Every once in a while I have a deep desire to take my family somewhere special. It’s a time to get away from the demands of ministry and just play together.
We have a few places that are special to our family. We go to the Mexico City zoo a lot, and today we added a new place to our list of special places. Six Flags Mexico is somewhere I hope to visit a lot in the future.
We had a blast. Nathan rode his first roller coaster, and we enjoyed some great entertainment. Hopefully, for a long time I’ll remember him running to me after getting off the roller coaster and asking me to go with him.
One of my favorite parts was watching the Looney Toons show where they sang a lot of American music with Spanish accents. It was definitely entertaining. Watch this video to the end, and you’ll see the Looney Toons show. I hope you laugh as much as I did.
The purpose of this year’s Youth Emphasis Week at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary was to create the awareness of the need to work with young people, to walk beside them in their problems, and to make an investment in their lives because God can turn those problems into opportunities for future ministry.
We used the format of a television program, turned the entire auditorium into a TV set, and we titled the program “Invertidos” (Inverted). There is a play on words in Spanish that uses the meanings invest and invert.
On the first day, we invited Huberto (our first YM graduate in Mexico and now youth ministry professor) to be the special guest, so along with all the usual TV show stuff, we asked him to talk about the problems that young people have, and we left it at that: The problems we go through cause our lives to be messed up.
Day 2 was the day for the homiletics class to preach, so the student who preached talked about Genesis 3, temptation and sin.
Day 3 was an open forum where we saw a case study of a girl and guy who grew up in the church, began sleeping together, and got married behind everyone’s back (but each of them still lived with their own parents). He went to the USA to work, but got involved with another girl, and now wants a divorce. We invited answers from the crowd about how to handle the situation. We left thinking that we didn’t really know how to handle the situation.
Day 4 finished up the week with a look at how God sees these trials in our lives. I spoke about our ability to only see the past and the present while God can see the future. I used 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 to talk about how God sees us not as who we are but how we can be. He sees the future and wants to use these problems that young people are going through now to comfort others in the future.
Overall, I think the week went well. It was great to see the YM students come together as a team and pull off a lot of creative elements. I’m proud of them and their effort. It was a lot of work, but it produced what we had hoped to produce.
Sunday night and Monday, I went away (about an hour away) with the youth ministry students for a retreat experience.
It was organized by a group of them for their programming class. Overall, we had a good time. It was tiring (especially after Youth Emphasis Week), but fun.
Yesterday I received this email from one of my former students who lives in the Western part of Cuba. It is awesome to celebrate multiplication of ministry.
Here’s a translation of what he wrote to me.
Hi Dennis…How are you profe? How’s your family? We are fine. I’ve been wanting to write you for some time, but I had lost my email access. Now a friend is letting me use this one.
God is working in a great way around here. Many doors are being opened as far as youth ministry is concerned. Right now, I am teaching three different groups. In the Seminary, I am teaching Professional Orientation to youth ministry.
In our church’s Bible Institute, I am teaching a semester of Introduction to Youth Ministry (Principles of Youth Ministry) to the freshmen Pastoral ministries and missions students. I’m also teaching a youth ministry specialization to a group each Saturday morning. I’m teaching this group the basic of all of the classes, the essentials. Five churches from our province are being blessed by this training.
Also, they have invited me to teach Philosophy of Youth Ministry in the National Seminary of another Baptist denomination. Isn’t this a divine, amazing work?
In our church, the Youth Ministry is taking form little by little. There is a group of leaders that are catching the vision. We have 4 leaders working with the age group of 12-15 and four with the young people who are aged 16-24. We created 14 groups that are cared for and counseled by 14 older youth who are spiritually mature. We are working with more than 90 young people. I am serving as adviser and counselor to the ministry. We are very content.
I greatly desired to tell you this because I know that it will make you happy and besides you have a significant part in all of this. To God be the glory. Thank you for your help.
Remember that when you return, I would like for you to spend some time with me and my family.
Your student and friend…
It’s amazing to see what God is doing all over the world, and it’s a privilege to be a part of it.
Today was the first day of our Youth Emphasis Week this year. We’re doing a TV program spoof called “Invertido.” Today went well. We turned the music auditorium into a TV studio, and today we talked about what we many people see when they see young people. Huberto was the “special guest.”
During the program, we had a “live” interview with Edgar (which we had taped beforehand). He talked about some interviews he did the day before. Here is the video (in Spanish):
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