Happy belated New Year! I trust you are all having a good start to the New Year. Here 2023 has really started off with a bang. We have welcomed an influx of new students who will be with us for at least the next 3 months to grow and develop through our courses. The students have come from over 20 different nations, each bringing a piece of their unique culture to the campus. I really enjoy it when we have a wide mix of nationalities on campus. When there are more nations, there is just a special feel to the campus as fellow believers from all kinds of backgrounds come together find common ground and learn to appreciate the unique nature of the different cultures.
One of the most exciting things this new year has brought is the communications course that we have been working on creating for nearly a year. After working on planning academics, curriculum, and learning path, there is something absolutely surreal about seeing students arrive and begin to take the course. The transition from theoretical to actual is something I find so fulfilling, be it an art project, photo, strategy, or in this case a full training program. The course has 7 students with a pretty wide range of skill levels. A part of the course is to practice real-life projects. This hands-on approach is one of the most effective ways to learn digital/media skills. The students spend the mornings in lecture-style teachings learning the foundational principles of communication, creativity, and how to apply a biblical worldview to communicating. They then spend the first portion of the afternoon doing software learning where we teach them how to use professional media software. At the time of writing, they are learning how to use Adobe Photoshop, but over the course of the school, they will learn a number of programs for different uses. The second part of the afternoon is where they get hands-on. This is the portion I am mainly involved with. The students get to apply the theory and technical knowledge of the first 2 segments by working on a range of real-life projects we use for the campus. I like to think of it as making jello. The theory is the hot water which creates a base understanding. Then you add the powder of software training to flavor things. Finally, I see the hands-on portion as the fridge where their abilities are solidified through practice.
Some of the students will also continue on to do the residency program after the course where they spend 3 months working in the communications office nearly full time, with a small portion of study on the side to further cement what they have learned. I will be fully heading this up and am looking forward to taking the students even further as I have with many people who have come through in the past. This part of the course will start in April, once the main 3 months are completed.
Another amazing opportunity I had was to teach on mobilizing at a small University of the Nations (UofN) conference for the YWAM locations in Europe. The University of the Nations is the training arm of YWAM that oversees, accredits, and manages all the training that YWAM offers around the globe. The conference was designed to help the staff of smaller campuses learn how to work with both the academic and systematic areas of running UofN courses. This kind of training is vital to see more people equipped to put on more training courses which result in more young people being equipped in different ways to make a positive impact for the kingdom.
My session focused on the mobilizing and communication side of putting on training courses. Things like communicating effectively over social media, best practices for websites, how to respond to students who reach out, and a number of other topics contextualized to YWAM campuses. I was really honored to be invited to speak. It was very validating of all the hard work I have put in over the last 3 years to make the communications for the campus as good as they can be. I also loved the opportunity to be able to help other ministries excel in this area.
Looking ahead, there are a lot of really exciting things coming up. In about a week we are going into production on a new online course taught by an excellent teacher on the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. Since we wrapped up the last course, I have been itching to get another one underway. Working on projects with larger scopes is much more fulfilling than many smaller ones. This time I have some help from the students of the communications course to help out, and I am excited to show them the process of organizing and orchestrating a bigger project. I would appreciate your prayers for the production and that we would be able to make an online course that will be able to encourage and bless many people. We have a whole day of filming on set on Jan. 27th and then post-production afterward. There is no set release date, but the goal is to get it out before the end of March. If there are no major technical hurdles, my hope is that it will be completed even sooner. I look forward to keeping you up to date as things progress.
As always, thank you for coming along with me in this adventure of faith,
Ben