PICO ESCONDIDO
Young Life Dominican Republic
|
PICO ESCONDIDO Young Life Dominican Republic
|
|
| Work Teams Come
visit our world...
A
treasure lies hidden in the soul of Latin America, a spiritual treasure to be
recognized as a gift. — Henri Nouwen
Overall, the work team experience has proven to be a landmark in the life of many Christian disciples - deepening their faith, strengthening their convictions and making them more aware of God's mandate that we care for this world's less fortunate. Whether teenagers, college students, or adults, work team participants are brought into the presence of Christ in a unique and profound way. These trips are more than a short-term missions opportunity. Participants are both givers and receivers, sharing their resources with the international community and partaking of the Bread of Life as offered by the Lord himself through the precious people of Latin America.
All groups will spend their first and last days traveling. Once groups arrive, they travel by bus to camp, where they will receive a country, camp, and cross-cultural orientation. In addition to a Sunday of rest in which teams will get to experience a local church service, groups will spend four days working at camp with various activities at night. These activities may include Bible studies, worship times, a Dominican Young Life club, small group discussion times, a bonfire with s'mores, and just about anything else the leaders desire. After these days of working at camp, some groups will have the opportunity to go into one of our ministry areas and stay in homes of our leaders while doing service projects within the community. In addition, we are now offering experiences where the group spends the entire time staying in homes of leaders in the communities, doing projects there and just helping our local ministry in general. Each group ends their stay by spending a night at a hotel where they can rest, process their week, and experience a debriefing time led by their work team host from the week. Costs
Prices change from year to year, so please contact us at Grupos@picoescondido.com or Young Life Expeditions for more information.
The
vast majority of work team participants raise part or all of their costs.
This is a powerful and extremely meaningful part of any short-term
missions experience. It brings into
the process hundreds of people who might not otherwise have a connection with
the precious people of Latin America. It
also gives participants the immeasurable blessing of having a “Body” of
contributors to support them not only financially, but prayerfully.
If you are coming with a Young Life group, a church group or
another organization, you may find the fundraising process a necessary and
beneficial supplement to the other resources you are gathering for the funding
of your trip. Travel We
are happy to assist you in setting up your air travel.
For many years now Tan Travel in Chicago has provided our groups with outstanding
service. They have a strong
understanding of Young Life Latin America, our purpose, philosophy, and mission.
Tan Travel offers us helpful policies in regards to airline deposits, altering
group size and deadlines for ticket balances.
They set deadlines that fit well with a fundraising schedule which allows plenty
of time to accumulate the resources necessary to cover plane fare. Group
Size There is no
rule as to
how many people may come in a group, however, we feel that a group of about 15-25
tends to be much easier on the leaders. Often
we schedule more than one group at the same time. In
such cases, you will most likely share evening worship and meeting times, but
can retain group autonomy for purposes of discussion, Bible study and
question/answer times. These groups work, lodge and eat together, but are afforded
the necessary time for individual group fellowship when this is desired. You may find this a
wonderful help in the area of leadership
responsibility. Along with other
group’s trip leaders, you can divide and delegate various leadership roles.
For example, while your group may not have a music/worship leader,
another group might. Together
multiple groups can create a more complete experience for your work trip
participants. If you are scheduled at the same time as another group, you
will be put in touch with the other trip leaders beforehand so that you might
discuss the sharing of such responsibilities. Length
of Stay Typically, all spring trips
are eight days or less in length due to school schedules.
Summer trips can be up to two weeks in length, with exceptions for longer
stays. In our experience, the ideal
summer trip length is ten days. This
period of time allows for richer cross-cultural opportunities and makes
scheduling much easier.
It also greatly increases the opportunity for your group to more fully
experience Dominican
culture. Groups are able to spend more time investing in their work
projects and more time building community among themselves.
We strongly encourage you to aim for the longer trip length if at all
possible. Leaders Young
Life requests that you provide at least 1 leader for every 10 college-age
work team participants or 1 leader for every 5 high school-age persons.
We highly recommend that you bring leaders who are familiar with your
campers. While our staff will do
everything they can to supplement your leadership, please do not depend on the
Young Life staff in the DR to control or discipline your folks.
You know them! Most likely
they are going to listen to you much more quickly than they will a stranger! Spiritual
Direction The
ministry and philosophy of Young Life is built upon a relational foundation.
As God revealed Himself to the world through the medium of relationship,
becoming flesh and “dwelling among us” (John 1:14) in the person of Jesus
Christ, so do we believe that by sharing “not only the gospel of God but our
lives as well,” (1 Thess. 2:8) we might introduce young people to the living
Savior. Remaining focused on this
philosophy, we believe that YOU are best equipped to supervise in the spiritual
leadership of your group. You are
the ones who have been investing in their lives prior to your work trip
experience and you are the ones who will journey back with them as they return
to their lives in the States. You
have the relationships! For this
reason we leave the majority of the organization and planning of group worship,
discussion and teaching or study time largely up to you.
We will provide you with several materials to
use as supplements or guides for the spiritual direction of your trip if desired.
The staff in the DR will gladly make themselves available, sharing their testimonies, their spiritual journeys and giving
insights to how God has called them to the mission field.
We will make suggestions and share from our experience with previous
work trips, but the themes, biblical teachings and general spiritual direction of
your group is ultimately in your hands. Among
other benefits, this allows you to begin processing the experience with your
folks before you arrive, as well as once you have returned home. We want to serve you in this process and to help enhance your
spiritual experience in whatever way possible.
According to your needs, feel free to solicit our assistance at any time! If
at all possible, we strongly recommend bringing someone in your group who can
play guitar and lead songs/worship. If
you do not have such a person(s), please let us know so that we can plan
accordingly. You can also find more information through Young Life's Expeditions:
YOUNG LIFE'S EXPEDITIONS Phone: 770-236-8527 Email: YLExpeditions@intl.younglife.org
|
