A good teacher is one who is constantly in the process of development and personal growth. His primary goal is to be holistic: spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. The teachers of the Rivne Christian School Svitoglyad are no exception.
Recently, our team returned from a fruitful trip: SALT Ukraine Vision Trip in Warsaw. We became familiar with the people from whom we learned the pedagogical experience of working with children, as well as the working mechanisms of the team and each leader in particular.
Timofey Dovgalyuk, president of SALT, gathered leaders and their teams who work with and for children to share strategies for healthy leadership.
One of the speakers at the conference was Kristin Pushak, a teacher from the Washington Christian School. She talked about the problem of burnout that every person faces and ways to overcome it. Also, she elaborated on the topic of leadership, which influences and changes those to whom it is addressed. Kristin Pushak shared her own practical experience and talked about the work of the school where she works.
Ken Tucker, the pastor of McLean Bible Church, spoke about healthy relationships on a team: love, acceptance, and healthy communication.
Ira Andrusenko helped us explore our personality types and advised us on how to communicate with each other for effective teamwork. She encouraged us to focus our attention on personal strengths, which helps the team to achieve the goal in a coordinated manner.
Linda Bunk, a photographer from America, shared her life story as an “abnormal missionary.” Her life is proof that a person with autism can be helpful, can run their own business and be successful in it, and have a positive influence on other people. This story also tells us that we all need each other.
Jeremy Sandefur, principal of “The King’s Academy” school in Tennessee, shared his school’s team-building strategy. We really enjoyed seeing that his educational institution and our Svitoglyad have a lot in common: dreams, vision, and understanding of the educational mission in the lives of children, parents, and teachers, which has no boundaries either on earth or between earth and heaven.
Timofey Dovgalyuk and Gregory Gibson, Global Director of SALT Ukraine, once again reminded the DNA of SALT: healthy leaders — healthy teams — healthy culture — healthy system.
The pastor of the Community of the Good Shepherd Church, Taras Prystupa, supported the spiritual tone of the conference participants and once again reminded us that we all need the gospel and Christ, who fine-tunes and corrects what sin has warped and corrupted our relationships, and in our disposition.
A special part of the conference was the ministry presentations that cooperate with SALT:
⁃ Training of ministers;
⁃ Rivne Christian School Svitoglyad;
⁃ Wings of Faith — ministry to children with special needs;
⁃ SALT Village — ministry to families, displaced people, and military personnel;
⁃ Face to Face is a media service for the outreach of Persian-speaking people.
We are very excited as we are going back home! We hope that we will be able to implement what we have heard in our professional activities.
We’d like to express our gratitude to Linda Bunk from SALT Ukraine
for wonderful pictures of events!
