In April, AVP Indiana was invited to Berea, Kentucky to facilitate a Basic (1st level) AVP workshop.  One of our original group of apprentice facilitators is a Kentucky native and has been working for the last several years to regenerate interest in AVP.  This spring, Steve was successful in organizing a group of local Quakers from Berea Friends Meeting to attend a workshop held on the campus of Berea College.  It was a beautiful spring weekend, with the trees beginning to leaf and the mountains  beckoning in the distance.

Our facilitation team consisted of me, Steve, and Arnold, who was a  new apprentice from South Carolina, looking for an opportunity to gain experience.  I had never met Arnold before the Friday evening of the workshop, so team building that first evening was crucial.  Also, I had not facilitated a community workshop since the fall of 2012 and I knew it would be a different experience than my prison workshops.

Fortunately, the weekend proved to be a great learning experience for all of us.  As a facilitation team, we learned how to smooth out some or our own rough spots and became aware of issues that we, ourselves, needed to work on.  Personally, I learned to be more sensitive to the needs of the participants.  We tried an exercise I had never done, or seen done before, and it generated some strong emotions among the participants.  In the evaluation process, I received really good, critical feedback that will help me facilitate the exercise better in the future.

I also discovered that I have come a long way from my former, introverted, conflict-avoiding self.  When conflict arose in several instances, I was able to handle them with a great sense of calm.  Transforming Power was truly present, because I knew exactly what to do without thinking.  It reminded me that the AVP process works and that we can trust it.  It was a superb beginning to a new AVP presence in Kentucky!

Magical Miriam