| An encouraging report of Passing the Baton's influence in the Philippines |
by Julius Tajale
We have just conducted the Student Leadership Conferences in the Philippines in two locations: Laguna at the Word of Life Camp, and Davao at Camp Alano. God is really working in the lives of our Christian High School Students here in the Philippines in order to influence the future.
261 students and advisers attended in the Laguna Conference, while 191 students and advisers attended in Davao. The students were blessed by receiving insights into what Christian student leadership is, and advisors reaffirmed their calling to coach the students into Christian leadership.
 During the conference, each school delegation was asked to present the status of their BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) from last year's conferences. It's exciting to see that they really fulfilled their plans! All school delegations were able to form new BHAGs for 2008 and present them in the conference.
We discussed 10 topics during the conference, held a "Scavenger Hunt" and strategic planning session. The two students (Tim and Juan Miguel) who went to Orlando last April with me gave their testimonies and made a presentation.
Also in this year's conference, we organized the participating schools into district and national organizations so that we can advance the Christian Student Leadership Program in our country.
Part of our plan is to organize so that we can properly monitor the leadership programs in the schools as well as their implementation of their strategic plans. Through this structure we are planning to establish a leadership program for all ACSI member schools offering High School. The program will cater to Christian Coach Development and Christian Student Leader Development. This is where we will employ all of the Passing the Baton resources such as coach training, Wisdom Trek, leadership Trek and other enriching activities.
 We also had a special session with the advisers to discover their needs and concerns. Topping the list is the need to train good coaches (advisers). Other concerns are: how to sustain the enthusiasm of the student leaders after the conference, develop a training method that is more experiential in nature for the students and coaches, continuity of the programs established by the students (in their strategic plans) since the students will graduate after a year or two, and the concern of some coaches transferring to public schools after they are trained.
It is always a privilege to be working in the Lord's Vineyard!
|
Our report is written by 
