Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Lessons from the Warrior Shepherd


A few weeks ago, we had a week with Dave Hearn as our teacher, current G42 staff and former officer of the United States Air Force. I haven’t had a chance to blog about it yet, but I wanted to make sure I highlighted it because Dave brought a fresh facet to our curriculum and schedule. We spent the morning class periods talking about tribes, networking, goal setting, and our vision projects. In the afternoon, however, instead of returning to the classroom, Dave took us on several hikes and walks in the mountains surrounding Mijas. It was hot. We hiked a lot. We got sweaty. And it was fantastic. Dave told us it was a lesson in hard work, which was true, but it was so much more than that. It was an opportunity for us to use every part of our being to grow, learn, be challenged, and love God. At the peak of each hike, we would take a break and use our resting time as an opportunity to do a group activity or assignment.

One of the days, Dave instructed us to design a logo and come up with a name for our hypothetical business or non-profit organization. We also had to write out our own mantra of who we are. Another day we had to do a team building exercise where we had to carry out a task written on paper without verbally communicating with the rest of our group. On another hike, we played a crazy version of Telephone, alternatively using charades and story-telling to pass the story along. Each game or activity had an intentional purpose and taught us a new lesson or opened our eyes to the importance of a principle or idea. I found them to be quite helpful and impacting!
Essentially, I really enjoyed our week of physical labor (ok maybe it wasn’t that intensive) and exercise. It was a great chance to start putting into practice healthy living habits and remembering the importance of taking care of the bodies that God has given us. Plus, it was nice to have a break from being in a classroom and taking notes :)
I figured I’d post some of the pictures from our hikes so you can see what our class experience was like that week, plus enjoy the beautiful views we got to see in Mijas.


















 

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