***Post updated 31st March 2018
Hi Everyone!
We welcomed 12 participants to the March intake of the Divine Truth and God’s Way Volunteer Selection Project yesterday (Thursday, 15th March). Tristan and I are looking forward to the next 9 weeks, learning lots and getting to know the participants.
Our first two days consisted of:
Day 1: a full introductory day of what the project is all about and what is involved.
Day 2: waste disposal (scrap run) project introduction, safety training applied to practical situations, honest communication and cleaning.
Thank you to everyone who helped out with this project in all kinds of ways. We are grateful!
Below are some questions and explanations about:
- Details about the Volunteer Selection Project
- The people involved in the project
- How Volunteer Selection Projects are funded
- What a day in the Project looks like for facilitators and participants
- Honest Communication
- How often projects run
- How to sign up if you are interested
- How to contact us with any questions
Eloisa and Tristan introduce the Volunteer Selection Project (March intake)
Details about the Volunteer Selection Project
It is a project designed for Divine Truth and God’s Way organisations to find passionate individuals who desire to serve and give gifts to the world (sharing God’s Truth in all kinds of ways). Both organisations want to find permanent volunteers who work as a cooperative team towards the common vision of living God’s Way and sharing God’s Truth with the world.
The way the project is designed, it quickly exposes participants’ attitudes, and if they are willing and desire to change and grow to bring their lives into harmony with God’s Way or not. This is very effective as we don’t waste time training people and using resources to find that in a year or so people are no longer committed to the vision.
The mentors (Jesus, (AJ Miller) & Mary (Mary Luck)) and facilitators (Tristan Miller & Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins) of the project assess the participants attitudes and provide feedback to each of them. This gives each participant the opportunity to see the issues that are preventing them being great volunteers and to emotionally work through the issues of love that cause this.
Being a volunteer for Divine Truth and/or God’s Way is a bit different than other volunteering experiences. You are required to bring your life into harmony and live God’s Way Ltd’s constitution not just pay lip service to it.
During the project we aspire to do every task and activity God’s Way which means that the project itself grows and changes as we find out more about what Love would do in all situations and the facilitators learn and understand more about God’s Way.
Setting up for Day 1 (March intake Volunteer Selection Project): Tristan , Catherine, Lena and Eloisa doing audio and video check
Elo instructs Kelly in gathering participant information for admin purposes
People involved in the Volunteer Selection Project
The Volunteer Selection Project was conceived by Jesus & Mary has been designed by Jesus, Mary, Tristan & Eloisa.
Mentors & facilitators: Tristan and Eloisa currently run the project and Jesus and Mary mentor them during the project.
Participants: Individuals who desire to volunteer for Divine Truth and/or God’s Way organisation participate. Participants have so far come from the local area, interstate and from overseas.
How are projects funded?
Like all programmes and projects God’s Way creates and runs, the Volunteer Selection Project is funded via donations made to God’s Way and currently, the personal funds of the facilitators.
The facilitators and mentors gift their time, resources and personal effort free of charge.
Future projects will be funded by donations and gifts given to God’s Way organisation.
If you are interested in donating to God’s Way the details and how to do so can be found at the following link: Donations.
We are grateful to those of you who have or do donate funds to God’s Way organisation and/or the facilitators personally, they enable us to create and run projects such as the Volunteer Selection Project.
Eloisa and Tristan Volunteer Selection Project (March intake)
Tristan and Eloisa 15th March 2018
Participants during the introduction day of the Volunteer Selection Project
What does a day in the volunteer Selection Project look like?
It is a 14 day project that runs over 9 weeks. It runs one to two days per week for 7 hours on each day.
After the initial introductory day where participants receive all the details of the project the rest of the days go a little like this:
Facilitators begin setting up for the day between 5:30am and 6:00am.
The participant’s day begins between 6:30am and 7:30am.
The day is 7 hours long and ends between 1:30pm and 2:30pm. We begin early particularly when we do work outside as the weather gets hot quickly during the Queensland Summer. In the winter months we may begin a bit later.
Project documents can be found at the following link if you want to read more about it.
Tristan and Eloisa geared up for safety
Tristan & Eloisa demonstrate safety hazards
Participants arrive, organise themselves (they are informed in advance about the activity they will be involved in so they can come prepared). Each participant is required to have completed an online or face to face white card safety training course before the project begins. This ensures every participant has a basic level of safety knowledge. We apply the principles from the training to the activities we do during the project.
Safety training Day 1 Volunteer Selection Project. Participants test out their safety gear
Facilitators give feedback and raise any issues of love from the previous day’s activities. We do this so that nothing is left resolved and everything is transparent. We find upholding love and being truthful creates a great atmosphere to work within and we encourage participants to be truthful, open and transparent.
The activity for the day is explained including the benefits, objectives for the day, the purpose of what participants are doing, the principles involved and any safety concerns. Activities are varied and may include: individual or group work; cleaning; hard labour; weeding; research assignments; participant presentations; scrap run; coming up with ideas and concepts on how to create positive change in the world and taking action to do so; and many other activities.
Tristan introduces participants to the “scrap run” an environmental and waste management project Divine Truth and God’s Way organisations are involved in
Participants are encouraged to be themselves and to honestly communicate with each other. This means that when a conflict or feeling comes up in one or more of the participants they are encouraged to truthfully feel what they feel and speak up about it. Participants are encouraged to feel how they feel, say what they think in a self-responsible manner (not blaming others for how they feel).
Honest Communication is being truth & transparent. It is not the words spoken tjat are important, rather the feelings that are unsaid or used to try and control the situation so that we don’t have to face our feelings.
Honest communication includes, verbal and energetic communication e.g. projection, emotions expressed or suppressed, and the actions we take. One of the first steps to engage in God’s Way is to start acting and communicating truthfully and honestly. Participants are required to engage in honest, loving communication during the project.
Often people engage in addictive communication that is not honest, but may seem polite or nice. We use addictive forms of communication to try and keep ourselves or others from feeling our true emotions. When we addictively communicate it wastes time and demands energy from the people we are communicating with.
When both people do not wish to say what they want or feel interactions and conversation get addictive, awkward and stilted, for example: “Do you want to…?” “Are you okay with?” “Are you sure?” “I can just…”
Facilitators may stop activities or conversations so participants have the opportunity to be honest in their communication rather than continuing to engage in addictive communication.
We find we get to know participants more quickly when everyone honestly communicates.
Participants practice rolling large bins in preparation for the scrap run
Activities provide the framework for participant attitudes to be exposed. This means that often tasks take twice as long to complete in the project because participants are stopped if their attitude is negatively affecting themselves, others or the task and they are asked to re-do tasks until they are completed thoroughly, and to a high standard. This creates the opportunity for everyone involved to feel about what motivates them and why they do tasks the way that they do them.
We find that addressing issues in the moment prevents the issue from escalating and creates an environment where people begin to express themselves more truthfully, become more sensitive to their feelings and interactions with others and others interactions with them.
Participants apply their safety training on uneven ground
Participants apply their safety training on uneven ground
Half an hour before the end of the day participants clean the tools they have been using and pack up the venue.
Home work tasks are given out, these include each participant writing a procedure for the activity they completed that day and writing up an emotional self reflection journal.
The day ends for participants at 1:30pm or 2:30pm.
Facilitators then work for another 2-4 hours discussing the day, adjusting the activity outlines and organising for the next project day. They download the recorded data, back it up and write up all the feedback they have given and the interactions between participants that they addressed that day. Facilitators then add the feedback to the next day’s outline.
And the next day begins…
Cleaning activity set up, 16th March 2018
Participants organise themselves to clean the house
How often are Volunteer Selection Projects run?
We are planning to run two projects per year.
How can I sign up to participate in a Volunteer Selection Project?
We publicize when we will run the next project on this website. There will be a link to an Eventbrite page where you can register your interest.
We will then choose participants from those who register their interest to participate in the project. We accept between 16 to 20 participants in each project at this time, due to the facilitators, facilities and venue space we have available.
Once we choose the group we will notify you via email.
If you are not accepted because the project is full, sign up to the next one.
In some cases people are not accepted due to their attitude. We inform them of the reason why, if they desire to know (ask to know), and once their attitude has changed they can reapply and participate in a future project.
Participants who attend a project, but who are not accepted as volunteers the first time they do it, can reapply to do another project once they deal with the issue that prevented them volunteering in the first place. We encourage persistence in the participants and for them to work through any issues that stand in the way of them being great volunteers (for any organisation, not just Divine Truth and God’s Way).
Set up for introduction to the day’s activities
Any other questions you may have about the project feel free to send them through to us via the the contact us page on this website.
Bye for now,
Eloisa
Scrap run practical training
Tasty scraps for worms and creatures, all ready for decomposition
**Thank you to Lena, Courtney & Eloisa for the photographs in this post
God's Way 