students don’t share what I feel about school, but I hope they can find something that makes them feel the way I do.
The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. Sorry for the MIA on blogging. Wanna know what I’ve been up to?
First of all, we got a shipment of ducks in!!!! Little baby ducklings to study. Currently, I’m working on gut ecology with Dr. Fraley, studying the bacterial contents of ducklings at different ages.
I’ve spent years and years in the lab it seems. Today I ran a gel!
Second, I have been consumed by Organic Chemistry. Days and long nights of studying, prepping for lab periods, etc. Get ready, it’s a boat load of fun!! 🙂
Third, BEST DAY EVER. I got the great opportunity to hang out with Dr. Carl Wierks in his OR at Holland Hospital. He allowed me to observe three surgeries including two anterior labral hip repairs and a labral shoulder repair. It was the most AMAZING thing ever. If you like medicine, OR is the place to be.
Maybe the most fundamental event that has happened this semester is the purchase of a COFFEEPOT. Yep. I’m a real-live adult now. I have a coffeepot, plenty of coffee, and my roommate even bought us flavored coffee. I literally can brew a pot around 9 PM, drink it by 1 AM along with my roommate, and zonk out by 1:30 AM. YAY COLLEGE.
If you don’t like coffee, it’s okay. It can easily be an aquired taste. Start off with lots of cream and sugar to your taste, and eventually you’ll be a true Finnish gal like me, drinking it black by the pot.
My coffeepot has brought me immense joy and pleasure in the long and arduous hours of academia.
Do you enjoy coffee, surgery, or labwork as much as I do? Tweet me @hopeamanda15.
Well, it finally came! The day I had been preparing for since early October, Nykerk, was this past Saturday. But it wasn’t just the event itself that was so much fun; the whole weekend was a blast! Not only because of Nykerk, but also because it was family weekend! Moms, dads, siblings, aunts, uncles, and more came from all across the country to visit their family member at Hope. So as you can imagine, the weekend was crazy packed!
On Friday night, I went to a Nykerk odd year event called Family Night. All of the sophomores and senior coaches participating in Nykerk got together to celebrate our accomplishments and be together as an Odd Year family one last time before Nykerk. It gave me an opportunity to see my friends in song and play that I haven’t been seeing very much of. As you can see, I also used the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures!
The Song, Play, and Oration coaches each did something fun for the girls they worked with. The Song coaches wrote a song for the Song girls, the Play coaches wrote a haiku poem for each of the Play girls, and my coaches wrote and sang me a song to the tune of “Mamma Mia” by ABBA. Hearing the songs and poems about our time in Nykerk this year was definitely a tear jerker for me. I can’t believe how fast it goes by each year!
Another big event that happens on Family Night is the reveal of the morale boys. All throughout the Nykerk season, morale boys for Song and Play, or Play boys, had been diligently encouraging us girls with skits each night for Song and Play, as well as posters and candy. My morale boy was Connor, a Play boy, who did a GREAT job of moraling me, as you can see from the picture.
It made me feel like I was in a spy movie, because I had to somehow maneuver my way in between all of that string. Let me tell you, it was not easy! Best of all, they gave me lots of candy. If you look carefully on my desk, you can see a little yellow packet and a purple one right next to it. The yellow one is a packet of Mallow Cups, and the purple one is gummy bears. And inside at least 10 of those balloons is a mini Snickers, which I adore. I still can’t believe they did all of that for me! Thanks a bunch guys!
Back to family night, the Song morale boys and the Play boys each did one final skit. It was so sad to think that after all of the skits they had put on for us, this was the end. Odd year family night was just one big night of sadness, but also lots of smiles at remembering all of the fun we had over the last two years.
On Saturday, I got up suuuper early to go the the Nykerk breakfast, an annual tradition. It is a time for all of those involved in Nykerk, even and odd year men and women, to come together one last time before the show. This is also a time when the junior coaches for the next freshman class are announced. I was so happy when Claire and I were officially made the 1-7 Oration coaches! I can’t wait to work with her next year and I can’t wait to find out who our orator will be!
Later that morning, I went to the siblings breakfast, which was on the schedule for Parents Weekend. My family drove all the way from Iowa to see me perform in Nykerk, and I was so happy to have them there! My sister Priscilla and I had a great time watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and getting to meet Dutch. I think this will become an tradition for us!
That night, I went out to dinner with my family, my coaches and their families. We ate at Butch’s in downtown Holland, which I had never been to previously, and is now one of my favorite restaurants in Holland. It’s during the dinner that I started to get really nervous about the performance. I tried to stay calm and focus on eating my food, but the thought that I would be performing in front of 3,000 people was too nerve-wracking for me. Somehow I managed to keep myself somewhat calm and get through the dinner.
Finally, it was time to go to the Civic Center. I had only a little bit of time to walk around and get my microphone before the show started. At 7 PM, I went backstage to be introduced with my escorts. I chose to have both of my parents escort me because I couldn’t choose just one to be with me. As soon as I got backstage, the nerves hit me in full force. After some lame attempts to breathe deeply and calm myself down, I just accepted that I was going to be nervous and did my best to not let it show. One of the coolest parts of Nykerk was walking out with my parents and hearing all of the applause for us. In that moment, I felt so loved and realized that no matter how I did, I had a strong support system behind me.
I’m going to be totally honest with you: I didn’t pay very much attention to the freshman song. Can you blame me? I was performing right after them! My legs were shaking during the entire song. Luckily, I had a long dress on, and no one could tell. I went over my speech a few times in my head and gave myself a pep talk. I told myself that if there was ever a time to be brave, ever a time to be bold, that time is now. With those thoughts in mind, I got up out of my seat and made my way to the stage. As soon I got up the stairs and went to the middle of the stage, my nerves vanished. Just like that. I took a few deep breaths, waited for the lights to come up, and started my speech.
It felt just like the multiple rehearsals I had at the Civic Center earlier that week. I tried to let the speech flow without letting myself get too much in the way, if that makes sense. I knew I had this speech memorized inside and out. All I needed to do was show the audience and judges. All throughout the speech, I told myself that as soon as I made it to the final sentence and hit that last pose, I would be okay.
“So go out into the world; get your hands dirty, make amends. And prepare for your embrace!”
The feeling after that was indescribable. Having so many people cheering for mewas beyond amazing. I floated on cloud 9 back to my seat and started sobbing. The biggest reason was relief; for almost one month I had been working tirelessly to make this speech as good as it could be, and sitting in my seat, I believed I did just that. Another reason was pure happiness. Sometime between the rough drafts and late nights, this speech had worked its way into my heart, and being able to have the opportunity to share this part of my thoughts with an audience was extremely rewarding. After I was all out of tears, I sat back and enjoyed the rest of the show, which was soooo good.
At the end of the show, the winning class was announced and the cup went to the freshmen. I can’t lie; not winning was really sad, because so many of us had invested so much time into Nykerk, and after all, it is a competition. However, I can also say that winning Nykerk isn’t everything. Sure, the cup would have been nice, but it’s the friendships I made, the laughs I shared, and those hilarious morale boy skits I’m going to remember years from now and treasure, not the cup.
So that was my Nykerk experience! I loved every second of this season, and last season when I was a Song girl, and I wouldn’t trade my two years of performing in Nykerk for anything in the world. For anyone out there who is thinking about doing Nykerk, do it. For sure. It gave me some of my best memories, and it might just give you some of your best ones too. Let the countdown to the 79th Nykerk Cup begin!
This past Tuesday was the first of
four sessions of a series called “Love, Dating and Sex” put on by Campus Ministries. Over the course of four weeks in November, the amazing Paul Boersma and Kate Davelaar will be talking about the
realities of relationships and will be as honest
as possible to answer questions and help people get a clear understanding of a
functional relationship and what you need to be in one. Let me just say that I
was skeptical going to this because I didn’t know if it would be awkward or
whatnot, but Paul and Kate made this so entertaining! The two of them just
crack me up because their comedic timing is spot on and they say just the
perfect things that make you laugh, but also make you realize that they are
completely right! Even during Chapel when they talk, it’s so easy listening to
them and you trust whatever they say because they base their knowledge on their personal experiences.
On Tuesday, they opened up with a
question pertaining to how media and shows portray relationships and the
“rules” that they follow. A few students basically said that the media
glorifies negative things such as needing to be in a relationship to be happy
or being in a relationship is all about physical attraction and not
understanding yourself or your partner. This opened up the topic for Kate and
Paul to expand on. From their life experiences, they summed up the question by
saying that in order to be in a relationship, you have to accept yourself and
be at ease with who you are before someone else can come along and appreciate and
love you. A key point that Paul mentioned was that you cannot compromise the
qualities you look for in someone just to be in a relationship because that
will only lead to problems because you’re basically settling for something less than you deserve and are looking for. In addition to Kate and Paul talking, they showed
us a clip from Andy Stanley and his series entitled “The New Rules for Love,
Sex and Dating.” This man is a pastor at North Point Community Church and has
a series of videos on this topic and is blatantly honest about it. Here’s a
little snippet of what his talks are about:
Something he stressed throughout all of this was that you have to “become the person who you are looking for is looking for” — in other words, you have to be the person that you would want to date. You cannot simply go into a relationship and say that you when you find the “one” that they will fulfill the problems and complications in your life, because that’s a false reality — as explained in his section called “The Right Person Myth.” He went on to say that the life you are living right now, will one day become your past but it will show up again in your future.
So, it’s just a heads up that you want to live your life right now the way you want it to be in the future — this can get pretty confusing but is very true and thought-provoking. Both from Kate and Paul as well as Andy Stanley, it all comes down to whether you are in the right mindset to be in a relationship. If you are not independent and looking for the qualities you yourself have, you most likely are not ready to be part of a committed relationship because flaws will arise if you don’t figure out your own life path first and foremost.
This session was only an hour long, but it was such a great
use of time. Over the course of the next three weeks, I will be going to these
informational meetings to learn from Paul and Kate and hopefully gain a better
understanding of who I am and pass that information onto my fellow readers. The
topics they will be covering are extremely relevant to college students and is
a great way to point people in the right direction if they are confused about
relationships and that aspect of their lives. I know this isn’t a very light-hearted topic, but I will be learning more and I hope you will join me!
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @hopeleslie15.
There are so many thing I love about Hope. Like, a ton of things. So I thought I would show you some of the ones I am enjoying at the moment!
Hangout Place
One of the best parts about being a returning student in a residence hall is that there is a pretty good chance you know at least some of the people where you’ll be staying. Luckily for me, two of my really good friends from last year, Ann and Meghanne, live in the same hall as I do, and I use that to my full advantage. Whenever I need to get out of my room for a little bit or just need someone to talk to, I can always go here. The best part: they always have candy!
Practice Space
I was in a beginning piano class and in the Hope Orchestra last year, so I practically lived in Nykerk Hall of Music. Before each piano class, I would go into this room and practice my scales or whichever song I needed to have ready. The pianos in Nykerk have such a rich sound that even if I was playing something simple, it sounded amazing. I had orchestra five times a week, but whenever I felt like I needed to work on a certain piece or section more, I would go into the practice room and play for however long I felt like I needed to. The great thing about the practice rooms is that they have windows that open so you can let the campus listen to what you’re playing! This also doubles as a nice study room, which is what I’m using it for right now.
Chapel Seat
There is a Chapel service offered every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:30-11:00 AM and a Sunday evening service called The Gathering at 8 PM. I usually go to The Gathering every week and Chapel on Monday and Friday. When I go, I always try to sit in the same spot: 2 pews ahead of the sound board on the left side. It’s not too close and it’s not too far back; I like to think of it as the “sweet spot.” I know it’s going to be a good day when I can sit there!
Study Room
I discovered this little gem in the basement of Scott Hall when I lived there last year. As you can see, it’s a little room with no windows, perfect for getting some real work done without any distractions. When I was taking a biology class last year that required almost all of my attention, I was in here more than I was in my own room! Now that I no longer live in Scott, I don’t frequent this room as much, but I still use it from time to time and I would recommend that you check it out too!
Cool Beans Drink
Some time ago, I wrote about my love of all things coffee. That hasn’t gone away, so I’m still getting several drinks from Cool Beans a week. I go for the drink, but stay in the cozy area because it’s such a nice place to relax or get some homework done. My usual order right now is a Black Squirrel with soymilk. Sooo yummy!!
There you have it! I will do another favorite things post sometime in the future, but until then, what are some of your favorite things right now?
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–> Time to stress? What? But midterms are over! There isn’t anything else to
stress about for a while! What am I talking about? Well, buckle up. It’s time
for registration once again! It seems like we just started classes a month ago.
Nope. We’re more than half way through the first semester—that’s such a scary
thought! My sophomore year is almost half-way over! I feel like I should be a freshman still.
If you remember registration for classes in high school, signing up for
classes in college is literally twenty times more stressful. This is due to the
fact that you can’t just take whatever classes you want or take whatever classes your friends
are taking because you have to now plan out what classes pertain to your
intended major. It’s a complete balancing act.
“Oh, I’ll take this math class.
Wait, that class has a prerequisite that I need to take first. Dang! I already
have a class at that time and I can’t move my schedule around.”
Yup, this is
what I and I’m sure a bunch of other students have to struggle through. It’s
one struggle trying to figure out what classes you need to take to graduate. It’s
another struggle to coordinate the classes so the times all work together and
hopefully align so you don’t have to take all 8:00 AM courses.
This week is
full of advising meetings to help out stressed-out students like myself. That’s
what’s so great about advisors here at Hope. They can actually sit down with
you and talk about what you need to do and truly care about you and how you’re
scheduling your time at Hope. Although I am fretting beyond belief in hopes
that I am able to sign up for my classes before they fill up, I know that
advisors and professors are understanding and ultimately help me out and make
sure that I end up taking what I need to take in order to graduate on time.
Registration for me this semester is even more of a headache and stressful than before because I just declared my major a week ago, so I had to be assigned a new advisor in the Kinesiology Department. Prior to being assigned an advisor in your major field, you are given your First Year Seminar professor as your advisor. Between the paperwork and waiting to be given a new advisor, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to schedule a meeting because advisors are scheduled with so many other students in the same field. Luckily, I was able to get a meeting and let me just say that that meeting was SUCH a productive time. My advisor knew exactly what I needed to take, what I could wait to take, what is a good course to complete over the summer or during a May Term, and what was recommended for me to take when I study abroad.
If you’re curious how we even register for classes, let me tell you how it’s done. First of all, all freshmen usually register in person, but sophomores and those with a certain amount of credits do it online. Basically, for online registration, your advisor gives you a PIN code and you log into your KnowHope Plus account and use that code and simply type in the CRN number and select which class you want to sign up for. Here’s a link that students use to see which classes are being filled up and which classes are still available:
This website is amazing, yet is the most nerve-wracking thing EVER! It’s so accurate and up-to-date that it shows when somebody takes a spot in a class and how many seats are available left in the class. If you are waiting for your registration time, it’s a race against the student body to register for your needed classes. However, when you are finished registering and you got at least most of the classes you wanted, it’s such a huge relief and you don’t have to think about registration again for a few more months!
Well, that’s all I have to report on regarding registering for classes! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or tweet me @hopeleslie15.
I spent 5
days in Ahrweiler, Germany with my (German) friend Philipp Shulz. He
studied in the States for a year, attending my high school and embracing our
wonderful culture. As you’d expect, his English is brilliant, so
communication problems were non-existent. Unfortunately, his language
skills did not apply to his parents, so I spent the week expressing my gratitude
for their hospitality by playing charades and having Philipp act as our interpreter.
Ahrweiler is a small German
village in western Germany, just south of Cologne. It is truly idyllic,
sitting in a valley, surrounded by vineyard-covered hills. It has a
fascinating history, dating back to the NINTH century during the Middle Ages. Here are the highlights. The Romans
began construction on an aqueduct: a project that they eventually abandoned
after running out of funding. In the late 17th century, the French razed
the village, with the exception of some 10 buildings. After being restored, the
town council refused Hitler’s request to address Ahrweiler in 1932. Unfortunately,
Ahrweiler did not manage to escape the notice of the Third Reich, and all of its
Jewish inhabitants were taken. Tragically, none returned and the synagogue is now only used as a museum.
After being picked up from Dusseldorf airport by Philipp and his father,
we accompanied Mr. Shulz to a rendezvous with his salesman. He had just purchased a trailer to transport his
tractors to and from the Shulz’s second property! Taking care of their second property is a hobby Mr. Shulz enjoys immensely, according to Philipp. After hitching it up to
the car, we continued on our way, passing the lights of Cologne and Bonn on the autobahn.
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The following morning,
I was treated to a typical German breakfast by Mrs. Shulz and sous chef Philipp. It consisted of “kaiser schmarn,” or
scrambled pancakes embedded with raisins. Instead of syrup, they are eaten with homemade jelly, courtesy of Mrs.
Shulz. Of course, she insisted
that I try all three types. I was
delighted to learn that Germans drink black “American-style” coffee and cold
milk! Boy had I been missing
these!
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Feeling fantastic,
Philipp and I took Louis, the love of the family, on a walk through the
surrounding foothills. For being
nine, he is still spritely. I’m
speculating that his health can be attributed to the wonderfully fresh air and
his two daily walks.
While hiking the “rotweinwanderweg” (red wine walking trail), Philipp fed me interesting tidbits about Ahrweiler and
what life was like growing up. He
explained that if an owner could not, or did not have the financial means to
harvest his grapes, the local youth would be enlisted. As you can probably guess, he had
plenty of fond memories climbing the steep hills with a 50 kg (that’s 110 lbs)
knapsack slung over his shoulder.
Philipp had an orthodontist appointment later that morning, so I had
some free time to explore Ahrweiler on my own. Since Germany is currently experiencing “Golden October” I
was able to wear shorts and a sweatshirt and be plenty warm. However, there’s a certain turning
point in the year when it is no longer socially acceptable to wear shorts. I believe that date had came and went,
as I received plenty of quizzical looks on the street from Germans wearing
heavy overcoats, in some cases, even bundled up with scarves.
In the hour-long time frame I had, I managed to:
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We returned home
hungry and we were not disappointed. We made deli sandwiches with pretzel bread, margarine, Dutch cheese and
German cold cuts. Mrs. Shulz took
it upon herself to expose me to seemingly every German sweet, coming home with
armfuls of desserts for me to sample. She also made a homemade cheesecake, which just so happens to be my comfort food. I was feeling right at home in the Deutschland!
After loading up on
carbohydrates (and sweets), we decided to head to the city of Bonn for some
sight seeing. After catching the
train in, we walked through the prestigious Universität Bonn, admiring the main
building and the practice field.
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Bonn is proud to have
produced Ludwig van Beethoven. His rose-colored residence was right in the heart of the city, on a busy, tourist-dense
street. Seeing as how tours
charged 25€ and lasted an hour and a half, we neglected
to see where the legend composed his music. In retrospect, I wish we had just done it, but we had
another city to see!
After navigating the “Bonn-hole,” the notoriously shady center of the
western subway system, we hopped on another train to Cologne.
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There was one major reason we went to Cologne, and
that was to see the Kölner Dom, the famed cathedral of Germany. Construction commenced in the
mid-thirteenth century and its construction was abandoned in 1473, eventually
resuming in the nineteenth century and finishing in 1880, as planned. It has the second-tallest spires in the
world and is considered the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. Its floor plan takes the shape of a
cross, similar to La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) and La Catedral
(Sevilla).
The mere size of
its interior was simply dwarfing. The size helped me appreciate how much work went into construction of extravagant
European cathedrals. Having
expensive and rare relics is one thing. It’s an entirely different thing to build a building to reflect beauty and pay
homage to God. I found it
interesting that building a grand cathedral was an indication of a city’s
wealth and prestige, as Christians fought and died believing that their
religion was superior to others in Europe and then erected cathedrals to serve as a symbol of Christian dominance.
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Walking through the tourist
district, we stumbled upon a man sitting on a bench. Needless to say, he
didn’t look so good, rocking back and forth moaning. Assisting him were a
pair of police officers and a team of paramedics. Philipp explained to me
that law enforcement works differently in Germany. The police exist to
serve the public, because their salaries are paid by the public through
taxes. Sure, they ticket speeders, but the average citizen does generally
not view them negatively. For example, he asked me to point out the first
person I would ask for directions. I scanned the surrounding crowd for
possible candidates and he stopped me, laughing at my effort.
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“The first person you ask for directions when lost in Germany is a police officer. They’ll even drive you home in most cases.”
— Philipp Shulz
In America, I would
feel as if I would be “wasting” an officer’s time if I asked for
directions. The Germans
rationalize that they deserve a portion of that time if they’re paying your
salary. Perhaps there exists less
crime in Germany, and officers aren’t as busy busting villains. Regardless, it was comforting to know
that there exists law enforcements that SERVE and protect.
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The rest of the
weekend featured such highlights as: touring Ahrlweiler by bicycle, learning to
drive manual, attending a high school level fútbol match, meeting Philipp’s
German buddies, and ending my journey with a “minimal” concert in Bonn my last night.
The above pictures were the outtakes of life in Ahrweiler. Enjoy!
College is a huge moshpit of choices. Your mom isn’t here anymore to tell you when to eat and your school isn’t telling you what to wear.
Sometimes, these choices make for great life experiences, though they usually come with costs. If I watch Grey’s Anatomy all night (which sometimes seems to happen), I’ve lost valuable studying time for the next morning’s test. When I study all day without breaks, I have no social life and my friends begin to hate me. …Well… not really, but kind of.
Anyways, last weekend, I had a big choice. My best of all friends, Morgan, came to visit from my homeland, Sault Sainte Marie, on Saturday night. It’s a six-hour drive, so she stayed for two nights and three days ! 🙂 We had a lot of fun and went to movies, the mall, and a concert.
I had spent all of Thursday-Saturday night studying for every waking moment, trying to fit in all the work I needed to get done before Morgan arrived.
We went to see Blitzen Trapper, a band Morgan loves, at the Loft in Lansing, MI, about 1.25 hours from Hope’s campus on Sunday night. No big, I just had a huge Bio 280 exam on Monday morning that was supposed to knock my socks off. But, the choice was mine, and I chose to Loft it up with Morgan and Blitzen. We were front row, head banging (uh kind of), and enjoying the tunes! We even saw our highschool classmate, Alex, there!
I got four hours of sleep before the test (better than no sleep, I suppose) AND I even was running through some of the concepts while driving home ;). In the end, the decision didn’t end up being HORRIBLE, but maybe I’ll use better judgement next time.
I am currently sitting in my kitchen at home sipping some apple cider tea. And it feels so good to be home with parents. The reason I came home is because the ministry my dad started called Amigos en Cristo hosted its third annual banquet tonight. I have never been able to attend a banquet before because I always had class, but this year I decided to skip classes and come home for the event.
I am so glad I was able to attend such an incredible event and see how God is moving in the ministry. Approximately 270 people attended tonight, but we will not know the total amount raised until tomorrow. However there was an anonymous donation to match the first $31,000 raised! Praise the Lord! Last year during spring break I took a group of Hope students to Juarez, and we are planning on going again this year! I am going to talk about the mission and organization of Amigos en Cristo ministry so you can hear how God is working in the lives of people in Mexico.
The mission of
Amigos en Cristo is to join with individuals and organizations in Mexico to
encourage, serve, and equip fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10, Ephesians 2:10). Several pastors and community leaders told Amigos en Cristo
that the number one need in the community was to offer an after school or day
care program for children. Too many of the children stay in their homes alone
while their parents work away from home.
Amigos en Cristo started two community
center programs in the fall of 2010. They now serve over 100 children through
the school year and 80 students for the summer camp. The program allows for
students to engage in a Bible lesson, eat a meal, participate in games, and use
the playground equipment and computers. The community centers also host other
events such as GED education during the day time, Bible studies, training for
youth and pastors, parenting and life skill training classes (wood work,
sewing, hair, cooking). The Amigos en Cristo ministry also hosts short-term
mission trips for groups in the United States to visit the organization and
serve alongside the people in Mexico.
Amigos en Cristo
focuses its mission on long-term development. They nurture this type of
development by equipping and training the people in Mexico. All of the programs
through Amigos en Cristo are based on Christian principles. They host staff
training every week where a devotional is shared and teachers and volunteers
are challenged with their faith. The organization also believes in investing
into the younger generation. Every Friday, a youth group occurs at the
community center lead by the youth. Once a month the youth meet for training
and mission work for five hours, and they also participate in conferences and
mission trips around Mexico.
Along with investing in the youth, Amigos en
Cristo desires to build up and develop responsible parents. They fulfill their
desire by offering parenting classes for the parents of the children who attend
the after school program. The parenting classes are scripture based, and the
field director teaches the classes along with his wife. A unique component
about Amigos en Cristo is that a local person fulfills the role of a field
director and runs the day-to-day operations; it’s not a person from the United
States trying to convince them to do it our way. To have long lasting positive
change in the existing infrastructure, Amigos en Cristo believes it must come
from within.
Along with
encouraging development, Amigos en Cristo helps individuals recognize that God
blesses them with gifts and resources regardless of their poverty stricken
status. They help empower people to utilize their own resources. A staff member
teaches a life skill class on gardening. He grows the plants from seeds and
then shows the people how to plant, so they can learn how to grow their own
gardens and food. The two community centers have two large gardens that provide
vegetables for the students who attend the after school program, and the left
over food is distributed to members in the community. They also teach how to
make purses, belts, and jewelry, from chip bags, candy wrappers, and pull tabs
from soda cans. The people are very creative and even create furniture items
from plastic two liter pop bottles and duct tape. Amigos en Cristo offers a
wood working class on how to build wooden chairs and tables from scrap wooden
pallets. Nothing is considered waste to them but rather valuable material.
When
prospective students arrive on Hope’s campus for visit days, one of the first
things they ask about are the professors. Students want to know what the
professors are like: are they nice, are they challenging, and are some better
than others? My answer to these students is that the Hope professors are
great individuals who care deeply about their students. In this blog, I thought
I’d take an opportunity to talk more in depth about one of my favorite professors;
one whom I think truly embodies all that it means to be a Hope College
Professor.
What
prospective students don’t always understand about Hope when they first arrive
on campus is that a Hope a professor often fulfills the role of not only being
a professor but also acts as a mentor and friend. One of my favorite professors
is Professor LaBarge who teaches in the Accounting department.
This semester
Professor LaBarge is my financial accounting instructor. One of the biggest
reasons that I love her class so much is because she is always willing to go
above and beyond what the situation calls for in regard to her students. In my
opinion, she does everything she possibly can do to help her students succeed.
For example, before every test period, she provides a review class for her
students where she goes over everything she’s taught that will be on the test.
By doing this, she provides her students with the materials they need to
properly study while also giving them the confidence that they can succeed in
her class.
Another
way that Professor LaBarge goes above and beyond for her students is by
advising them with their classes or career plans. A couple weeks ago, I went
into her office and she helped me understand the qualifications for becoming a
CPA or CMA. She showed me what classes I would want to take and helped me come
up with a plan that would prepare me to either attend graduate school after
college or go into the workforce with accounting experience.
I’m very grateful to have a professor like Professor
LaBarge! Not only is she a wonderful professor, she also is a person that I
admire. Her character traits of humility, consistency, and determination
provide a great example for not only me, but the other Hope students who have
the opportunity to be a part of her class.
