youth development learnings

Here are 3 key learnings we have discovered as we delve into the youth development component of Christian Community Development work:

1. Cross-cultural friendships/teams are important if we are ever going to break down racism.

2. A strong adult:child ratio is critical if we hope to actually get to "development" and not just "crowd control".

3. Students have more God-given ability than we often believe possible. We are learning that we need to learn and do hard things. Challenging students to higher level thinking, creativity, and action is producing some outstanding contributors as we join Jesus to create a more just community.

Last night was our fifth and final night for Youth Art Team's 3rd session. The students did some research on The Five Sullivan Brothers, and teams created a framework for the play that they are writing. I learned so much about The Five Sullivans who grew up in Waterloo, enlisted in the Navy together, and who died together in WWII when their ship, the U.S.S. Juneau, was bombed. My study group had fun learning about the brothers as boys. The brothers stuck close together, hung out by the banks of the Cedar River...hunting, fishing, and making a boat that capsized while they were trying it out. Their brave dog paddled over to save the youngest brother, Al, from drowning.

We also learned about "The Great Banana Heist." One day the boys skipped school with some friends, saw a railroad car full of bananas being unloaded at the Hoxie Fruit and Produce Co., climbed on in the boxcar, only to get locked in while the produce company employee called the truant officers and had them come find a boxcar full of boys who should have been in school.

The boys were also known to watch out for their neighborhood and help to keep it safe and strong. It was great to talk about how Jesus wants us to be good neighbors like that as well.