This weekend, we drove 3 hours south of Mexico City to a town called Zacatepec to present a youth ministry conference to youth leaders from 6 different churches. It was a good conference, and I think they left with a better idea of how to organize a youth ministry in their church. The guy on the right of the picture is in charge of the youth for his region. At the end of every conference, each church group gets together to develop a rough “game plan” about what they think they could do in their church to lead the young people towards spiritual maturity. I feel that overall, this was a good conference. Unfortunately, now I’m a little sick. Please pray that I will get better soon. Thanks.
We’re back in Mexico after going to Orlando for the weekend. We attended the AYME Conference and saw our family. It was a great break from the “normal” life that we live. We had a great time catching up with our family, and the conference was good to go to as well. It was a good networking thing. I met a girl who is starting a youth ministry program in Puerto Rico as well as a professor from Eastern in Pennsylvania. Overall, it was a good trip. I’m glad we went.
I’ve calculated the final grades for Youth Ministry 110. The average grade was 86, with the highest being 99. The students did really well in the class, and they seem to be understanding how to put it into practice in their Christian service work.
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!
