Workshop
Workshops // Idea Sessions
Overview:
- The goal of each Idea Session is to “facilitate” or “guide” conversations among the participants who come to the workshops. In other words, these are NOT presentations by speakers in the traditional sense.
- Guides are to think of themselves as a coach to other idea-makers.
- We desire the main session guides to be accessible and available to help use their experience benefit all.
- Workshops are designed to follow main session topics to allow those guides more time for conversations, questions & answers and to expand on ideas/concepts presented.
The following is the basic format we use for our Idea Sessions:
- Total Time Allotment for Each Idea Session: 1 hour
- First 5 to 10 Minutes: Brief Introduction by the Guide about the Workshop Topic as well as His/Her Connection to the Topic
- Next 40 Minutes Dedicated to Facilitating Conversation about the Topic
- Last 5 to 10 Minutes: Include Closing and Opportunity for Participants to Network
- Average Size of Workshops: 10-20 people (We intentionally try to keep it smaller if possible).
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Workshops
Friday, Feb 25th
Session 1 – “The Global State of the Orphan”
TOM DAVIS – Question & Answer Session
JOHN SOWERS – Question & Answer Session (re: Mentoring)
JEDD MEDEFIND – Question & Answer Session
FRANK GARROTT – Question & Answer Session
DAN CRUVER – The Theology of Adoption & Pushing Toward Trinitarian Solutions to the Global Orphan Crisis
Workshop Description: Our redemption and the renewal of all creation has a very definite trinitarian shape. By the gospel God has opened up his eternal triune life to us and will one day give us a renewed creation for our eternal home. This workshop will explore how the trinitarian shape of redemption and renewal should inform our care for orphans.
ALAN HUNT – Orphan Care in the Middle East
Orphan Care in the Middle East takes on another dimension with very different religious and cultural institutions not to mention the aftermath of war and poverty.
Topics to be discussed include: Orphan care in Iraq, Adoption in Iraq, Erbil street children, Soran Community Center, Kid’s Camps
COUNTRY SESSIONS – Designed for anyone involved in doing work, running operations or adoptive parents related to these countries to meet, share their mission, hear successes or needs and collaborate
HAITI Country Gathering (guided by Chris Marlow, Help End Local Poverty)
ETHIOPIA Country Gathering (guided by Scott Brown, Gladney)
RWANDA Country Gathering (guided by Natalie Green, Africa New Life)
UGANDA Country Gathering (guided by Jason Kovacs, ABBA Fund)
KENYA Country Gathering (guided by Terrell & Kristen Welch)
MIDDLE EAST & IRAQ Country Gathering (please attend Alan Hunt’s Workshop)
LATIN & SOUTH AMERICA Region Gathering (guided by Cristin Smith, World Vision)
CHINA Country Gathering (guided by Lori Tugwell, The Titus Task)
RUSSIA & EASTERN EUROPE (guided by Matt Mooney, 99 Balloons)
Note: we will not have a US specific country gathering as Saturday mornings session will be one large US conversation re: foster care, mentoring, etc. We would encourage you to attend of the countries above to hear their stories and work, or attend one of the main session guides Q&A sessions
JUST ONE – 1,800 Second Experience
An experience to educate, interrupt, network and mobilize people to be a voice for those silenced by this inhuman bondage.
How? 10-15 at a time give 1800 seconds of their life to expose their eyes and move their hearts to help end this injustice.
Note: no one under age of 18 will be admitted without parents consent
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Session 2 – “Causes & Ramifications”
ROB MORRIS – Question & Answer Session (re: Trafficking)
KRISTEN WELCH – Question & Answer Session (re: Maternal Health)
MARK MOORE – Question & Answer Session (re: Hunger/Malnutrition)
MATT MOONEY – Question & Answer Session (re: Special Needs Orphans)
ESTHER HAVENS – Question & Answer Session
GARY SCHNEIDER – Questions & Answer Session (re: Orphans, AIDS & The Impoverished Church)
KRISTEN HOWERTON – The Psychology of Abandonment: Implications for Adoption and for Orphanage Life
When we hear the word “orphan,” we often think of the child who has been abandoned or put up for adoption. What we do not often consider are the thousands of children who seem to have parents and a home, but as the secondary (or sometimes primary) victims of domestic violence or childhood sexual assault, they essentially become orphaned and are left to parent themselves and/or their siblings, sometimes even their parents.
This workshop will offer examples of local cases; explore the causes of this phenomenon; and consider the consequences for the children and our community. Participants will be asked to discuss possible solutions at the local, national, and global level.
NOEL & LORI TUGWELL – A Journey through the Pain of losing a Child During Adoption to a Mission of Hope
During this session Noel & Lori will share their personal testimony of God’s provision and faith building work in their adoption stories – a “real” discussion of the valleys and the high places during an adoption journey and the hope that can be found.
Noel & Lori are passionate about pursuing whatever God calls to in caring for His children and would love to encourage, support and pray for you as you pursue His plan for your family.
JUST ONE – 1,800 Second Experience
An experience to educate, interrupt, network and mobilize people to be a voice for those silenced by this inhuman bondage.
How? 10-15 at a time give 1800 seconds of their life to expose their eyes and move their hearts to help end this injustice.
Note: no one under age of 18 will be admitted without parents consent
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Saturday, Feb 26th
Session 3 – “Adoption & Foster Care”
JOHNNY CARR – Question & Answer Session (re: Church Partnerships)
HEIDI BRUEGEL COX – Question & Answer Session (re: Foster Care Reform)
JASON LOCY – Questions & Answer Session (re: Family Roles in Adoption)
JOSH & AMY BOTTOMLY – Question & Answer Session
NICOLE WICK – Honor Your Father and Mother: Living Out the Other Side of Adoption
Adoption isn’t the beginning of the story. Or the end. Adoption is about much more than putting a family together, adoption is also an undoing — a mother being separated from her child. In this workshop Nicole Wick, an adult adoptee, will use her personal adoption story as well as insights from the story of Hannah and Samuel ( 1 Samuel 1:21-28 and 2:18,19) to facilitate a discussion about “the other side of adoption”.
The workshop will be a space for adoptive parents to discuss ways to honor birth moms, dads, and countries of origin. Topics of discussion will include introducing and maintaining cultural traditions, having healthy, age appropriate conversations with children about their birth parents, and ways to move through acculturation while still valuing a child’s native language and culture.
JASON KOVACS – Missional Living and Adoption/Orphancare
How the global church can transform cities and nations for the sake of the orphan. Looking at the connection between the mission of God and the call to care for the fatherless.
CHRISTY FAST & JOANNA HALE – Advocating for Foster Care
Description of workshop: A talk on foster care: Why it’s needed, what to do about the need, and ideas/discussions of models to support those on the front lines of the Foster Care system.
Stephanie Karasek & Rev. Louis R. Fawcett – Navigating the Stormy Waters of Church Budgets for the orphan
This idea session is a discussion of the realities of how church budgets are structured and how orphan ministries can be supported financially in churches. Many churches struggle with discerning ministry priorities and orphan care often takes a back seat. Join us to discuss strategies and hear real world examples about what is working and not working in churches who wish to fund orphan ministries.
BLOGGERS PANEL with Amber Haines, Kristen Welch, Lindsey Nobles, Kristen Howerton, Elora Ramirez & Dan King – The Online Activist and The Weary Reader
As advocates in a world of social media, swamped with important causes and touching images, online activists risk losing even long-time readers when they begin to request support for their cause. When using our influence to promote Orphan Care, we’re asking readers to have compassion that spurs them to action while also asking them to swallow unfathomable numbers. Readers are over-loaded and information fatigued.
How do we avoid using “fly-in-the-eye” images that cause readers to feel manipulated while still sharing the truth of the dire need of millions of orphans?
How do we engage a reader’s mind and hold attention spans while sob stories seem a dime a dozen?
How do we invite readers into our own passions and spur them into action without exhausting their sense of empathy?
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Session 4 – “Preemptive Orphan Care”
CRISTIN SMITH – Questions & Answers Session
MOODY & EMILY ALEXANDER – Questions & Answer Session
ELIZABETH STYFFE – Questions & Answer Session
SCOTT BROWN – Questions & Answer Session
ERIC STOWE – Working to Care for the Ones Who Will Not Leave the Orphanage
This idea session is a discussion on providing sustainable interventions and solutions to children who will not leave their orphanages. Baby formula, clothing, and diapers are the most common intervention models promoted by US adoption agencies and individuals in the past. But in the larger scheme of things, they are very temporary and ultimately target only a small portion of the children within the orphanage. This discussion is geared toward highlighting real examples and real struggles of groups doing long-term and difficult interventions on behalf of orphans.
DAVE WOOD, LIFELINE CHILDREN’S SERVICES – Pushed out of the Orphanage
What really happens when a child is pushed out of the only world they have known and enters into a fearful, dangerous world of unknowns?
This session will attempt to frame what that looks and feels like: What does a child do the first hour, day, week, etc they age out of the orphanage? What are the choices they have to make, what are the resources available, what can the church do to be a support for these children? Where are these children and how can we make a difference in their lives before it’s too late?
DAN KING – Orphan Care for the Everyday Activist
Not everyone can adopt and bring children into their home, but everyone can have an impact on the orphan epidemic. In this session we will discuss ways that individuals and church groups can make an impact on the lives of orphans locally and globally, and the Biblical mandate to do so.
We live in a culture where catalysts change the world by living out their convictions and calling others to join them. This concept is not original to today’s activists, but finds its origin in the Christian gospel. The Activist Faith movement seeks to educate and empower people in the church to live out their faith and impact their world… in the name of Christ.
CHARLES LEE – Principles for Moving Ideas to Action
Workshop Information Coming Soon
MARK BRAY – Agricultural Models for Orphan Care
Workshop Information Coming Soon
NATALIE GREEN – Education Models for Orphan Care
Workshop Information Coming Soon
ANDREW BRILL – Local Church Models for Caring for Vulnerable Children in your Community (U.S. focused)
Potter’s House Ministry is a decade-old attempt to provide at-risk children, youth, and families in families with a hope and a future.
In this session, we will examine how this ministry has grown and diversified and use its story to consider how relational ministry to at-risk families develops over time and in unexpected ways. How do you get started? How do you add in new areas of ministry? Should you add in new areas? What does local holistic ministry practically look like? What does fruit look like? How do we move from feeling bad for a neighbor to actually doing something about it?