AMG International, Guatemala
"Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:17
Hello Everyone,
Here at AMG Guatemala, we have several training events for our employees throughout the year. Sometimes they are for specific groups of employees like our School/Childcare Center Directors, or our Bible Teachers, or our Central Office Staff, but four times each year we try to plan training for all 200 of the employees who work here in and around Guatemala City. These events usually start by covering broader topics that apply to all of our employees, and then sometimes they have break-0ut workshops that may offer training in specific areas.
This past Friday we hosted our second such event of 2008, and the subject of the event was the safety and care of the children that the Lord has entrusted us to. The all-day seminar was entitled "Learning to Care for Me - Prevention of Sexual Abuse Among Children". The first picture (above) is of a mural that hung on the wall during the training. We used the title, and the idea for the mural, from a training booklet that was used during the seminar. Two organizations came to help with this topic:
1. Juven-Fami: this Christian organization has been working here in Guatemala since 1978, teaching Biblical principles regarding the spiritual and physical health of the family. You might remember one of our blog posts from October 2007 entitled "Sexual Purity" where we talked about a conference we hosted for our students regarding Biblical Abstinence. Well, Juven-Famil is the same organization that taught that conference. On Friday, they spent several hours teaching our employees about the following topics:
- how to recognize the signs of physical/emotional/sexual abuse among children
- how to speak with children about these topics
- how to teach children about their bodies and their personal safety
All of these subjects were taught from a biblical perspective and were a great help to our staff as they often are faced with dealing with these issues.
2.
IJM (International Justice Mission) - You may recognize this name as this institution is based out of the US and has branches of their organization throughout the world. (
http://www.ijm.org/) IJM sent representatives to our training in the afternoon to talk about the following:
- statistics of abuse among children in Guatemala
- the role that IJM is playing to defend children who are victims of abuse
- how IJM can be a resource to AMG to help with difficult situations of abuse
While this is not a pleasant subject to discuss, it is unfortunately a reality for any ministry or organization, especially one that deals with so many children who live in difficult circumstances. We are thankful to have these resources to help our employees better understand how to deal with these difficult situations and would appreciate your prayers in this area. Part of caring for children is protecting them against such things as physical and sexual abuse. The more we can learn about this, the better we can be at caring for the children that the Lord has entrusted us to.
Below are some photos taken throughout the day including a time of worship and singing, AMG staff enjoying time of fellowship together, etc. Thanks for praying and for letting us share our day with you all.
Thought I would send a few update pictures from our La Florida Childcare Center construction project. (see post from March 11)
