YL Training in Latin America

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