Youth Guru

I'm still waiting for that day that I create the perfect youth ministry model that works beautifully in our church's context - or any church context for that matter - and that I will never have to change again because it works so great! When I come up with it, I'll let you know, and I'll probably even give it to you for free because I'm just nice like that!

Until that time comes, I'm going to stumble on pretending like I know what I'm doing. The last two years we've been doing this youth service on Saturday nights that nearly got me beat up by many of our youth when we changed to it. The first year it flowed very naturally out of our leaders and I think it worked quite well. Last year it felt like we were pulling teeth to make it happen every week.

So here we are, a new year is upon us and all my prayer and planning has left me with very few ideas. We're going to go back to Fridays again this year. I read a book in which the author was cautioned to not begin a Saturday night service because he and his leaders needed time with their families. So I started to think about how that encouragement could be important in our youth ministry as well. My kids are both in school this year from Monday to Friday and most of our leaders are either in school or work Monday to Friday with Saturday being their one day off in the week. And then we were taking that one day away from them with another youth meeting. So we're doing youth on Fridays again.

Plus, I understand anew every summer that we need to do more events so that we can attract new kids to hear the good news of Christ. The last couple of years I've really bought into the 'not a babysitter' mentality - which I still agree with, but there does need to be some attractional component to our ministry in order to encourage kids to come and bring their friends.

I'm really getting excited about a new year of ministry and I'm very hopeful that this could be a good year. But It's going to take a lot more preparation to be able to do attractional events and not be a babysitting service - or be a VERY expensive ministry.

Home, and not sure I’m lovin’ it.

Well, I mean, I am lovin' it, I love my family and I'm really glad to be home with them. But I would be just as happy to be in Guatemala with them. I think I'm really struggling now with what to do now that we're home. Magdalena was truly a life changing experience.

I know it's only been two days since I've been home… and that my body is definitely not adjusting well to the food at home… and I realize that probably a lot of people wrestle with this stuff when they get home from a developing country as well, but I really miss it. I miss the simplicity, the idea that you can talk to people and it matters big time. I miss that I walked everywhere. I miss not looking around EVERYWHERE and seeing excess – and I mean, I am so guilty of it too, but there is just SO MUCH here! Even the poorest of the poor among us can at least find a water fountain and drink clean water!

Keep in mind that there are likely useless meanderings and that I will say some things that easily fit the title. I'm not renouncing the first world and all its comforts. I just want to know how to bring those to the people I met.

I think what I miss the most if the people's simple faith in God. They have nothing else to have faith in! There is no medical system that will help them, there is no welfare, there is only God. And realistically, for us too. But we hide behind all the things we have. God is often our last resort here. It's like, 'you're sick, let's go to the Doctor.' I appreciate Doctors, I love that we have health care so readily available. It's just that I think it's made us spiritually lazy. If we could figure out how to go to the Doctor for physical health and somehow grow our spiritual health, we would be so much better off!

If you are a pray-er, pray for me. I think God has a job for me to do here right now for Guatemala, and I need to discover it. They told us to expect to feel like I am now, but I didn't. I am sad to be home and trying to figure out how to get my whole family down there next year… or permanently?

Worship at 6800 Feet

I'm writing from Guatemala today on our Church's Missions Trip to Magdalena with Students International. This has been a great trip. Today our team is out on their various ministry sites and I had to stay back to do a few things around here.

This outreach has been more than eye opening. On the first day of our outreach I went with the Social Work team. Basically this team does the work of visiting people. It was such a blessing to be a part of. We went into El Gorreon, the poorest place I've ever been, and had the most amazing time. The people there have very little, and yet they have faith like I've never seen before. One woman told us about all these terrible things happening in her life and then finished it off with "But I trust God, I know he will make everything right." Wow!

On day two I was with the medical team. They set up a clinic in El Gorreon and people come to the clinic and pay Q5 (about $0.62US) to see the Doctor and receive the needed medication. After the visit with the Doctor they come out to the Social Work team for a visit and prayer (so technically I was with the SW team, but we called it medical). Again, to hear people speak in faith despite their situation was powerful.

Day three was my turn in Appropriate Technology. What that meant this day specifically was pulling electrical wire in the Community center that SI is building. To be honest, I needed a break from the emotional work. I'm not a crier and it's already happened a couple of times, so it was a nice break.

On Saturday and Sunday were our days off. I learned so much from the church service on Sunday. Pastor Mario invited us up to sing a couple of songs, which was a ton of fun, but better than that was the people's worship. The music was led by Marimba, trumpets and drums. Everyone was singing (except for the Gringos who didn't know the words) and obviously having a good time. I really loved the feeling that it was a joy for these Christians to be there worshipping God - such a privilege to be a part of. And let me tell you, that place was ROCKIN'! It was pretty darn loud in there (louder than my loudest Sundays)! People accepted us and made us feel so welcome which was just great!

Over and over I have been impressed with the need for greater faith. If these people can believe that God will work everything out, why in the world can I not trust that as well? All in all, I think the biggest lesson I'm learning is the life of worship. These attitudes and actions that I'm seeing here everyday must be so pleasing to God. Now, obviously, I'm only pointing out the good, but that's what impresses me the most. Our host families are so generous with their things and money.

My only regret is that I came here to try to bless these people and I will likely go home more blessed by them than they were by me.