Becoming Chris Kamalski

Curtis Love, a gifted coach himself, was the perfect facilitator for our Coaching Training.

Curtis Love facilitated an amazing 3-day coaching training for 18 gifted leaders of local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), NieuCommunities, and Ethne (a sister organization within CRM), a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I received his newest newsletter reflecting upon this intensive time spent together, and I realized, this is what NieuCommunities does best. We facilitate transformation through the creation of environments and spaces where people can be trained, and then sent out to return to their own context of mission and service. His newsletter was so powerful I asked his permission to re-post it in its entirety as a window into a bit of our work here in Pretoria! Suffice it to say: I took all these pictures, and served a lot of tea, coffee, and fire-tending these 3 days. Really proud of you my friend. If you want to receive Curtis’s newsletters, click here:

Teaching through the COACH Model.

Curtis’ words from here on out:

Getting 18 busy leaders, managers and supervisors in a room for 3 full days is no easy task! These leaders were a mix of people from NieuCommunities, Ethne and three local, faith based NGO’s.The reason? We were hosting a training on “transformational leadership”, in which we were seeking to help people integrate coaching/empowering skills into their current role and leadership style.

A wonderfully diverse group of Africans made for great conversation!

For me learning together in a room full of people committed to God’s world and the precious people that inhabit it, is a really incredible experience. A few of the people in the room I know quite well and the challenges they face day to day in their work are not trivial (an understatement!). They work with the homeless, young girls at risk, orphans, unemployed youth and the terminally ill, yet they continue in faith, hope and love to serve those people who live in the shadows of our cities.

The COACHing training facilitates wonderful practice time to internalize asking reflective questions.

The feeback was enthusiatic and warm, which for us was very affirming.  Learning, friendship and a commitment to the health of our world is a potent combination! The most satisfying feedback that I received came from our good friend Maxie (My wife!!). She wrote, ‘this workshop really made me aware of my role in a persons transformation – a facilitator that helps create space and awareness through listening and questions…’ This is, for me, one of the most profound insights of coaching. We are not the initiators of transformation in our lives, the lives of others or in the world (1 Cor 3:6). We are simply facilitators of God’s loving and healing transformation at work in peoples lives and our world in general.

Coming out of the training we are establishing a coaching circle, which will meet once a month  to continue to grow, apply and advance the coaching skills learned in the training. While a once-off training is good and provides short term motivation, we know that ‘deep application’ takes time and a supportive community. We hope that this group can serve as this community.

Ladder Shot.

For those of you who know the ministry and NGO world, you know that good quality training is often limited by budget restrictions. One remarkable thing about this training, is that we were able to offer the 3 days for just R100! This allowed people who otherwise might not have come, if the price was higher, to attend. This was only made possible by the generous people who support this work. I am continually grateful to God that people would invest in me and our community of people, so that we can make ourselves freely available to come alongside and support the important work happening in and around Tshwane.

Noel Chiritido, a part of our missional community, rocking 360 degree questions!

Truly it is humbling and inspiring to know that we do not work alone but with many people behind us, supporting us, belieiving in us, and cheering us on towards ‘love and good works’ (Hebrews 10:24).