Intergenerational Seminar in Mexico City

It is Saturday evening, and we are back from an all-day seminar. Walter Erion and I spoke 5 times. Walter spoke for one session on the subject of conflict in the home, especially helping people to recognize the impact of differing temperaments on a marriage. As people learned about their own temperament type, they were very excited. This picture shows Walter speaking about The Blessing. With him is our translator, Daniel Valencia.

I spoke for 4 sessions, beginning with what the Bible says about children in the church and home, understanding the various ages and stages, organizing the church for ministry to children, and evangelism with children. It wasn’t all talk and PowerPoint presentations; we had a lesson demonstration, as well as a time when each of the ten participating congregations could discuss their plans for reaching and teaching children.

We experienced something quite unfamiliar in Canadian settings. As people arrived for the day-long seminar, entire families arrived togther. 

There weren’t special parallel children’s sessions in another area. Instead, the children and youth were there with their parents for the entire day, capturing the experience. The day was instructional, and also very joyful. At different times, people sang, and prayed, and listened to instruction, and cheered, and laughed, and ate, and discussed. The children could take in as much as they were able to, and they expected that this ``seminario`` would benefit not only the adults, but that all ages would receive and contribue something. The presence of children added a whole new dimension of anticipation and excitement. As a presenter, my energy level was heightened and stimulated in this environment. I could tell that the content was applicable and appealing. This was my heaviest day of the entire trip, and I came home satisfied and refreshed.

A small group leader in Calgary heard about me trip and offerred to help me. I want to say thank you to Angeles Mendoza in Calgary, who interrupted her own research work to translate one of the PowerPoint presentations in advance. Gracias Angeles!