YL Training in Latin America

Dear friends, Summer is camping time for a lot of our ministries in Latin America. For Young Life, this means a time when a lot of kids ( about 70,000 worldwide ) have the most amazing week of their lives, as they have a ton of fun, get to experience Jesus’ love and best of all, hear the gospel. In the past few weeks we’ve hosted camps for teens in Argentina, Colombia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and many other countries and still have camps occurring in countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Please pray for the thousands of kids who’ve been exposed to the gospel and made commitments to Christ in the past few weeks in these camps. This note sent from the DR gives you some idea of the hurdles many of these teens have to overcome and their leaders walk through with them as they come to Christ. This week we have had two youth with disabilities come to camp with us! It was a great week full of surprises for all. Jose was a youth who was involved in gangs and drugs, until one...

Dear Friends, It's now camping season for many of our ministries in Latin America. Outreach camp just finished in Argentina and 20 kids came to know the Lord. Colombia had 22 kids who accepted the Lord in their first ever camp and Haiti will be holding camps for the next two weeks. Below is a report from the DR after the first of their 3 camps. Thanks for praying for our summer camps and the impact they could have on teens' lives as they come to know Christ. Hola from the Dominican Republic! We write you as we are amidst our very busy camping season! We just finished our first week of camp where we had 59 new campers come to camp, and 53 of them accepted Jesus for the first time. Join with us in praise for these 53 new souls. There is definitely dancing in heaven today for them! Please also join us in prayer these next two weeks as we see up to 150 more students. Please pray that they will come with open hearts and minds to hear what the Lord has for them this week! Please also...

Dear friends, Thanks for praying for my visit last week to Haiti. I’ve been trying to figure out for a few days how to put this visit into words but in many ways I know I can’t do it justice. Haiti experienced a truly tragic and devastating earthquake 3 months ago. Many buildings are now heaps of rubble or uninhabitable, thousands upon thousands now live in tent cities or under tarps on the street, and it seems everyone lost family or friends in the quake. Power is still out and running water is sporadic. The world community responded quickly and yet in looking around at all the damage it’s easy to wonder if Haiti will ever be fixed, since the problems run so deep and much of that attention and immediate help has already gone away. And yet, despite this tragedy and hardship, God is clearly present in Haiti. Some friends of mine often use the expression that “Grace is like water, it flows downhill and pools in the lowest places” and perhaps nowhere is t...

Dear Friends, I want to share with you a couple experiences I’ve had lately that impacted me. They’ve helped remind me that the ministry we do with leaders and teens in Young Life is really a long term investment, not always one where the results are immediately seen. I heard from two former club kids the past couple weeks who were part of our ministry in the DR years ago. At the time, I would have said we spent time and shared the gospel with them, but saw little fruit from that investment. I wouldn’t have called it wasted time exactly, but I also wouldn’t have seen it as a real success-- so what I heard from them was somewhat of a surprise. With the first I got an e-mail from her letting me know she is now a YL leader in the US, investing back in teens the way she saw people do with her in the DR! Her line to me was: "It's crazy how your dedication to YL ministry would leave a lasting impact on my life.” Yep, I’d agree…hoped and prayed for, yet unexpected an...

Dear Friends, As I mentioned in my quick e-mail earlier this week, our training camp in Nicaragua went incredibly well. Over the course of two 4-day camps we had almost 200 leaders and leaders-in-training from Nicaragua there, plus another 25+ leaders who came to be trained from Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico. When we asked for feedback on what they had learned, the response was incredible. Many leaders talked about how the camp had refreshed them, renewed their faith, clarified their call, and better prepared them to work with teens in their neighborhoods. In short, it was a great place to see how God is working in the lives of teens and leaders throughout Central America. One of our visitors was Josue Ortiz who I met last month in Monclova, Mexico and who is hoping to start Young Life ministry there soon. I asked him what he had thought of the training and he said one of his biggest problems was that he had brought along a Mexican Sombrero ...

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 in the Message What a great verse, especially this time of year—the almighty, eternal God shows up in the barrio-- and nothing is ever the same. It helps me remember what’s at the heart of this season. It’s also really been the theme of my last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago in Panama we met for strategic planning for our region, and also to meet with a small team of leaders who and interested adults who are starting Young Life ministry there. They have a neighborhood chosen, they’re starting to move into the world of teens in that neighborhood—and we’re excited that kids there will not only hear about Jesus’ love but see it in action through their lives. This past week in Mexico was a great reminder of how powerful that vision can be. We had a meeting Monday night in Monclova with people with a group of Christian businessmen and church leaders who desire to see more done to reach ou...

Dear Friends, For a little over a year now I’ve worked in my new role with Young Life as Training Coordinator for Latin America, so the coming end of 2009 provides a great time to look back and reflect. In so many ways it’s been a very good year and I’ve enjoyed this new position immensely as I’ve worked with leaders from 15 different countries in Latin America. Frederick Buechner once said Jesus “never approached from on high, but always in the midst, in the midst of people, in the midst of real life and the questions real life asks. ” I’m continually amazed and blessed by the leaders I work with in Latin America and how they are able to enter with Jesus “in the midst” of the world of teens. A friend who met these leaders at one of our training events put it best when he said: “(they are) the leaders of leaders reaching out to the young people in countries all over Central and South America. They reach all levels of society. They reach into the poorest of the poor who live in ...