The old song is true when it says, “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Missionaries aren’t usually in their own culture to celebrate these special days. It can be lonely, but being in another culture at Christmastime also gives them the opportunity to experience new traditions. These traditions can often enhance the celebration of Christ’s birth.
Here is some information about the Christmas traditions where our teams are serving.
This past weekend I was perusing my Facebook feed when I saw a post that reminded me of why I am involved with Youth Ministry International.
One of my former students, Rafa, posted some pictures of a youth ministry event he had recently done in his church north of Mexico City.
I met Rafa in Monterrey years before he decided to come study at Seminary. I was in his city to do an informal, weekend youth ministry seminar, and he was one of the guys who volunteered to take me around town to see the sites on our day off. I went with him downtown and lots of other places. He even took me to eat “cabrito,” one of the traditional dishes in Monterrey. We shared some laughs and talked a lot about ministry and what God was doing in his life. We still talk about our time together that weekend to this day.
For the first time since the foundation of the Center for Youth Ministry in Mexico, I watched the graduation ceremony online from the United States. Edgar Miranda has taken the mantle and done an excellent job training the students while giving them a practical example of youth ministry in his own local church.
His dedication to the CYM and the cause of youth ministry is evident in the lives of those who graduated this year. When I visited the certificate level courses in Mexico City in April, the room was full of over 20 students who were discussing how to better minister to the young people in their churches and communities. Their impact will only grow as they continue to receive the training necessary to better walk alongside young people in the light of the gospel.
A few weeks ago, I started studying for my doctorate, and the first course was called, “Christian Formation of Children and Adolescents.” One of the topics of discussion was whether children should attend the worship service, sitting with their parents, or if the church should provide age segmented programming for them. This topic obviously interests me because I have three elementary aged children.
I think both have their pros and cons. I’m not arguing either way. I just want to put this out here as I think through the topic.
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I love my kids. They have definitely changed my life for the better and recently, I have learned that we share an affinity for hammocking.
My kids ask me almost every day if we can hang up our ENO hammock, but I think we enjoy using it for different reasons. Personally, I prefer the relaxing part of being in a hammock while my kids love to swing like peas in a pod or stones in a slingshot. At 10, 6, and 4, I really couldn’t expect them to want to do anything else.
I tried to figure out the best way for our whole family to love our time in the hammock, so I thought through these four rules. Using them, my kids get to enjoy their hammock time and I get to enjoy mine as well. Sometimes we get to snuggle together, but no matter what, we’re all happy in our hammock.
