Encourage One Another...Build One Another Up

Recently, volunteers and staff members at Advance pulled together to experiment with a new self-exploration and goal setting process for students--MAPS. Students thought through their life experiences to identify their skills and strengths; they also invited their Champions, friends and family to be part of the process, so that those folks could also call out those strengths and skills. While this conversation took place, a volunteer artist did his/her best to represent the life experiences, fears, and strengths in a quick drawing. It took a lot of careful scheduling and dedicated volunteers to pull off this process--and it also took students who were brave enough to be vulnerable to the process. On the whole,we think this experiment was a success, and we're grateful to everyone who helped make it possible.  

After MAPS, Andrew was teaching a lesson on communication in Jobs for Life. He guided students through communicating with a classmate about a recent emotional experience. One student, Latabatha (far right), chose to talk about her MAPS experience the week before. We praise God that she experienced this affirmation of her dignity and worth:

"During the MAPS class I felt proud of myself. I felt very happy and joyful.
I feel much better every day since the day of my MAPS class...
I wanted to hug my mentor, drawer and my good teacher Andrew,
because they all made me feel bigger than I'd ever think I would feel.
I drew a bible around my nightmares.
I am going to take all the advice and good words
they all said about me everywhere I go. My sister and cousin was a big inspiration to me.
At the end of my session I walked out very proudly and joyful.
I now follow my heart because of finding out how good of a person I am
and that I'm very strong with and through all things."