*Written for a local newspaper in Britain in 1981* Training programmes come in all shapes and sizes these days. I came on an unusual one the other day when I was visiting on the continent. Those taking part came from Canada and several European countries. The aim of this ten-month programme was to help those taking part to find meaning and direction for their lives, and at the same time to see how to give support to people in their own countries who are grappling with the problems that need solving. The prospectus for this programme, which is based at the Moral Re-Armament conference centre in Switzerland, says: "How can we relate our beliefs and convictions to everyday life at work, with the family, while studying, and in the community as a whole?" Sheila, a hospital worker from the Home Counties, summed up whht these ten months training had meant to her: "Taking part has challenged me to choose betwenn two ways of life: learning to take responsibility for my life and seeking for answers - or continuing to live for myself with no real conviction about what 1 was doing." A young Frenchman, Pierre, decided to go and teach in the Camerouns after taking part.  His experience was: "I met the world throught people, through the reality of the problems they face and how they deal with them. My deepest experience was to give my life totally into God’s hands - something I had never wanted to do before, fearing that He might ask too much of me. I took this step in faith, adding to it standards of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. They are like tour pillars, reinforcing the foundations of a house, giving a basis on which to build ones faith and life." It was clear from my conversations with the different ones I met that their keenest longing was to use their lives for a purpose greater than their own personal welfare. "We are not interested in self-development," one said, "nor in just being good. But we are interested in finding and living the quality of life that brings hope and trust in place of division and bitterness.   We are learning that the best place to start if we want others to change is with ourselves. Blaming others is easy and changes nothing. With all their varied backgrounds, how did they get on together, I wondered? "Many of us were attracted to the programme by the prospect of learning to work together as a team," said Sheila.    "Our first practical project was to carpet a bare floor with carpet tiles.  All afternoon each of us tried to convince the rest that his design was the best.  The end result was complete deadlock _as_ euch decided that the others were impossible and arrogant for refusing to see that his idea was the best.  However we began to face the fact that each of us wanted to be right.   As we put aside our bersonal biases, and objectively sought for the best solution, we found agreement and the carpet is now laid." "Through having to work as a team, commented Adrian, a Swiss laboratory technician, "I have learned what do do with jealousy, reactions and bitterness." Periods of 'intensive study form part of the backbone of the programme. Among the different aspects of life they were studying were the lives of some of the great men and women of history and the qualities that made them impact their society; understanding what is going on in the world and what needs to happen; and how to help bring change in other peopleis lives as well as in ones own. But the emphasis is placed on applying in action what is being learnt. This spring, for example, ten of them spent two and a half months in Scandinavia; sometimes in two's and three's and sometimes as a group, they met and worked with people in politics and industry, education and the police, and with students.  When the programme is over, most of them will return to their studies or jobs and have to live out their convictions there. I was impressed by the spirit and enthusiasm of those taking part in this training programme.  I couid see in their eyes what a young Swede summed up as "the joy and satisfation there is in a life which is not based on what I can get but on what I can give."