Youth Ministry Retreat

Grupo en el campa

Sunday night and Monday, I went away (about an hour away) with the youth ministry students for a retreat experience.

It was organized by a group of them for their programming class. Overall, we had a good time. It was tiring (especially after Youth Emphasis Week), but fun.

Youth Emphasis Week Day 1

Today was the first day of our Youth Emphasis Week this year. We’re doing a TV program spoof called “Invertido.” Today went well. We turned the music auditorium into a TV studio, and today we talked about what we many people see when they see young people. Huberto was the “special guest.”

During the program, we had a “live” interview with Edgar (which we had taped beforehand). He talked about some interviews he did the day before. Here is the video (in Spanish):


Problemas en la juventud from Dennis on Vimeo.

Investing in the Inverted

Invertido

Will you join me in praying for next week’s Youth Emphasis Week at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary?

We’re talking about how God wants to use current situations that we see as problems for future benefits.

We’re praying that this week will help the Seminary students to understand that the problems that they see in their young people come from numerous sources, but that God wants to invest in the lives of these young people so that they can glorify Him and advance the Kingdom.

I’d love to have your prayers for this week. It’s going to be exciting.

My Saturdays Just Got Busier

My Saturdays Just Got Busier

We just announced over on our Spanish website that we’ll be starting up a certificate program in youth ministry (see the announcement – Diplomado en Ministerio Juvenil – in Spanish) in January.

The idea is to offer an informal youth ministry training for those who cannot study at the seminary full time. This program will meet on Saturday mornings for four hours starting January 10, 2009. We’ll have two locations – one at the Seminary and the other at a church in the south of the city.

The entire certificate program lasts for a year, with nine courses overall that each last a month. We’ll be taking June, July, and December off each year.

I’m praying for 30-40 students in the entire program, which will benefit many churches.

So, if you read this and know someone in Mexico City who would be interested, pass them the link with more information. If you don’t live in Mexico City or know anyone in Mexico City, pleas pray with me for this new way to train youth workers here.

Spanish Youth Ministry Website

Spanish Youth Ministry Website

The last few days, I’ve been working pretty hard on a new design for our Spanish youth ministry website, ministeriojuvenil.com.

I haven’t dedicated as much time to it as I would like, but it is a part of our ministry that has an impact all over the world. For example:

  • People from 28 different countries visited the site last month.
  • 21 of those countries are in Latin America (that makes sense, it’s a Spanish website)
  • The average visitor visits more than 3 pages when they visit, meaning they are reading more than just the home page. They are getting into the articles.
  • The social network for youth workers has 67 members signed up, creating a space for youth workers to interact with each other and support each other.

I’m looking forward to seeing this part of the ministry grow as our ministry grows. Keep praying for us as we train youth workers in Latin America.