A full and fruitful week..

A very full week of ministry lies behind us; we were busy every day with the intensive workshop in foundational coaching skills (FOCOS). This is the same workshop that we ran for a week in January, but this time our trainees were mostly from Spanish speaking nations: they were from Costa Rica, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, and of course from Spain. We also had some Brazilian missionaries and pastors in the group.

The full schedule meant that I left home pretty early in the morning, which meant that I often saw beautiful sunrises and cloudscapes while driving to the retreat centre... and then it was already dark again by the time I headed home in the evening. The week was very full, but it was also very fruitful and we are really encouraged to hear the feedback from the trainees, and the testimonies of what God has done in their lives during this week.

Spanish FOCOS is one of the most challenging weeks in my year, as it's the only week where I have to teach and work uniquely in Spanish for the whole week. (All our other seminars at the retreat centre are in English.) This year I had to teach more than a dozen training sessions, as well as giving short coaching demonstrations in Spanish. I was encouraged, though, to notice that the Spanish seemed to flow more easily than it did this time last year, and by the second day I was feeling a lot more confident and excited about the week.

The 20 participants are now moving into the third phase of their training: they will begin coaching their own "clients" while we as staff mentor and coach them in their developing skills. The course will finish with an online "graduation" in September.