What Goes Around Comes Around

We were at Janell’s mom’s house the other night, and for some reason she had pulled out this old picture of her and her Grandmother and her Aunt at Jones Beach in New York.

I think she looks exactly like Ben does right about now. It might have something to do with the hair, but it’s amazing to me to see the resemblance.

Here’s a recent picture of Ben helping decorate the Christmas tree:

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Appreciating 2012

It’s hard to believe that 2012 is coming to a close! We are grateful to God for all the good things He has done during this year of ministry. This newsletter is dedicated to appreciating 2012 and anticipating the future of youth ministry training in Latin America.

A Few of the Stories We Appreciate From 2012

  • Juan, who graduated in 2011, and returned to his home state of Oaxaca, took the initiative to begin 2 certificate in youth ministry programs. He has walked with and trained more than 30 other youth worker and seen God double the size of his own local church youth group.

  • Josue and Kareny graduated in June 2012 and went to their hometown of Monterrey in the north of Mexico. They started a group to train youth leaders in their region and have seen it grow to around 80 people. They held their first training conference in November and are negotiating with a local Seminary to begin a certificate program in January.

  • The Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary has agreed to host a professorial program similar to the ministry we did in Cuba and will train youth ministry professors at the Master’s level in order to open as many as 5 Centers for Youth Ministry in Mexico in the next 3 years. We are moving forward with these plans for 2013.

  • We have also seen God add to our team of trainers, bringing us Chris and Hannah Bond (who are raising support) and Maykel who is helping part time from Miami.

  • Other things we appreciate are: FBC Ozona and their mission house to stay in while stateside, our faithful team of prayer supporters who especially joined with us while Nathan was in the hospital, and those who have sustained the ministry financially during the last year.

Thank you for being part of our life and ministry in 2012. We are anticipating 2013.

December Already?


We are excited to be in the USA for Christmas this year. We finally had the chance to put up our Christmas tree on Tuesday. We ordered it online (it’s a live tree) and had it delivered to our house, and the kids had a great time decorating it.

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Workshop in Monterrey

Besides training at the formal level at Seminaries and Bible colleges, we also do informal conferences and seminars in order to train local church youth workers with a Biblical philosophy of youth ministry that they can apply to their ministries. In Mexico, we have branded this one or two-day conference as “El Gran Viaje”, which means, The Great Journey.

We talk about how on any great journey, or road trip, you have to know where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. Then we talk about youth culture, the goal of youth ministry and how to help young people move towards spiritual maturity.

This weekend, in Monterrey, two of our graduates (Josue and Kareny) taught “The Great Journey” to 44 youth leaders from 20 local churches. They went all out and did an incredible job. Here are some pictures from their Saturday workshop.
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