One Girl Leader's Guide

By Claudia Mitchell

What’s My Passion?

This Small Group Bible Discussion should take place after your group has read chapter 2 of One Girl Can Change the World.

Small Group Bible Discussion 2

Supplies: You’ll need Bibles, mashed potatoes (enough for each student to have a couple of scoops; tip: one package of microwave potatoes makes 4-5 ice cream scoops), ice cream sundae dishes, toppings (gravy, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, onions, green peppers, olives, sour cream, or any other creative topping you can come up with—even chocolate chips!), plastic spoons, and maraschino cherries.

Open Up

Welcome girls as they arrive and then encourage them to make their own personal mashed potato sundae. Say: Make a masterpiece! Use the ice cream scoop to dish out your mashed potatoes, top them with your favorite ingredients, and don’t forget the cherry! Allow the girls to eat their mashed potato sundae creations. As they eat, ask:

Would you like to have your own cooking show? Do you like to cook? Why or why not?

Tell about a masterpiece or disaster you have made in the kitchen.

Did anyone have a pretend kitchen as a child? Did anyone have an Easy-Bake oven? What is your first cooking experience memory?

Dive In

Ask the group: small groups

Did you notice how unique everyone’s ice cream sundae was? (And how unique mashed potato sundaes are anyway?!) Who used the most toppings? Who said yes to wanting to host a cooking show?

Say: In chapter 2 of One Girl Can Change the World, the authors talk about how God has plans for each one of us that are as unique as the mashed potato sundae you just made. Do you believe that each girl in this very room has different strengths and passions? Some of us love the idea of a cooking show, while others would run for our lives at the very thought. God made each of us unique with our own interests, talents, and passions.

Go Deeper

Ask the girls:

Tell us three things you have done that you are proud of.

What do you do in your life that gives you energy?

What do you love so much that when you do it time flies by?


Read Ephesians 2:10 three times out loud as a group. First explain to the girls that each time the Scripture is read the group should emphasize different words. Tell the girls: The first time we read the Scripture together shout the words, “We are God’s!” The second time we read the Scripture together, whisper the words “created in Christ Jesus.” The third time we read the Scripture together, substitute your name and the word “is” for “we are” (Ex: “For Caitlyn is God’s workmanship”).

After you read together, ask the group:

Since God is the one who created you and your unique passions, how can you honor him with your strengths?

In your big dreams for your one and only life, what do you see yourself doing in ten years?

Describe what it takes for an athlete or musician to become an expert. Do you think it’s possible to drift into a life that makes a difference? Why or why not?

Read Mark 12:30, 31 aloud and then ask:

What two things does Jesus say are most important to do with our one and only life? How would you explain this in your own words?

How can you use your passions (your talents and strengths) to make sure you work toward the two things Jesus says are most important?

Step Out

Read the story about the dolphin pavilion from One Girl Can Change the World in chapter 2 (p. 33). Then ask:

What are some distractions (noise) in your life that keep you from relentlessly pursuing your passions?

Emphasize this point: You will not drift into changing the world—you need a plan.

Invite the girls to form pairs and each share two things they plan to do to make sure they do not drift through their one and only life. Encourage them to try to zero in on the two things Jesus said are most important—how can they live those out in their own lives and in their own areas of interest? If the girls have created their mission statements, encourage them to share those with their partners. If they are still working on them, prompt them to get ideas and suggestions from their partners.

After five to ten minutes of sharing, lead the girls in praying for their partners and the goals and plans they’ve shared with each other. events World-Changing Passion

Revolutionary Class 1

Theme: Your one and only life makes a difference!
Supplies: You’ll need Bibles, paper, and pens.
Overview: The goal of this hour is to motivate and inspire young women to write down a personal life mission statement. Read chapter 2 of One Girl Can Change the World before you meet and be sure to have your own life mission statement ready to share with the students. When you’re done with this class, your girls should have a strong idea of what gives them energy and should feel the importance of being intentional about making a difference.

Warm-Up

5 to 10 minutes
Have participants turn to the person next to them and discuss this question: What do you want to be when you grow up? They should share what their answers were when they were kids and then compare that to their dreams now.

Teaching and Exploration

30 to 45 minutes
1. Read Proverbs 29:18 aloud from The Message: “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.” Next, share this story from chapter 2 of One Girl Can Change the World:

The dolphin pavilion at the Indianapolis Zoo is one of the coolest exhibits. You enter an enclosed underwater “bubble” and dolphins are swimming all around you—above, under, at you. It’s amazing. The pavilion is so quiet that you get the sense that you are actually in the water with the dolphins. It’s like you’re in their world, quietly observing. One time we were visiting the zoo and were standing in the underwater dolphin pavilion. We were in utter awe, reflecting on God’s marvelous creation, when we were suddenly distracted by a series of sounds. Beep! Buzz! Ding! We turned to look and saw a girl squatting on the ground, playing a hand-held computer game. She was so zeroed in on a dinky electronic game that she completely missed the magic going on all around her!

That little girl in the dolphin pavilion, missing it all, is the picture that comes to mind for us when we think about Proverbs 29:18 and someone not “attending to what he reveals.” If we don’t get intentional about looking at the big picture— about discovering our place on this planet—we risk the same thing. We’ll end up getting distracted by the bells and whistles and missing out on God’s amazing, phenomenal blessings.


2. Discuss the importance of knowing what is most important. Teach about Jesus’ message to Martha in Luke 10:41, 42: “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Ask the group:

What do you think it means to choose what is best? What does that look like? Why is that hard to do?

Do you think someone can drift into what is best or do people have to choose it? Explain.


3. Say: You can change the world, but you must choose! Share these questions that can help girls figure out what their passion is. If time allows, pass out paper and pens and invite them to zero in on just one of these questions and write their answer:

Three things that give me energy are:

What did I always want to be when I grew up?

If I won the lottery, what would I do with the money? events

What does a great day look like for me?

What causes do I really care about most?

What certain people groups (ex: kids, elderly, special needs, poor, other nationalities) do I really care about most?

Here is everything I’ve accomplished so far. What am I really good at?

Who do I admire the most? Why?

These are books I like to read:

What do I want to be most remembered for?

What does my perfect life look like?

What would I attempt if I could not fail?

How do I think God may be using all this toward my life mission?

4. Pass out paper and pens and then lead the girls in trying to each write a mission statement. Share some action-oriented verbs that students can use, such as teach, serve, reach, love, and give. Encourage them to each complete the following sentence:
My mission is to (what) for (whom) .
5. As time allows, share your own mission statement and share other possible examples. Invite the girls to share what they’ve come up with (or are still working on) with the rest of the group.

Wrap-Up

10 to 20 minutes
Have the girls form a circle. (If you’ve got more than ten students, form more than one circle of ten or less girls per circle.) Then go around the group and take turns each describing your passions and gifts.

If the members of the group know each other well enough, you might do this a bit differently: zero in on one group member and lead the rest of the girls in the circle in brainstorming what gifts, passions, and talents they see in that person. For example, they might say “You’re always friendly to new people” or “You’re really good at seeing a need and rallying others together to help meet it” or “You’re really good at planning parties and events.” You can do this aloud or have the girls write their observations about a given girl on slips of paper and then you can read them all aloud.

Leading a One Girl Camp

This section of the leader’s guide maps out for you the details of our mentorship-based weeklong summer girls’ camp. You’ll find a suggested schedule and evening activity ideas. Be sure to read “Using Small Groups to Change Lives” to find tips on helping girls build relationships in small groups during their camp experience.

As you dive in, you may want to adopt a strategy statement similar to ours, which is: “We will take young women out of the world for a week in an outdoor camp setting. We will equip and facilitate student leaders and adults to mentor, teach, model, and pray for these students to grow closer to God and desire to be fully devoted followers of Christ.”

Suggested Schedule for a Weeklong Camp

Here are the basics of our summer camp schedule—use it to design your own!

Sunday
2:00 pm Leaders arrive to unpack and be ready for the girls to arrive.
3:00 to 5:00 pm Students arrive. Greet them, make them feel welcome, help them find their dorm rooms and get settled in. Introduce them to each other as you learn their names.
4:00 pm Staff meeting
3:15 to 4:30 pm Swimming pool open
5:15 to 6:00 pm Dinner
6:20 to 7:00 pm Kick-off (large assembly area)
Introduction to week’s theme Event Organizer
Introduction to staff and dorm rules Dorm Mom
Introduction of student leaders Student Leader Liaison
7:00 to 7:30 pm
Divide into assigned small groups with their student leaders (Girls will meet in these same small groups the rest of the week.)
7:30 to 7:45 pm Break
7:45 to 9:15 pm Main Event Session 1: A Princess with a Purpose
Event theme dance Student Leaders
Praise & Worship Creative Arts Team
Drama Creative Arts Team
Teaching Organizer/Teacher
9:15 to 9:30 pm Small groups discuss Small Group Breakout Questions 1
9:30 to 9:45 pm Campfire
9:45 to 9:55 pm Meeting with Dorm Mom
9:55 pm Dismissed to dorms (Student leaders lead dorm devotions and prayer.)
10:30 pm Lights out!

Mon – Th
7:00 am Rising bell: get up and ready!
7:30 am Flag raising, wake-up song, prayer
7:35 am
Small groups meet: One student leader takes the microphone and announces the Main Event theme and Key Verse of the day. Student leaders have their girls find the day’s Scripture and highlight it in their Bibles. Discuss the Scripture and pray.
Adults meet separately for devotions.
8:00 to 8:45 am Breakfast
9:00 am Worship, Key Verse review, drama
9:20 am Missions spotlight
9:30 to 10:30 am Girls attend Revolutionary Classes (groups rotate through one per day)
Revolutionary Class 1: World-Changing Passion
Revolutionary Class 2: World-Changing Plans
Revolutionary Class 3: World-Changing Leadership
Revolutionary Class 4: World-Changing Friendships
Revolutionary Class 5: World-Changing Attitudes
10:30 to 10:40 am Break
10:40 to 11:40 am Elective Classes
11:40 am Get ready for lunch
Student Leaders meet with Student Leader Liaison
12:00 to 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 to 2:00 pm Half of girls swim, half of girls do other recreation
Adults meet
2:00 to 2:30 pm Rest time
2:30 pm Break
3:00 to 4:00 pm Half of girls swim, half of girls do other recreation
4:00 to 5:00 pm Get ready for dinner, free time
5:00 to 6:00 pm Theme Dinner!
Monday: Caribbean
Tuesday: Western
Wednesday: Retro
Thursday: Formal
7:00 to 8:00 pm Main Event! (Follow same order of program as Sunday night.)
Monday: Main Event Session 2: What Kind of Leader Am I?
Tuesday: Main Event Session 3: Listen . . .
Wednesday: Main Event Session 4: Burpees Are Better Together
Thursday: Main Event Session 5: Blowing It Big Time
8:00 to 8:30 pm Small groups to discuss Small Group Breakout Questions
8:30 to 9:00 pm Break
9:00 to 9:20 pm Campfire
9:20 pm Ready for bed
(Student leaders lead devotions and prayer in dorms, reemphasizing the main theme of the day.)
10:00 pm Lights out!


Friday
8:30 am Wake up
9:00 to 10:00 am Breakfast
10:00 to 10:30 am Worship, student testimonies
10:30 to 11:30 am Remaining Revolutionary Classes (from week’s rotation)
11:30 to 12:30 pm Whole group swim
12:30 to 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 to 2:30 pm Clean up and pack up
2:30 to 3:30 pm Main Event Session 6: Get Your Shoes On! (Teaching time only)
3:30 to 4:00 pm Small groups discuss Small Group Breakout Questions 6


Evening Activities

With so much time devoted to learning during a day at camp, it’s important to devote some time to pure fun during the evening. (Of course, even the fun events provide an opportunity for girls to display their unique passions!) Our evening activities consist of theme dinners, a nightly campfire time, and a talent show at the end of the week. Here are some of our ideas for each of these activities:

Theme Dinners

Attire: Monday through Thursday, we invite the girls to dress up for theme dinners. We use a postcard sent a few weeks before camp to remind girls of costumes or supplies they may want to bring to fit the themes. Our themes have typically included Caribbean, Western, Retro, and Formal/Princess, but you could choose your own themes like Favorite Superhero or Cartoon Character, Favorite Women of the Bible, or Favorite Historical World Changers. Remember to encourage your leaders to get into the spirit of the theme by wearing their own costumes!

Meals: We do our weeklong event at a camp that provides the meals for us and plans the menu around our themes. But if you’re going to be responsible for your own meal planning, you might consider creative menus to go along with certain themes. For example, for Caribbean night you might offer ham and pineapple or jerk chicken/ pork, fried plantains, fruit salad, mango-papaya salsa, and pineapple orange smoothies. For Western night you might serve ham and beans, cornbread, corn on the cob, and sweet tea served in mason jars.

Decorations: Appoint the Creative Arts Team to procure supplies, decorate the dining room, and provide background music according to the theme. For example, for Caribbean night you might line the tables with grass skirts, set up a snow cone machine, place plastic pools of sand on the floor, have a limbo contest, serve drinks in fake coconuts with umbrellas, welcome girls through the door by placing leis around their necks, and so on. For Western night you might set up bales of straw and a bean pot over a fake campfire, decorate the tables with bandanas and cowgirl hats, or tie a real horse to a hitching post outside the door! For Retro night you might decorate the tables with tie-dye fabric, hang old (or handmade) records from the ceiling, and include a strobe light. For Formal night, you could darken the room and have the girls walk through an entryway decorated with tulle and white lights to get to the dining room, include flowers and candles on the tables, and invite a volunteer violinist.

Campfire

We provide about fifteen to twenty minutes for some campfire time nightly, and it’s always a great experience. You could have someone from your Creative Arts Team lead the group in a few lighthearted songs and then have someone deliver a five-minute devotional to recap the day’s theme. If you can, recruit a student leader or a camp participant to lead this short devo or share a short personal testimony. End the campfire time with a couple of serious worship songs and ask that the girls walk to their dorms in silence. Explain that the time from now until morning will be for reflective silence and rest.

Talent Show

One of the most delightful ways to demonstrate how God can change the world by using our individual passions is to host a talent show near the end of the week. (We usually hold the talent show on Thursday night.) You will be surprised by the range and depth of talent you’ll see displayed! We’ve been blessed by comedy acts, quality musical performances, dancing, fencing, gymnastics . . . you name it! Encourage your leaders to participate as well. Students love to see their mentors performing in a way that shows off their other creative passions and puts them in a different role than teacher. We once had a professional ice skater from Russia “skate” in her socks to a classical piece, and she brought the house down!

To pull off the talent show, you’ll want to announce it early in the week. Have girls see the Creative Arts Director to preview their act and make sure it’s OK. Allow the Creative Arts Team to oversee the talent show and help things run smoothly.

And this is important: do not treat this as a contest and do not give awards (except applause). The point here is to affirm all the girls! At the end of the show you can make the point that these areas of talent, passion, and interest are ways in which God can use each girl to change the world!

Learn from the Experience After your camp, be sure to have all adult and student leaders fill out the “Post-Event Evaluation Form for Leadership Team” (p. 139) so that you can collect their feedback. Mistakes, mess-ups, and critiques can all be great avenues of learning and improvement, so use the information you gather from these forms to plan for next year! You may want to jot down their thoughts plus your own ideas for future reference in the “Capture It!” section of this leader’s guide (p. 140).