YL Training in Latin America

Dear Friends….     Happy Holidays! We’re excited to share with you some of what’s going on in Young Life in Latin America. Thanks for making all this possible. You’ll read here about growing ministry in Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and throughout a region that really has so many deep needs. At times thinking about the problems of teens in these countries seems overwhelming—broken families, gangs, emotional issues, poverty, lack of education—the list goes on and on. But God has really been using Isaiah 40 to speak to me this year-- “ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,   the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”     The reality is I do know and I have heard and I’m thankful for that-- thankful that we do not do this work alone or in our power, thankful for the YL leaders who do an amazing job of investing

Dear Friends,           Thanks for all your prayers for us in our travels the last couple months. Our month serving in Colorado was great and Area Director training in Nicaragua was powerful too. So I wanted to tell you where we’ve seen God at work. Work Crew Being in charge of work crew at a Young Life camp is a lot of work— there are a ton of meals to serve, dishes to do, rooms to clean and events to put on every day and the work crew does it all—which makes for a busy month. But we loved doing it with a very special group of leaders and 34 teenagers and God really used this. These teens were a widely varied group, many with back stories of broken families, deep pain, depression, alcohol, drugs and more, but also real moments of God’s grace. All of us brought our pain and our hope that God would use this time to help us grow and bless others. And He did. Through our devo and worship times, through serving others and through living in Christian community in the way few ev

The WHY of Young Life                                                         In talking about God’s plan to reach the world, David Platt says “ This kind of movement involves all of us. Every single follower of Christ fishing for men. Every single disciple making disciples. No more spectators. Instead, ordinary people spreading the gospel in extraordinary ways all over the world.”        I read that quote and I think of Young Life leaders all around the world, entering into the culture of teenagers and sharing Jesus. It is a huge calling and not easy, but sometimes we do get glimpses of how God uses that investment. I recently received the following note from a former YL kid in the Dominican Republic explaining why she is thankful for those leaders.      “ Many will tell you that being a high schooler, in almost any part of the world, is not an easy task. Having lived my high school years in a society where last names, cliques of friends and attendance to parties clearly

 Kids at club in Peñasco What are the best examples of Christian community you've ever seen or experienced? I saw a great one last week that I want to share with you. I was in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico last week and it was really a blessing for me to spend time with Alberto Martinez and the team there and see their ministry in action. But what I think I enjoyed most of my visit was the time I spent with a group of junior leaders. This is a group of teenagers who have been involved in the Young Life ministry for a couple years now and are learning to be leaders for younger teens. This group reminded me of the importance of relationships and community in impacting the world with the gospel. Acts 2:42 talks about the early church and says “ They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” and I was reminded of this kind of fellowship by this group.    The Junior leaders. Nancy is in the back on the right.

Dear Friends,       Thanks for your prayers for Jenn and I’s trip to the Dominican Republic last week. We really enjoyed the time seeing old friends, training leaders and caring for Young Life staff. God is clearly at work in YL in the DR—since Jenn and I left our role there just a few years ago, the ministry has almost doubled in the number of clubs and students involved!   Seeing what is happening there is a great reminder that ministry isn’t our work, but God’s and we’re privileged enough to be invited to join in.  The DR staff and student staff  Jenn with Katie and Emily, two of the women she coaches....and Emilio. We were so blessed to see leaders we’ve known for years who are growing and maturing. When Jenn and I lived in the DR, Fernando and Esther were college students who were helping lead clubs ---- now they’re married and they were sent as missionaries to plant a new area for Young Life. They’ve done such a great job of developing leaders they now have 4

    Our pastor this past week spoke about how the Christmas story is both so ‘ earthy ’— a teenage pregnancy, government demands, an expectant couple struggling to find a place to stay as the baby comes, smelly shepherds, etc.--- and yet so much more than earthy as the veil is lifted and we are made aware that so much more is going on than just what we would usually see. I loved that description of Jesus’ birth and it reminded me of my time in Nicaragua just before Christmas.     Thanks for praying for that trip. We were really excited to have over 400 (!) leaders and potential leaders at two training camps . Most were from Nicaragua, but we also had teams of leaders from Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador. It was a wonderful time of spiritual growth and ministry training and watching God’s spirit at work in Young Life in Central America. At one of the night meetings we sang the song “ Hosanna in the highest ” (in Spanish) which has a line about seeing how

Dear Friends,       Happy Holidays! One of the verses we use often in Young Life is John 1:14—which in the Message says:     The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood’ .  I hope you are reminded during this Holiday season of the miracle of God with us -- Jesus moving into our neighborhood-- and that the stories you read here are an encouragement of how this is still happening. A book I’ve been reading recently, Geography of Grace, talks about how radical this vision really is. It gives a beautiful example of a church in Guatemala City. This church has a graffiti wall behind their pulpit with 40 or so names spray painted on it. It’s unusual church décor to say the least, but it’s more unusual because of the names written there. They are the names of teenage gang members in the neighborhood and the names remind all the members every time they are in church of who their mission field is.   Ecuador   Ivan Peñafiel is our first staff member in Ecuador and i