PACS - Training in West Papua / Irian Jaya, Indonesia

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Center for Peacemaking
and Conflict Studies

Training of Facilitators for the Evangelical Christian Church of Irian Jaya (Sinode GKI)

August 28-31, 2000 on the island of Biak.

During May the PSPP team had led 400 GKI pastors in a facilitated process of discussion on the subject of the church's response to the aspiration for independence. Having seen what skilled facilitators could do in leading such meetings, the Synod wanted to develop the internal capacity for that type of work. The PSPP team (Duane Ruth-Heffelbower, Jozef Hehanussa, Kuriake Kharismawan and Damai Teguh) returned to train 60 pastors and other church leaders in facilitation skills.

The PSPP team. From the left: Damai Teguh, Jozef Hehanussa, Duane Ruth-Heffelbower, Kuriake Kharismawan. 27759 bytes	Besides interactive lectures the group participated in realistic role plays. 31045 bytes	Part of the group posing for a portrait. 28666 bytes	Damai began working with Duane as an interpreter. She still does that but has taken on co-trainer responsibilities as well. 38389 bytes
Aspirations for independence were obvious among many in the training group. This t-shirt has the Papuan anthem on the back "Hail My Papua Land." 14048 bytes	We used the same training facility in May. 41538 bytes	A tragedy occurred during the training. One of our participants was seriously injured in a motorcycle collision in which the two drivers were killed. We visited the injured man in this hospital and the family home of one of the deceased persons, a human rights worker. 28097 bytes	Role playing a labor-management dispute. 28370 bytes
Coaching role plays is an important part of training. Jozef is giving some pointers. 45569 bytes	Kuriake coaching. 37592 bytes	Working on a facilitation problem the leaders of two small groups try to coordinate their results. 20738 bytes	Two of the pastors work on a simulated problem. 16803 bytes
The closing ceremony had a choir. 23062 bytes	Given a realistic problem, the groups worked for hours. 32069 bytes	Signing certificates of completion for the training. 23823 bytes	When the training was done we went to the beach. Children from the neighborhood joined us. 24733 bytes
Everyone had to go into the water. Certificates were passed out at the water's edge so that any dry recipients could be easily thrown in. The certificates were laminated. 41432 bytes	This beach may be one of the nicest. It becomes coral rock half the year, and this nice sand returns when the season changes. 43529 bytes	People from the local GKI church provided music and dancers. 46392 bytes	One of the water games involves riding a palm log. 23783 bytes

Last modified 04/03/01. Page constructed and maintained by Duane Ruth-Heffelbower

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