Recruit a friends manual
A new recruit in the Project does not only need a chance (provided by a kind sponsor who sponsors the recruitment fee) to start participating in the Project, the new recruit also needs a friend to encourage him along this way.
Life is simply too hard and difficult, without a real friend on the way.
A real friend is someone who is willing to be frank with you; someone who is there to encourage you not to give up when the going gets tough; someone who helps you find wisdom to overcome difficulties. This Project”, aims to teach the basic principles of an industrious life to participants (to face and live by the truth; to do what is required; to serve others; to get reconciled again when things went wrong; to believe in yourself and others…). A new recruit in this Project will need quite a bit of encouragement from a true friend to persevere on this way as the Project offers the participants the opportunity to practice these skills in the activities that the Project undertakes.
Are you prepared to be a friend to a new recruit?
Upon recruitment, the new recruit will get a first shift (normally of 4 hours) to join a team of workers to complete a task under the direction of a foreman and then to get paid R50 for faithful co-operation on completion of the task. (Note: the payment is for faithful ‘co-operation’, not for ‘labour performed’. the Project is, after all, a ‘School of life’ and not an employment opportunity.)
No participant in the Project is ‘employed’ by the Project. Practically this means that there is no promise of anything in the future apart from completing a task at hand when it is undertaken. What happens is that the participant, once recruited and having done a first shift, joins a pool of participants who each gets further opportunities to participate in a next shift by his position in the queue in the pool. (We simply call it the “Q”). In order to be booked for a next available shift, the participant 1) needs to be present at a ‘booking session’ and 2) needs to wait patiently for his next turn ‘down the Q’ to book a next shift (This shift will normally take place on the day after the booking was made) and 3) needs to report for this booked shift at least 15 minutes before the booked time (sometimes even earlier). If a participant fails to turn up punctually at the appointed reporting time, his booking will be scrapped and the position will be given to another participant ‘in front in the Q’. These rules are designed to help the participant to learn how to be diligent, punctual, patient and responsible for himself.
The new recruit in the Project needs to understand how his position in the Q is determined and how shifts are allocated using the Q system. This requirement teaches the participant to realise that each person in life, wherever he may find himself, is personally responsible to get to know the ‘rules’ of the situation and not to rely on others to look after him in this regard. The Q system also teaches participants how it is possible for anyone to improve his situation in life by making himself increasingly available and appreciated.
The basics of this Q system are:
1. Every time a participant has completed a shift, he is moved one step further to the front of the Q. This happens 7 times. After the 8th turn, one finds oneself transferred to the back of the Q, to start such a cycle anew.
2. At a ’booking session’ all available shifts are made available for choosing to available participants starting with those in front in the Q and ‘down the Q’, as a queue works. It so happens that those lower down in the Q often end up with nothing to choose.
3. When one’s position in the Q does not result in an opportunity to book a next shift, it is normally possible, never the less, to volunteer to go on a current shift as an extra unpaid worker. Volunteering and completing a shift in this way will then still result in being moved one step further to the front of the Q. In this way one can improve one’s chance to book a next (paid) shift at the next booking session.
For diligent and co-operative participants in The Project there are additional opportunities, other than the basic ones to get a shift. These are opportunities, amongst others, to get into the “1st Team” (for which certain shifts are reserved) or being trained and used as a foreman on a shift. These opportunities are designed to provide suitable progress rewards for diligent behavior in the processes of Project.
The goal of faithful participation in this “The Project” is to have one’s name on The Project “Graduation List”. While the Project does not look for, or place persons in employment, the list is made available to potential employers. This is based on the principle taught in The Project that maturity in life means taking up the responsibility to get oneself equipped for life and then to find the best employment for these skills - all by one’s own initiative.
Participation in The Project remains a free choice. Although the principles taught in the Project are explicitly as advocated by Jesus, no discrimination is applied w.r.t gender, origin, belief or handicap. Faithful “co-operation” in a simple task is independent of these.
Participants are further invited to observe that these principles (as taught by Jesus), when put in practice, are true to life and effective. On this basis they are invited to become disciples of Jesus and to join disciple groups (which we refer to as the “High School of Life”). Such groups, however, are the responsibility of the Church and not of This Project.
Suggestion
Meet regularly with your friend to deal with the issues of participating in “YOUR CHURCH”. A wise approach to such meetings could be to…
1. Discuss what you are grateful for that happened in the past week in YOUR CHURCH
2. Discuss the practical (every-day) challenges that arose in this week
3. Discuss what you did accomplish during this week, never the less
4. In order to find wisdom to over-come difficulties, try to find one useful principle to build on in facing these difficulties. (It is suggested that you find one Scripture that advocates such a principle)
5. Share what you undertake to do in the light of this principle
until you meet again.