Seminars

I was pleasantly surprised when I bumped into Hong Teck and his family yesterday at Tampines when I was with Penny.
And Hong Teck surprised me further with a question on when am I going to Chiang Rai?
My first reaction was “Eh… Have I ever mentioned to you before?”
“Your blog remember?!”
Haha!!! I nearly forgot that I have a blog – my public life. Heee… =)

Anyway, this week has really been fulfilling.

On Tuesday, I attended a Discipleship Seminar for the Hope Kids Ministry.
We were taught by Ranae and Carol.
I was very captivated by them when I first arrived cause they have SUCH nice and soothing voice.
Well… that aside, that seminar has incurred a few thoughts in my mind and I totally enjoyed it!

A few things that I learned:

1) I learned the song “Father Abraham”! (YES! When I told my friends, they all laughed at me cause how COULD I not know this song?!)
However, what I really learned was that we sometimes need actions, we need BRIGHT visuals and movements to captivate children’s attention.
Children won’t like to be bored.

2) Children need to be respected. Just cause they are young doesn’t deem fit that they don’t deserve our respect. They have every right to be silent and every right to give comments. They, like adults, like to be listened too.

3) We have to know our children. How can we reach out to the little ones, how can we expect them to listen to us if we don’t know them? Get involved in their talk. Hear what they say…

4) Spirit is caught not taught. Isn’t that true with adults too I ask? How I love God, how I deal with problems in my life, can be reflected in my inner man and that can be caught. Keep it consistent and keep God the centre of my life.

Even after the session, I was encouraged and I felt it was such a privilege to serve the little ones. I thank God for the opportunity to be in this ministry. J

And today, I returned home not too long ago from a People Helping People seminar. Another seminar that brought lots of memories to me. As I was watching all the role plays on the stage brought me back to my own role play for my class assignment (last year). I made ALL the mistakes that any people helper can make. Let me try to recall what my lecturer and classmate commented.

1) I sat VERY close to my client who is NOT my gender. It’s a big NO NO… Sitting too close (3 feet or less is close) to client is not encouraged.

2) I had lots of non-verbals! I was biting my lips & I was fidgeting badly! My lecturer immediately knew I was nervous. Haha!

3) My emotional dictionary was limited. I only know the words “Sad” & “Happy”.

Well… honestly, I had all the fun doing that role play and it was delighting to hear comments. It was EQUALLY weird seeing me on screen also! Heee!! Indeed, being a people helper or a social worker is a skill that I recognize that I have to learn with failures. Be always open to critics and be always ready to face embarrassments. It’s never easy being in that hot seat faced with a person who comes to you wailing or angry or even emotionless. Our job is never to assume, never to judge. Our job is to help by listening. Just as the biggest enemy is ourselves, our biggest helper is ourselves also. Clients want to be heard and they actually do have lots of solutions themselves. Let them hear themselves. Oh ya... And I learned that it is VERY important to cover ourselves spiritually when we help others. Transferance and Counter Transferance are real and can really affect an individual.

It was a wonderful session (though tiring)! Now, I am looking forward to tomorrow cause it’s SATURDAY! Yeah! My long await Sunday break from work is arriving! Thank God it’s Saturday soon!