Some of Ember's most innovative ideas come from ... my wife. Like this one - inviting missionary kids to join us on a state side leadership experience. Because we have some capacity on the AZ team this year, we've invited a select group of missionary kids to join us. And one has said yes, which is thrilling. [And when I say kids, I mean students.]
These students we invited had all grown up in other cultures - they are true third culture kids. Their families have worked in the church planting/leadership arena, so they've already been exposed to global leadership at a very tangible, primal level. They know what risk, liminality and being on the move is like.
I'm thrilled at being able to serve some of our friends' kids like this. Not only do I think it's a great experience for them, I'm certain they bring a ton of experience, perspective and grit to our team and to the AZ experience as a whole - they will make the whole thing better. We didn't get all of them this time... yet.
Part of why Ember exists was to be a medium for us to try untested ideas about preparing students for global leadership - ideas similar to this one. In some circles, those ideas get rejected. Around here, we love to try them.
Some of my MK friends did a summer program called (something like) "MK to MK"- where they have missionary kids do a summer missions project together. They LOVED it. I wrote a rec letter for a friend's younger sister for it last summer :-)
ReplyDeleteYay Shengs!
thats a fantastic idea!! how cool!!
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