“I have been wanting to train others in youth ministry since I graduated,” Chaire (pronounced Chi-Ray) said as we sat at Starbucks in Guadalajara with her husband Miguel and their little boy. “I just haven’t had an opportunity.”
Hearing those words come from her gave me goosebumps because earlier that day I was speaking with the director of the local Seminary about the possibility to begin a Certificate program at their institution. He was asking me what it would take to start training youth workers and my response was, “Someone who is qualified to lead the program and teach the courses.”
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We live in a world of activity. Busy lives lead to little time to actually look people in the eye and communicate that they are important. Even in many churches, people are hurried to the next event as if was more important to keep the schedule than it is to connect with others.
We have somehow forgotten that people are important.
Every single person is important.
Their importance is not predicated on your bottom line or the report you have to fill out at the end of the month. They are important. Period. They have a story and feelings and a desperate desire to connect with someone.
Read more on Linkedin.
These last few weeks have been very difficult for me. My mentor, friend, and youth pastor Joe Gauthier had been battling pancreatic cancer for 6 months now, and on February 8, he was called home. While it was great for him, it was painful for the rest of us.
I have been thinking about Joe’s legacy for some time now, and I thought of the things he has taught me, mostly by his example. I wanted to write them down so I wouldn’t forget them.
I figured I’d put them here so we could all be reminded of how important these things are.
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“Who would have thought that you would be teaching here in Mexico?” That’s what I asked Darwin Gonzalez as we took another bite of our tacos one evening in January while sitting in my living room in Mexico City.
Darwin, the director of the Center for Youth Ministry in Santa Clara, Cuba, was in Mexico to teach two more courses of the Master’s in Youth Ministry. He is the second Cuban professor we’ve trained to come teach in Mexico, and he is a living example of 2 Timothy 2:2 and YMI’s strategy to train trainers.
Read more at the YMI website.
