Issue 22
Kingdom Families

Mobilizing learning for body, mind and soul

Sharing from students of 2010 Pennsylvania Cultural Practice Camp

【A100 Art Appreciation and Creation Camp】

Art is not far away!

Text and photography/Li Mei

With Teacher Lan Hui, you will feel: Art is not far away!

▲Live and learn: Teacher Lan Hui introduced Rodin’s statue in detail.

The Barnes Museum in Philadelphia is really a great place for teaching! The museum houses hundreds of works by 19th-century Impressionist masters. By comparing and interpreting the works of masters, Teacher Lan Hui teaches us how to appreciate famous paintings and painting techniques, and at the same time opens a window to understand our own artistic characteristics. Similarly, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum are both first-class museums in the United States. The art camp is really in the right place in Philadelphia!

In the class, everyone was surprised by their awakening artistic cells and happy with their dedicated creations. Everyone forgot about fatigue and only concentrated on one thing - expressing themselves through artistic language.

▲The teacher took the students to the master’s exhibition room to learn “graffiti”.

It turns out that art is a part of personal life. Perhaps, the precious artistic cells have been abandoned in a forgotten corner for too long, like a chrysalis locked in a box. When we try to open the box, we find that the pupa will gradually squirm, undergo transformation, and become a colorful butterfly. Once the butterfly flies out of the box where it has been imprisoned for a long time, it begins to enjoy the joy of expressing itself.

This is true for learning painting, and so is our spiritual growth as Christians.

【P100 Peacemaker Workshop】

The motivation to resolve conflicts comes from "love"

Text/Lin Wenxin Photography/Liao Meihui

▲Learning to be committed to the truth and rely on the love of the Lord to face conflicts, the "Peace Messenger" teachers and students took a happy graduation photo.


Before attending this workshop, I didn’t think much about it. I only knew that I was often weak when facing conflicts, especially conflicts in my family of origin. I want to know how the Bible teaches us to respond to and resolve conflict?


Through the teaching and sharing of teachers Lynn Pace, Liu Zhepei and Wang Lanxin, I learned to apply the "Slippery Slope Chart of Conflict Response" to analyze my current reaction position when facing conflict. How can we change our positions to glorify God and benefit others? Because it is not good to have an evasive reaction that is too far to the left or an aggressive reaction that is too right in the dangerous slope diagram, you must rely on the leftmost "forgiveness" movement of the harmonious reaction in the middle, that is:Only by taking the initiative to ignore many trivial arguments, deciding not to care about it, not to think about it again, not to let it become an obstacle in the relationship, and to be determined to forgive can the conflict be transformed into a positive force.This is also the specific way God wants us to live in harmony and love one another.


In class, in addition to studying the Bible, we also practiced practical exercises and learned to apply the conflict response skills developed by the Peacemaker Ministry. When discussing the issue of face in Chinese culture, which often becomes a source of conflict or an obstacle that is difficult to resolve, Teacher Lynn smeared the peanut butter from the toast on the table on her cheeks and asked us: "What would you do?" I was stunned. , but a warm and thorough feeling arose in my heart as the classmate answered: "Let me know immediately and help wipe it off...". I suddenly understood why the teacher said that the driving force to truly face and resolve conflicts comes from love. We can learn many ways to try. Sometimes the results are not as expected. However, we must rely on the power of love to persevere and hand over the results to God with a trusting heart. Then there will be no undue pressure, helplessness, annoyance or bitterness. .

Isn’t this just the right medicine for me to face conflicts in my family of origin? I don’t need to be the savior in conflicts in my family of origin. God is the key to responding to and resolving every conflict. What I have to do is commit myself to biblical principles to handle conflicts, obey God’s leadership, forgive again and again, and trust God. And there is hope. Thank God for allowing me to participate in this workshop, Lord! I ask you at this moment to give me the power of mercy and tolerance. When facing conflicts every time, I can hold a heart of joy and hope in you, actively seek inner peace, and make peace with others.

【M100 Leadership Management Workshop】

Build all-round leadership

Text/Wen Yingqian Photography/Liao Meihui

▲Good leaders are also good listeners; despite their different expertise and backgrounds, the trainees all learned valuable lessons.


When I was teaching in Taiwan, I also taught leadership. Taking this class this time has enriched my relevant knowledge and practical practices. Among the classmates are journalists, professionals, church pastors and co-workers, hospital directors, management professors from the American University School of Management, etc. Despite their different backgrounds, they all learned valuable lessons.


The instructor, Gao Lili, studied industrial engineering and has served as a senior manager in several large companies in the United States. She has also become a well-known speaker on leadership and management in the American and Chinese business circles. During the course, she integrated theory and practice and taught in a lively manner, making the course not boring at all and making time fly by! After finishing it, the meaning is still not finished.


High Performance Team:In a company or any organization, whether you are a supervisor or a subordinate (in most cases, everyone has a boss), you are in a work team. How to create a high-performing team is the main common goal of every work team. The purpose of this course is to teach how to improve team performance and strengthen self-potential.


Teacher Gao used Southwest Airlines as an example to illustrate the practice of high-performance teams: "How to remain competitive despite competition from many major airlines so that major airlines dare not underestimate it."


A successful team must have a good leader, and a good leader must be a person with a vision. Having a mission statement allows team members to share the same vision and mission, so that they can unite and work together.


A good team must have several characteristics: share a common purpose (focus, coordination, and cooperation), have high-performing members (competent, competitive, and committed), be autonomous (performance management), and share leadership (leadership) ).


Effective communication:The most important thing for a high-performance team is to be able to communicate effectively with others. Teacher Gao uses her rich experience to propose effective implementation methods so that students can practice in the classroom. She listed various conversation methods - challenging conversation, influencing conversation, decisive conversation and their response methods. To deepen the impression, she also organized plots to be performed on stage and screened several related movies to achieve the highest learning effect.


Listen, face conflict, solve problems:The most important thing about communication is listening. How to actively listen? Teacher Gao lists methods for self-assessment and ten golden rules for leaders to listen effectively. The layers are clear and worthy of in-depth study and practice after class.


Secondly, how to resolve conflicts between teams, with other teams, or with customers is also a required course in leadership.


In addition to resolving conflicts, how you solve problems is equally important. Problem-solving tools include Barreto analysis, cause-and-effect analysis, fishbone diagram, frequency diagram, and multi-function program method, etc., which are all practical methods.

M100 course is very worth learning

Whether you are a supervisor or a non-supervisor employee of a unit, if you hope to make a breakthrough in management leadership, I believe that after completing this course, you will return to the workplace with a new vision and practical methods, and become a relevant person. Managers and leaders are different from before.