Not that type of clubbing ;)
Blackman (our resident famous rapper) and Fred (UJN renowned breakdancer and Generation Hope English instructor)taking a selfie with me on the way.
I am fortunate enough to work with some of the most
motivated and inspiring young leaders in Goma (and, in my biased opinion, all of
Congo). The Generation Hope program is designed to teach the students leadership. A good leader leads by example and by serving others. That's my
belief. These students take these lessons and go to their neighborhoods to
teach others. Some people call this discipleship. These small groups throughout Goma and surrounding towns and villages are called “clubs”. Un Jour Nouveau
has over 70 clubs started by leaders between the ages of 14 and 21.
Some of my students. Noe is doing some weird squatting pose in front :)
One club in particular is led by one of my favorite students,
Noe. This young man asked for a minute of my time my first week in Goma. He was
already in my Wednesday afternoon English class where we started off studying
the book of John. (Personally, I think John is a great place to learn leadership
principles from Jesus. And of course we do this in English). I sat down with him
and about 3 other students where Noe showed me the new schedule they had
generated for me. I was to meet them every Monday and Friday, as well as the
regularly scheduled Wednesday and Thursday classes, from 6am-8am to have extra
English lessons. Although I was incredibly impressed with his initiative, 6am any
morning doesn’t really work for me. So we compromised on a 2pm class.
Before I left, Mama Komeza told me I was wearing my scarf
wrong. She took it off my neck, wrapped it correctly around my head and said that prepared me for
life in the neighborhoods.
Noe is a great leader; he's smart, ambitious, kind, very
thoughtful, and he’s got a great sense of humor (which I highly value). His club
is held in a small, one-room school house in a neighborhood about 20 minutes
away by car. There were 15 other young people present this particular day. The
conversation was on treating others with respect. One guy brought up the fact
that he doesn’t respect prostitutes because they choose a disgusting life… this
turned into a very lively conversation, as you can imagine.
If there's one thing I’ve learned in the time since I
really started to believe what God says in His word (and it's not just that He
exists, See LINK)… since living on Hanover Place in DC, living in Haiti and now
living in Goma… Through all my frustrations and heartbreak, it’s this: we are
all broken by the sin in our lives; the sin just looks different depending on
life decisions. This simple yet profound reality… who am I to judge you?
But honestly, many times I do. Many times I find myself critical of other peoples choices, not knowing the circumstances of their lives that may've led them to make that choice.
Determining “how far someone has to go” to be a “better person” isn’t a
fair view of them; I don’t know how far God has brought them.
In my experience, love really does cover a multitude of
sins. It has for me. But that doesn’t mean we don't address issues of brokenness in our lives. It means
addressing them with truth AND kindness. My students and I have discussed this
at length. I’ve learned that truth without kindness is destructive and kindness
without truth is irresponsible. Love and acceptance… learning to accept where
someone is in life and choosing to love him or her. Would I encourage someone to
remain in a situation that's dangerous or not good for their health? No. So
why would I encourage someone to live in a situation that has profoundly destructive effects
on their soul?
Personally, I have been really fortunate to have people in
my life to call me out on the things I do or have done that are not good for my
health, soul or otherwise. But without relationships built through love and
acceptance, I never would've received the encouragement and correction. It
would've felt like judgment and condemnation, and I would have carried it as
shame and bitterness.
There have been people in my life who've said corrective things to me without having established a relationship with me (and sometimes without kindness). I carried those remarks as shame,
condemnation and eventually bitterness. It was destructive. I don’t want that for other people.
I want genuine, loving relationships for people because those kinds of relationships change lives.
Noe does just that. He is building relationship, earning
trust and he's able to facilitate tough conversations. He did a beautiful job
of shutting down condemning comments and promoting respectful and kind conversation.
I did speak up occasionally to pose questions for them to think about and
alternative perspectives to consider.
But I want them to think for themselves and I want Noe to feel empowered
to lead. The reason I was there was to observe and listen; the reason they
wanted me there was to hear my perspective and thoughts. We managed to find a
nice balance of both.
I'm not sure why I left my backpack on to stand up and talk...
I was (and remain) incredibly proud of my students, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to work with Un Jour Nouveau.
