With patience comes clarity and now...sharing about ministry changes with FH/Peru

Since returning to serving with FH January this year after maternity leave, I entered the ministry in the midst of many changes.  I realize that I have not written a post in over four months, partly due to the busyness of life (ministry, church, being a mommy and wife), but mostly the delay was because I was so uncertain about what to share. Change is hard for me to process.   In the midst of big changes I am often so disoriented -- I don't know where to start in sharing with others.  Thanks to God for growing in me much patience over the last few months.  Finally, things have clarified enough for me that I am excited to share with you about these changes.

You might remember that only a couple of years ago  FH/Peru was in the midst of great change. At that time, after re-evaluating the needs of the communities where we work in Lima and Pucallpa, we began to design and implement a violence prevention project.  That project was just being  implemented when I took a break from ministry for maternity leave.  When I returned, FH/Peru was facing once again new changes coming from our local ministry and from FH International.  At home: a new country director, changes in staff, service in about 10 new communities.  Our parent ministry, FH International, began implementation  of a new program model  across the globe in all FH fields.  For me, change means a new role with FH/Peru as the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Technical Advisor.

This new global program model is called Child Focused Community Transformation or CFCT.  In an effort to be better stewards of the resources that God has given FH and to increase the impact of our interventions in the communities we serve, the FH International office created CFCT.  CFCT is a combination of some of FH's best practices around the world, and focuses on four key sectors that are critical to the development and transformation of vulnerable communities (health, education, disaster risk reduction, and  "livelihoods" which is economic development).

 A great benefit of this united global program (CFCT)  will be support from the international office. FH International will be able to provide much better technical support, and curriculum and materials that can be used to train leaders, churches and families around the world.  This is great for FH/Peru (a relatively small FH field) because often we have been restricted in ministry due to the cost (time and money) of developing new materials. For example when FH/Peru realized the great need to implement the violence prevention project, we did not have enough funding to continue certain health and education interventions already in place.  Now, with much of program design being centralized in the international office, FH/Peru staff are more available to implement the CFCT programs.  They are able to spend more time in the communities building relationships with leaders, churches and families rather than in the office, writing plans.

What does this mean for the violence prevention project?  Thanks to God, the majority of the materials for the violence prevention project were completed last year and are now being implemented in communities where FH has worked for many years.  Since the CFCT model is being implemented only in new communities, these violence prevention materials can still be used  in newer community ministries in the future.  In March, I had an opportunity to accompany my friend and FH staff, Wilda, during one of the lessons for children.  It was a blessing to see how the children were learning through games and songs about their own value as God's creations, about how special their bodies are, and that they should be protected from violence.

 Here is Wilda displaying the Violence Prevention Curriculum for Children that FH/Peru developed.

 Kids participating in violence prevention lesson.

 Kids coloring as part of the violence prevention lesson.

 Kids coloring as part of the violence prevention lesson.

Adjusting to change is hard for me, but I am really excited about how God is going to use the CFCT model in Peru to transform lives and communities so that children can grow and develop as God intended.  I am also grateful that the Lord continues to call me to service with FH/Peru, and that after several months of my searching for His direction, He is beginning to show me where my place is in the midst of a forever changing ministry.

In the next update (coming soon :) I will share more about how God is calling me to serve with FH/Peru and the new CFCT model.