You might already know this, but Janell is really good at finding deals on just about everything, saving money, using coupons, and getting free stuff. She started her own blog a few weeks ago called Saving You Dinero (savingyoudinero.com). She posts all sorts of cool freebies and deals.
Today, she posted about the book “Tribes” by Seth Godin. You can download a free copy of Tribes from Audible.com.
Anyway, Saving You Dinero is guaranteed to save you some money (i.e. dinero). So, head over there and subscribe to her blog. She’s already got more subscribers than this blog has. I’m not jealous or anything.
We recently received a donation from a friend of ours who had never donated to the ministry before but we know has a heart for missions and has wanted to support us.
I wrote an email thanking the person for the donation, and they told me that it had come from selling M&Ms to everyone at work.
I was surprised to hear that. What a great idea! I love it when people are creative and look for ways to be involved in what God is doing regardless of personal circumstances!
We greatly appreciate every donation that is sent in to help support and extend the ministry in Latin America. We know that the markets are down and the economy is bad. But there are many people who have stood beside us from the beginning and have continued to stand with us and contribute to this ministry. Thanks!
(image by vernhart on flickr)
If you would like to help support our ministry in Latin America, please send a check to Youth Ministry International at 1300 Envoy Cir., Suite 1306, Louisville, KY 40299. Please include a note saying that it is for the Poulette Family in Mexico. All donations are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.
One of my biggest fears when I get up to speak in front of a group of young people, students at the Seminary, or even in “big church” is boring the drool out of people while I’m speaking. Seriously, I have nightmares about people sleeping while I’m teaching about the the book that has caused more life change than any other book in the history of the world.
Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life, is quoted as saying, “It is a sin to bore a kid with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” I agree. If God took the time to carefully reveal Himself to us, why do we bore people with this life-changing message?
I bet many youth workers and pastors are the same way. Nobody wants to be remembered as the boring teacher. Nobody wants half of the congregation to snooze through the sermon. None of my students would admit to wanting to bore people while they are teaching.
Well, the good news is that there are some principles that we can apply to our teaching to cut down the bore factor. Here they are.
Five Secrets to “Bore No More”:
- If you don’t know where they are, it doesn’t matter where you’re going. You must understand the level of understanding your students have of the topic. It makes no sense to teach about something that they have already learned (at the same level of teaching). Be sure to know as much about your audience as possible so you can teach new things or old things from a different perspective.
- You learn better the things that interest you. If you are 16 years old and have the option of learning how to drive a car or how to wash the dishes, you will probably choose to learn how to drive a car (unless someone can convince you of the connection between washing the dishes and finding a girlfriend). Find out what interests your students and teach it to them.
- Fulfilled needs leads to effective teaching. When we feel a need, we will go to various lengths to find the answer and fulfill the need. What are the needs your students have right now? Find those out and teach about them.
- Without stimulated activity, there is no learning. Teaching is not the act of transferring the teachers notes directly to the notebooks of the students without it ever passing through the brains of either one. It is an interaction with material. Teaching causes life change. You must figure out how to stimulate activity in the learner, or there will be no learning or teaching taking place.
- The teacher and the lesson are the same.Your life teaches your lessons and applies what you teach for good or bad. Live what you teach, or the time you spend preparing will be worthless.
What are your thoughts? What would you add? How can you apply these principles?
(image by Phoenixdailyphoto on flickr – if you’re reading in a reader, it’s worth clicking to check out the picture)
If you like this post, check out this book by Andy Stanley (the link is through my Amazon Associates Account): Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication
. It’s got some great ideas for crafting and communicating messages.
Today we started a new group in our Youth Ministry diploma program at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary. There are 7 new students in the program, bringing our total to 13. Huberto is teaching them “Principles of Youth Ministry,” which is our basic philosophy class.
We’ve decided that one of the best ways to do some training is to make it semi-formal. Basically, these classes are close to the equivalent to a youth ministry conference. They are kind of a mix between a conference and a class, focused on practical concepts and principles that will help youth workers in their local church youth ministries.
Each course is 16 hours long, which we do over 4 weeks. It’s a fun way to train youth workers, and it helps reach out to those who may not yet be able to come to the Seminary full-time.
The diploma program helps us reach our goal of recruiting, networking, training, and supporting youth workers in Latin America.
Check out these other posts about the diploma program:
We finally switched to the email management system called Mail Chimp to send out our email newsletters. It was getting too difficult to manage the subscriptions to it, and using Mail Chimp makes it easier for you to sign up, change your email address, or even unsubscribe from our list (not sure why anyone would want to do that).
Tomorrow is the first issue that will go out using the new format (sign up here or below). You have the option of receiving the pretty, HTML styled version or the plain old text version. Either way, we hope it helps you pray for our family as we live in Mexico City and work in Latin America.
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We send out an email newsletter about once every two weeks with all the latest information about what is happening in our family and ministry as we live and work in Mexico City.
If you would like to be "in the know" about our ministry to train youth workers in Latin America, please fill out the form below and we’ll add you to our list.
We promise to never sell your email address to anyone and to respect your privacy.
(Required fields are bold)
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