Today we started a new group in our Youth Ministry diploma program at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary. There are 7 new students in the program, bringing our total to 13. Huberto is teaching them “Principles of Youth Ministry,” which is our basic philosophy class.
We’ve decided that one of the best ways to do some training is to make it semi-formal. Basically, these classes are close to the equivalent to a youth ministry conference. They are kind of a mix between a conference and a class, focused on practical concepts and principles that will help youth workers in their local church youth ministries.
Each course is 16 hours long, which we do over 4 weeks. It’s a fun way to train youth workers, and it helps reach out to those who may not yet be able to come to the Seminary full-time.
The diploma program helps us reach our goal of recruiting, networking, training, and supporting youth workers in Latin America.
Check out these other posts about the diploma program:
Here’s the video of what happened. It’s a pretty long video, but it shows the entire experience, which led me to reflect a lot on what it means to allow God to lead me throughout life.
Later, I’ll post my thoughts and what I learned through the entire experience.
We did a survey of the Seminary students (and a current survey is up at our Spanish youth worker site) about the problems that the young people in their churches are going through.
I’m not sure what to make of this information. I just thought it was interesting to see the answers. It’s not a very scientific survey, but it helps me know what the Seminary students (not the YM students) are dealing with in their churches.
Also, the responses that are coming into the forum on our Spanish youth ministry site are a little different than those that the Seminary students gave. I’ll post those responses later.
Here’s how it went:
What problems exist today in the youth of your church?
They gave more than one answer on a sheet, so the percentages are per seminary student, not per total answers.
30 surveys given – 59 answers
Rebellion – 21 (70%)
Dating Problems – 14 (47%)
Sexuality – 8 (27%)
Alcoholism – 5 (17%)
Apathy – 4 (13%)
Drug Addiction – 1 (.03%)
They go with whatever teaching – 1 (.03%)
Commitment to discipleship – 1 (.03%)
Self-esteem – 1 (.03%)
Loneliness – 1 (.03%)
Youth leadership – 1 (.03%)
Nothing – 1 (.03%)
What are you doing about it?
Talking with them and their parents, counseling, Involving the family, Talking to them personally
I haven’t done anything yet, I don’t know, It’s not being dealt with, Nothing
One of the great things about living in another country is that we get to eat authentic Mexican food anytime we want. In fact, it’s something you miss when you go back to your homeland for a while.
It’s always great to get back to enjoying some great Mexican food. We love our favorite Mexican foods and have written about them before.
But I got to thinking about some Mexican foods to avoid, so I created a list of five foods to avoid in Mexico.
Pancita – cow belly. Sometimes the word “delicious” is used to describe it. I’m not sure you can use the word delicious to describe the taste of stomach.
Mole – a mixture of hundreds of ingredients (there are different kinds of mole…I think I might like some of them, but most of the time, I don’t like it.)
Sesos – Brains that also come in tacos. I wonder if eating them makes you smarter?
Tacos de cabeza – Head tacos, with that great “head smell”.
I know that these dishes probably taste pretty good to some people, but if you’re just visiting Mexico and have a short time here, you might want to avoid them so you can enjoy your visit.
Oh, and don’t look for them on taco bell’s menu anytime soon.
For a while now, we’ve been thinking about a way to expand the youth ministry training we do in Mexico. We already started one of the only Bachelor’s degrees in youth ministry in Latin America. But we know that it’s not enough to offer a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry.
Saturday was the first day of the long-awaited Diploma in youth ministry. We started with 6 students who are working in various churches. Each one of them told us how important it is to get training in youth ministry, and they are all very happy to have this informal type of training.
The purpose of the diploma program is obviously to provide practical training for youth workers as well as promote the other youth ministry programs at the Seminary.
We are praying that this Saturday morning course (9 months out of the year) will help many local church youth workers and spread throughout the country.
We’ll keep you up to date with this new program, which we think will grow and expand in the coming months.
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