Running Writer’s Workshops
“But I’m not a writer!”
Oh, the number of times we have heard this from people around the world — faithful Christians who yearn to develop their own Gospel content for children but feel it’s beyond them!
There is a desperate need for contextually relevant materials. Resources ‘translated’ from wealthy English-speaking countries mostly don’t work. The words might match however the meaning is lost. (Here’s an example: imagine the differences in understanding of the phrase, “a lot on your plate”.)
So, Logosdor runs writer’s workshops when we are invited to help create resources — whether it be curriculum, media or something else. We don’t do the creating, but we assist with the creative process, helping local leaders to find and develop solutions to issues faced in their community.
We’ve run workshops in some pretty surprising places, like Liberia, Malta, Kenya, Lebanon, Siberia, Argentina, Uganda, and even Australia!
Those who have been part of the workshops have often then gone and run similar workshops for others, in some other surprising places, like Tanzania and Venezuela.
Writer’s workshops enable people to create resources, moving from an idea to the finished product and they raise up leaders who want to help others create for their community. It’s about multiplying the message to see more children walking with Jesus.
Penny attended a writer’s workshop in east Africa. She emailed us and said, “I believe that the volunteers will be inspired by the principles and the different ideas of teaching. It is not always easy to recognise a need for change, but if we stay with the same methods for many years we get stuck in a rut. The message itself (of the Cross) is still very much the same but for each generation the methods change.”
Penny has never attended one of Logosdor’s training sessions. None of the Logosdor team has ever met her. Penny had been trained by someone who did come to one of our workshops!
That ‘someone’ returned home from the workshop so enthusiastic that they immediately gathered some people together and shared with them what they had learnt, training them with the same skills and knowledge, and creating new resources for their context.
That’s multiplication!
