Dear friends,

With this issue of the Joining Hands Newsletter, we are eager to share with you about the start of training workshops we are undertaking with our overseas Joining Hands partners and companion presbyteries in the U.S. The first is set for June 21-22 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The goal is to ensure that the Joining Hands program fulfills its mandate as an agent for non-violent social change by enabling participating networks and churches to organize campaigns on the hunger/poverty issues that are central to their respective contexts.

During the first years of the Joining Hands experience, we've seen that folks from our churches are great as Christian educators and proficient at developing information materials - but organizing campaigns is a new skill. Likewise, many of our overseas partners are experienced in traditional "development projects," research and publication of documents or denunciation of injustices, but not necessarily at organizing anti-poverty campaigns for change. To learn how to organize a successful campaign, identify the key issues of focus, develop strategies, choose test cases, articulate a message, build coalitions and alliances, engage national and international media and mobilize for local and global actions are critical for successful Joining Hands involvement. In addition, faith considerations and theological perspectives further influence how a Joining Hands campaign may function.

The purpose of the training is to help Joining Hands participants in the U.S. and overseas to acquire tools that will enable us to become more effective agents of change in our respective contexts. The conversational two-day training module builds on what each network and presbytery is already doing. Our hope is to build momentum so that networks can develop specific action plans for 2008 and the years ahead. We plan to have two or three more workshops before the year's end, and complete the round early next year with all current networks and participating presbyteries. We hope to find ways for networks and companion presbyteries to train together, although that is sometimes complicated. Therefore, we are inviting all Joining Hands networks and presbyteries to consider this opportunity and to contact us in Louisville with suggested dates. The earlier we have such information the sooner we will be able to start scheduling.

Let us hear from you soon.