Flat tires in Bogota

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 ever had before God taught us all a lot. All the work crew kids while leaving talked about how much the time was a blessing and how much they would miss it.

How much this time meant was clear at camp, but it’s also been clear since then. The first Friday night after we left camp, many of the work crew members wanted to share their God sightings just like we would have at camp—so they posted them on our group Facebook page!  One of the most powerful stories written there was this from one of our work crew girls: “I got home and a few days later I went to my dad’s and told him all about work crew and how much it impacted me, I told him about how amazing all of y'all were, and how amazing the families we served were. At the end he told me how he wanted a personal relationship with God too, and so now a guy on my areas YL committee is contacting him and he's going to be in his men's group now”.  

 I love that. A father who could see in his daughter how much joy she received from walking with God and other Christians, to the point that he realized it was just what he needed too! God used this month in powerful ways.

Central America AD school       

Our Area Director training at the end of August was really special too. 70 leaders from 8 different countries in Central America were together listening to the Lord and receiving great training. We had two professors with us from Gordon-Conwell theological seminary plus classes on the skills an Area Director needs. It was really a rich time together as we learned and dreamed and planned to reach more kids for Christ.

As one of the professors gave an overview of the call of the church and church history, he explained to our leaders why he is so excited about Young Life in Latin America:  Catholic and Evangelical Christians working together (which does NOT happen in Latin America), listening to the call to GO (entering the strange world of teenagers) to introduce them to the gospel and then disciple them--- what a beautiful living out of the Great commission in Matthew 28.

It was a great reminder to all of us why we’re so excited about this too and a real encouragement to keep moving forward. In the last 3 years in Central America the ministry has really grown— over 30% more leaders, more ministries and more kids attending club.  And that’s really because of the growth of leadership of these national leaders. We’re excited to see what God is doing and will continue to do through YL in Latin America.