Proságo: Medeba's Christian Leadership Program

Throwback blog
Ethan Thiessen
Assistant Leader Blog

On the winter camping trip, I asked the group a question as a leadership thought in our final PLAID meeting. Should we show or hide our emotions as a leader? A couple of answers came up such as it depends on what emotion we show and we need to have wisdom in how we reveal our emotions.
Positive emotions such as joy and excitement are emotions that a leader can show plenty of without overdoing it, but anger and frustration we should be careful with how much we show. This was something I realized on the first day of our trip. I was frustrated with some of the planning aspects of the trip and I let it affect how I led. I let my frustration show and I didn’t act like my usual self, which resulted in my followers feeding off of my emotions and not being in a great mood either. This made for a bit of a tough first day. The second day I decided that I needed to just stop dwelling on the things I couldn’t control and changed my attitude towards the trip. This created a better environment for my followers and everyone else followed suit in having a better attitude.

Revealing emotions can be a very delicate thing sometimes. How we show our emotions can really affect the people around us and being too emotional can be detrimental to leadership. Throughout planning for winter camping, I projected my frustration about our progress towards my followers. Unintentionally, I came off as harsh and rude to my followers and fellow leaders by letting my emotions control me. This not only put my followers in an awkward position but also created a disconnect between the leaders. What I should have done instead was express my frustration to the right people (the other leaders) in a way that communicated what I was feeling but wasn’t harsh.

This was definitely a hard concept to realize and I know I still have a lot of growth to do, but I hope in the future I can be more aware of how my emotions affect the people around me.

Throwback Blog:
Florida Everglades, Assistant Leader Blog - Michael

Hey gamers, Michael here. Florida was a crazy ride and that didn’t stop until after the trip was done. Going into the trip, our other assistant became unable to take part in the Florida portion of the trip, and our once two sided canoe trip merged into one. I was now the only assistant for both of our leaders. Wow, that was hard.

I have a background in camp leadership, serving as a cabin leader, program coordinator, supervisor and facilities. All of these positions have lent themselves to favoring those who take the initiative to DO. Being an assistant in the crazy world of the Everglades trip was difficult, because though there was a lot of room to DO, there was also a very high need for support, which is not my strong suit. I needed to learn to lean into the idea of assisting, both in an emotional capacity and in the work. I started off the trip very DO focussed and much less assisting focused than I should have been. I was robbing my leaders of opportunities as I was doing too much and overstepping, and I was actually asked by our directors to step back. This was a humbling experience. For the first time I actually was doing too much and was subsequently not doing my job. Once I stepped back, it gave me a whole new perspective. I saw my leaders drowning, and I as the assistant was nowhere to be seen. Reworking my approach, I learned to be there for THEM. Taking a back seat and letting them lead and me assist was really enlightening. I saw the impact that being and having support can have on a leadership team; I saw my leaders do amazing things now that I wasn’t in the way; we were able to come together and delegate amongst ourselves and our crew.

Coming out of the experience I have two main lessons. I learned the importance of assistance and how being that for someone can make or break their leading experience and I learned that sometimes there is such a thing as too much DO. Finding balance between doing yourself and delegating is paramount to being a good leader and making sure to not overstep when you don’t need to is key to a healthy and efficient team dynamic. If I could do the trip again I would, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I learned so much and had a blast being an assistant. I look forward to when I can put my lessons in to play next!

Throwback Blog
Assistant leader blog - Brin Aston

Something I learned while leading is that procrastination is not key.
I’m a big procrastinator and that’s always been something I’ve struggled with however this week I’ve realized how much it affects me (and my co-leaders) planning process.
I led along side Heather this week. If there was one thing I could change about this week it would be how I prepared for it. I would constantly tell myself “I’m too tired” or “I’m just not in the right mental space” rather than sitting myself down and getting the work done. Overall this impacted not only the synergy but productivity of the partnership with my co-leader. I learned that always giving myself a pass to choose not to do something will never allow me to grow. As well in doing so, I let down my co-leader and put a lot of responsibility on them which is ultimately unfair. As a successful leader you have to be willing to get the work done even if it’s not something that particularly draws your attention. Sometimes as a leader you have to do hard things, that could be making a hard decision, relinquishing your rights, or doing things when you don’t particularly feel like doing them. I think by practicing self discipline and not letting yourself procrastinate you are only honouring your future self. By sitting yourself down and getting things done you practicing grit and stick-to-itiveness.
Unfortunately giving up procrastination is not something I’ve mastered yet, however it is something I would like to really work towards doing.
So there you have it!
Brin

Throwback Blog: Assistant Leader Blog - Amanda
Hiking Journey
April 6 - 12, 2024

Wow, Where do I start! The learning and lessons from my experience assistant leading the hiking journey are still unfolding. It was a crazy, wild and a very stretching experience but altogether incredibly fun and I am so thankful for the experience.
The first lesson that really jumps out to me from this trip would be to expect the unexpected while leading. Plans will change and shift and that is OKAY! I encountered that every single day of this trip and it kept me on my toes. From an unforeseen amount of rain, to colder weather than expected, to one of our group members leaving the trail, my adaptability was tested and trusting in God was so crucial during the week. Learning to expect the unexpected was not what I expected to take away from this trip haha. I kind of had it set in my mind that because I jumped into being an assistant leader last minute the time actually on the trail would be tough but fairly smooth, but boy was I sweetly surprised by what we had to tackle together as a group. There were moments where I thought that I could not keep going and wondering why leading was such a trial, but I recalled a comment someone had said to me during a leading week prior to spring break where things kept changing and they had said, “well that’s leadership for you!” At the moment I just laughed a bit at it but as I found myself leading through change after change on the trail I had to remind myself that leadership is not perfect and is messy but that is the beauty of it. It has its unexpected moments and they will come no matter how well you have prepared. Believe it or not you can not control the weather and even when you have back up plans for when things go sideways, they will often feel unexpected in the moment and tough to navigate. Expecting the unexpected is not an excuse to not plan ahead but to plan with adaptability in mind and a whole lot of trust in God.

Throwback Blog:
Assistant Leader Blog: Micah Hall Sept 16th - 22nd
What an adventure! First student leaders of the week, Hannah and I got things rolling with leaders of the week. This week was a learning curve for sure. From trying and doing many things for the first time but also having a pretty good idea of what to do and how it should look (Thanks, Liv and Dan!).
This week definitely felt like it was a bit of just keeping our heads above of water. The idea that we were doing it and nothing necessarily went poorly but it felt like there wasn’t much room to bring anything over the top. It didn’t help that I didn’t use my time in the weeks before hand to prepare for PLAID’s and logistics. But at the same time we were right in the busiest time of the year with the “fire hose” of information to comprehend. I felt confident and ready to lead which was mainly because I am often in leadership situations. So the feeling of people looking to me
for information, comfort, and help in general was not new. A few big lessons that I learned and relearned this week were, the necessity of trust in a team, the importance in intentional preparation, and needing to keep God at the centre through it all. 1) The necessity of trust in a team was evident to me in PLAID’s. Trusting that what Hannah had to say was prepped and ready, and that she was confident to deliver her message in a way that supports the plan we had laid out. (She did amazing by the way). In addition that everyone all had a part to play for practicum to have grace for us, and for one another throughout the week. 2) Importance in intentional preparation was evident in the amount of stress we carried becasue we were always moving to work on something we needed, for example, PLAID’s for the next day. Multiple nights were me staying up a little later to finish thoughts and layouts for the next day’s PLAID (Do not recommend:). 3) Last but not least keeping God at the centre through it all. There was a day where I would miss my time of prayer or personal devo and when my foundation was not
set on Christ the day was that much harder. Planning the devos definitely helped but God needs to be the centre forever and always. That is just some of what I learned and am so grateful for the wins and failures along the way.

Throwback Blog -
Assistant leader Blog - Nick Detmar - Florida Canoe Journey
As an assistant leading the Florida canoe trip, I was primarily in charge of food preparation, cooking, and dishwashing. Throughout the trip, I learned some valuable lessons that applied not only to that experience but also to life in general. The most significant lesson, however, was the importance of delegation and having a plan.
Delegation is the act or process of assigning authority or responsibility from one person or group to another. Planning 42 meals for 10 people over 14 days can be quite an ordeal. For a large part of it, I decided to handle it by myself because I didn’t have a clear plan and didn’t want to take up others' time, even though people offered to help. I knew everyone else had their own responsibilities. This approach led to late nights and insufficient sleep, which, in turn, affected my performance during the day. There was no joy in the process because it felt overwhelming.
However, as the trip progressed, I learned that you don’t have to do everything on your own. The first step in getting help is to have a clear plan so that you know what tasks others can assist with. Delegating not only sped up the process but also fostered a deeper understanding between leader and follower.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that every time I turned down someone’s offer to help, I was effectively communicating that I didn’t trust them to do the job properly. Even though that wasn’t my intention, it was the message I conveyed. By allowing others to help, I not only made the process more efficient and gained more time for other tasks, but I also empowered others by giving them responsibility. In closing, there are often lots of things that we can just do on our own, however in many cases trying to do it on your own can lead to insufficient time management and may not yield the best result.
Thanks,
Nick

God often grows us just outside our comfort zone. 🌲

If you're 17–25 and looking for more than just another year of school or work, Proságo could be exactly what you've been praying for.

Adventure.
Leadership.
Faith.
Community.

It all starts this fall.

The countdown is on. ⏳

Proságo begins this fall, and we'd love to see you here!

If you're ready to deepen your faith, gain practical leadership experience, and build lifelong friendships, now is the time to apply.

Don't wait until next year to become the person God is calling you to be.