Today was the first day of Youth Ministry 120 – Youth Culture. I have 8 students this bimester. We will be learning how to study and evaluate a culture and subculture in order to be culturally relevant in our ministries to young people. I believe that youth workers are missionaries, entering into the student culture and looking for ways to appeal to the needs of that culture with the gospel of Jesus. I am looking forward to this class, even though it poses some language problems. The textbook will be the National Survey of Youth done by the Mexican government. Students will read and comment on a different set of statistics every week. They also have a group project in which they will research a subculture and interview young people from that subculture in order to make a plan for ministering to them. I think it will be a great project and a great bimester.
Tonight I went to “La Roca,” the youth meeting at Renovaci�n (wanna see the church?), the church where Huberto is youth pastor. We had a good time as he explained his idea of what youth ministry is, and we heard the group’s ideas, also. The church is really nice. I enjoyed it a lot. I want to go there one Sunday morning for worship service. Something funny that happened: Someone left Huberto the keys to one of the rooms in the church inside the room that was locked. So we tried to break into the door (click for photo). It didn’t work. We had to climb through one of the windows that was open. It was fun.
Today was busy. I went to the early service at church. Pastor preached on sin and temptation. Then I cam home and watched the Dolphins lose their 6th straight game to the Buffalo Bills. Then I went back to church for the youth meeting. After the youth meeting, we had a “staff meeting” at the house, where I talked about the youth ministry at the church with Rigo and Israel. Then they stayed and played some Playstation 2, which I think Rigo has never played before. I’m still watching the Yankees and Red Sox game as it’s now in the 12th inning. Whew! What a day!
One of the hardest parts of being a missionary is saying goodbye to people; not just family and friends from home, but also the new people who come and go througout your time in the country where you are serving. You become like family with the other missionaries, and it seems like families come and go so quickly. That’s the way we feel with the Horn family. We went to their “despedida” (good-bye party) tonight. We will miss them as they move to Texas to take a position there. Andrew, Gracie, Danielle, and Isaac were a great part of the youth group, and we will miss their friendship. We hate to see them go, but we know that God has great plans for them and will use them in their new place of service. Please pray for them as they leave at the end of October and get settled in to their new home.
Today I went to MCCA to play football with the youth group kids. It was a lot of fun to play with them. I can also get a lot of work done up there, so I took advantage and graded some philosophy papers from my seminary class that I have to get finished by Monday. Tonight, we had a Bible study and ate ice cream sundaes. It was a great time.
