Sunday School Seminars

A major factor in Diaconía Nacional´s success with community development is its emphasis on training.  The Spanish word for training is “Capacitación” so it´s no wonder the focus is on capacity building.  The goal isn´t always to teach something new but rather to have participants realize they already have the capacity to do something and haven´t utilized their potential yet. 

Within the credit program we organize training seminars on everything from piñata and jewelry making to self-esteem, household management and domestic violence.  Some of the training objectives for the community transformation program usually revolve around promoting good, strong leadership in the village.  A lot of energy is focused on motivating the locals to take initiative and work towards improving the quality of life in their community. 

Developing lasting leadership in a community generally starts from within the church so Diaconía has a separate program for Reformed Ecclesiastical Training (RET).  RET recently received a $10,000 grant from CRWM (Christian Reformed World Missions) to conduct a yearlong training course for Sunday School teachers in Christian Reformed churches around Olancho. 

I traveled with Arturo, Olancho´s RET and Community Transformation Coordinator, to Mangulile (a community about 4hrs from Catacamas) to assist with this teaching initiative.  The emphasis of the Sunday School programs here go beyond telling Bible stories to little kids and making crafts while their parents are upstairs listening to the sermon.    Here Sunday school is for everyone! 

Many CRC members in Honduras have joined the church later in their lives as opposed to having heard the classic Bible stories and parables that others grew up with.  The congregation breaks up into small groups based on age in order to learn, discuss and discover more intimately what God desires for our lives.  It is an excellent opportunity for all church members to study the Bible and discern what it means to be a Christian within the church community and outside in their daily interactions.   After all, baptism in the CRC church requires a commitment from the congregation to nurture and instruct that child, youth or adult in the faith through every stage of their life. 

The seminars for Sunday school teachers is aimed at equipping church leaders to identify and address the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of their students to encourage them on the Christian path.   We have a lot of people interested in developing these skills and utilizing them in their home communities.  It is really encouraging to see these individuals learning and sharing together.  I am excited to see what we can accomplish together over this year.