Have you ever felt like giving up? It’s pretty easy to do when life becomes difficult or when things just don’t seem to go our way. Often, God uses someone around us to speak His Word to us and remind us to keep going.
Every once in a while, I get an incredible comment that I’d like to share with you.
Recently, on my YouTube channel where I post videos encouraging and equipping Spanish speaking youth workers, I received the following comment. I hope it encourages you to speak a word of encouragement to someone today.
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I’m taking a course for my doctorate called “Applied Empirical Research,” and one of the textbooks is called “Statistics for People who Don’t Like Statistics.” I’m one of those people.
Specifically because every year at YMI for the past eight years, I’ve had to fill out a statistical report talking about the progress of the ministry. I always kick and scream, complain, and throw a fit (okay…not that much) because I hate having to go to every one of my students and graduates and ask them for numbers about their ministries. Maybe it’s their fault. Probably not.
Anyway, I’m glad YMI keeps the statistics, even if I hate getting them for the report.
But I was looking at the YMI statistics since 2009, and I wanted to share them here with you. I think they are very encouraging when I think of all of the people and lives these numbers represent.
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I just woke up to this email that I received as a reply to the latest post on ministeriojuvenil.com. I had posted an overview of what I taught in Miami this past weekend about how the incarnation of Jesus gives us a blueprint for being relevant in the lives of young people. The message said,
“Good evening. God bless you. I wanted to tell you that your message was very necessary. It helped me a lot. It made me reflect on the fact that I need to be patient and, just as we are rescued young people there are other youth that need to be reached and rescued! And I learned that we must enter the world of youth and not expect them to enter our world!
Thank you very much. I would like to receive more emails like this one! To help the youth of Aruba!
God bless you!”
These emails are fun to receive. Please pray that we can continue to find the time to write to these youth workers who need encouragement and support.
At YMI, we often quote 2 Timothy 2:2. It says, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” Our ministry exists to train those who can train others.
We call it “Training the trainers.”
These last few weeks have given me increased joy as I have had the privilege to minister alongside a few special people who I have trained.
When I was in Mexico a few weeks ago teaching the Youth and Family Class for the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary, I brought Josue Lara along with me to co-teach the course. He had taken that course from me and said how much it helped him and Kareny, his wife, as they have been ministering in their local church the last few years.
As I sat in class watching him teach, I was excited to see how much God has been working in his life throughout the years and how much he has matured in the ministry. I sat and watched him teach as someone who has not only thought through the material from a theological standpoint but has also lived it in a ministry setting and contextualized it for Mexico. He is more than qualified and gifted to “teach others also.”
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I’ve been invited to participate in a missions emphasis month at Horizon Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, a church that has supported our family’s ministry for some time now. I will be there this coming weekend, sharing about our ministry with Youth Ministry International.
In the sheet they asked me to fill out to tell about our ministry, they asked what country we are serving. This is a standard question that I used to always answer with, “Mexico,” even though my official title has always been “Director of Latin America.” Since we moved back to the USA from Mexico two years ago, this answer has become even more complicated. We are involved in a global ministry that impacts many different places. It’s exciting!
I wrote something this morning on my Facebook page that sums up the answer to the question,
“It’s crazy to be getting emails with assignments from students from Mexico and Nigeria at the same time while getting a reimbursement for a missionary for a trip to Eastern Malaysia to do youth ministry training this week and planning on the best way to send someone to Tanzania to encourage youth workers. Oh…that and the conversations with missionaries to Ukraine and Romania in between–not even counting the time I had this past weekend talking about hispanic youth ministry training in Miami. It’s fun to be part of this movement.”
To be honest, there are even more countries that are being impacted by our ministry. I didn’t mention trips to Cuba or even what is happening in various Asian countries that we are not allowed to mention.
It is so fun to be part of what God is doing around the world. I still LOVE ministering in Spanish, but to be a part of ministry to Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America is an incredible experience. All of the activity that we have in our ministry is the result of what God is doing. We’re just along for the ride.
Please pray for me as I try to keep up with what God is doing through YMI. I have a lot of responsibilities and need as much prayer as possible. Thanks!
