Love It When This Happens

We were trying to find the address of Annette's home church and were surprised to find this video me:



We'd forgotten that her home church had recorded it, but it was a treat to be reminded of this God story.

Three Reasons We’re Happy

Here are a few reasons I got teary during the orientation for new students at the EJ Institute last week:

1) We love our highly-committed students
Because Tim and I are no longer doing the school’s admission interviews, new student orientation feels like Christmas morning. This year we have new international students from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil as well as whole group from Buenos Aires. We look forward to getting to know them as we teach our classes this trimester, as well as anticipating reconnecting with others we’ve known for years but who are just getting around to taking our classes.

During the orientation we asked everyone how long their commute is to the Institute. The most common answer was about hour and a half, one way. That means they make a three hour trip for a three hour class!

2) We’re grateful for the fantastic staff
It’s fun to watch the staff in action with their enthusiasm, love for the students and the academic and administrative gifts needed to keep the institution healthy especially when I think back to the days when Tim and I used to open the door for the students before class, lock the doors at night after class and do much of what happened in between.

During the orientation I kept having flashbacks to the chaos, uncertainty and exhaustion of the first year of classes, for example when students and professors alike were confused because we had three different documents circulating about how students should do their projects. (Now we have a professionally produced video that explains each step but even more importantly both the teachers and the students have assimilated the process.) I think everyone is happy to have those days in the past.

3) We’re pleased with the school’s DNA
Holistic care for students, which models the type of relationships we hope they have with the teenagers they work with, intellectual stimulation as a result of the academic rigor, immediate application of principles learned in class to teenagers through class projects, and the development of a long-lasting community are some of the core values we have worked to include in the EJ Institute.

As the academic director interviewed a number of older students, some on site and others who joined us from their home countries by Skype, their comments revealed the extent to which these elements characterized their experience. Here’s a sampling:

Don’t miss out on really getting to know your professors and classmates. They are your new family and will be there for you in the hard times that might be ahead.

The Institute made my brain explode. I’ve learned so much that I’m not the same person I was before I came here.

The best part of the Institute is the Desafio – enjoy it!

Insider Trading

In ministry, unlike in the stock market, past performance is a very good indicator of future performance.
We’ve known the Stiff family for the past decade. During that time we’ve worked and played with them on three continents, we’ve shared joys and sorrows, we’ve seen their ups and downs… and we want you to know that they’re the real deal. In fact, we’re so excited about their new work in Southern Spain that we’re going to be supporting them ourselves.

Here are some of the reasons they’re a great investment:

1. They love God and love others well.
2. They have proven themselves adept at cross-cultural living.
3. They already know the language.
4. They have been involved in the Latin American mission’s mobilization movement for a decade.
5. Their gifts and passions are well suited for their upcoming roles.
6. Their ministry will have exponential impact.

So, if you want to invest in something that we believe will yield returns, we recommend Kyle and Nell Stiff. For more info about them, you can click here to see their blog (NellandKyle.blogspot.com).

Impact: the numbers for 2011

click image to BIGGIE-size it

Whenever we’re tempted to shy away from numbers in our ministry reports we remember what Tim’s father says: Each one of those numbers is a person. So with the help of our brother-in-law Eric Linares, we prepared the infographic above to help you visualize the reach of the resources and training that *we personally provided last year.

This graphic doesn’t include everything we’ve been involved with. For example, we didn’t put in it how many people used things we have written (textbook, journal articles, ebook, blog posts) because we do not have accurate numbers for that audience. It also does not include projects that your donations have allowed us to support; for example:

• Scholarships for students at EJ Institute in Buenos Aires
• Scholarships for 17 individuals at a Life-on-Life training in Spain 
• Creation of courses for the online version the EJ Youth Ministry Institute
• Translation of Coaching training materials into Spanish
• Partial salary for an director of another online youth ministry school
• Creation of 23 videos for youth leaders

These accomplishments are made possible by colleagues, donors, friends and family who also invest time, talents, prayer and/or money in youth and youth leaders.

*Disclaimer: To God alone goes the credit and honor for any actual impact

Surprise!

"So what do you think about El Salvador?"  Our first few days in the country I struggled to answer this frequently-asked-question because we split our time between the classroom where we were leading a training event and the home where we slept. But by the end of our time there, my answer centered around unexpected surprises like the following:

• Spending quality time talking about the situation of the youth ministry at the church which sponsored the Raices event with everyone from the pastor, the elders, and the youth ministry team to parents and teens. We rarely have the chance to develop such a comprehensive understanding of the context we're teaching in. As a result of this unique opportunity we were able to be more helpful to them as individuals and as a community.

• Catching up with our EJ Institute student from El Salvador.We try to visit our students in their ministry context, but we never dreamed we would have the chance to see her world, meet her family, etc. Our relationship deepened more in 36 hours than it had in a year in Buenos Aires.
 
• Dreaming of exciting future projects with our co-worker and friend, Felix Ortiz (stay tuned for details).
• Counseling a newly married couple trying to mesh their lives and ministry styles as they pastor a church in a marginalized part of San Salvador. They are on the front lines of bringing Good News to a broken community and it's a privilege to become part of their support system.

• Viva Espresso (link). The first morning of the conference, the organizers brought us lattes from this local coffee store. One sip told Tim that this was no ordinary coffee. It turns out that this coffee shop has groomed the 2011 world barrista champion, serves amazing coffee, and quickly became our "meeting room" since it was five minutes away from the conference site.

10 Days 6.2 Million People

When Marta from El Salvador taught a new youth group game to the other students at the Buenos Aries campus of the EJ Institute for youth leaders, the game needed to be played in a shopping center. At first I was surprised; most youth group games are designed either for a room or for outside. Then I remembered that El Salvador is a unique setting: the violence of twelve years of civil war has been replaced with gang and drug related violence.

This matters more to us right now because we're on our way to El Salvador.

We're looking forward to seeing Marta again and to eating pupusas in their country of origin. But we're most excited about having 10 days to train youth leaders from Central America alongside our friend and partner, Felix Ortiz. No country likes to be defined by its darkest moments, nonetheless, as we were reminded by Marta, as we teach Biblical principal of discipleship, we cannot ignore the difficult realities of life here.

El Salvador is the smallest, most densely populated country in Central America and is in particular need for youth ministry because the largest segment of the population (6.2 million people) is between 10 and 14 years of age.

We appreciate your prayers as we head into this new chapter of our adventures.

Pilgrims But No Indians (this time)

The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail passes right by the Pilgrim's Fountain Hostal in Galicia where we spend 17 days helping run a training program for new staff with Agapé-Europe. Those who make the trek on foot, horseback or bicycle are called peregrinos (in English: pilgrims) and they walk the camino for a wide variety of reasons from religious, cultural, health and recreational.

You can see captioned photos from this unique training time on our Facebook page (click here). They will give you an idea of what the experience was like. But Annette is publishing a great collection of reflections from our time as pilgrims which you can read at her blog Gaudi's Cross, or by simply clicking here.

Why we were in Duncanville, TX

What do you love so much that you are willing to spend 10,000 hours doing in order to reach a high level of proficiency? 

For weeks after I came across the “10,000 hour rule” (which claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours) I asked myself that question. 

Training is on our short list.

We haven’t yet trained others for 10,000 hours yet but we've done enough to highlight our need improve our skills, as we wrote about back in February of 2010. After that post, a friend of ours from our days in Mexico recommended a workshop called Learning that LASTS. In June we were finally able to attend one, along with the academic director of the youth leadership institute here in Buenos Aires, Walter Bongiorno. The training was well worthwhile. We've already been putting it into practice here in Argentina and shortly will also be using it in Madrid and Northern Spain.

Everyone at the "Learning that Lasts" training had experience in training and
were wanting to maximize the impact and application of what they teach. At the core of what we learned is this concept: Do not tell what you can ask. Do not ask if you know the answer; tell in dialogue.

During a break in our training we went to the Fort Worth stockyards.
Now that's a real Texas experience

This foto above was taken on June 16th, 2011... Annette and my 20th anniversary. I'm still trying to figure out how I could have made this dinner more romantic (ja ja). Tim did some calculations that showed that we’re in the proficiency zone when it comes to time spent loving each other: 20 yrs x 365.25 days x 22 hrs/day = 160,710. So that’s something (smile).

The participants in the training workshop came from all over the world.
(click here for more pics on Facebook)

Half way to 90

For my recent birthday Tim gave me an amazing present. He collected  notes and stories from friends and complied them on a secret blog which he revealed to me on my birthday: http://annettes40again.blogspot.com/  You were on my mind whether you wrote in or not, as i explain below. Thank you for enriching my life!

Years ago I came across a book about Elizabeth Taylor and her jewelry. As I flipped through page after page of photographs of exquisite gemstones in their fabulous settings, I thought about the value and beauty of the people we know: the friends, family, and colleagues, the individuals and communities who pray for and support us economically, the individuals around the world who have opened their lives to us. I pictured them arrayed before me as unique and valuable as Taylor’s collection.

This image of our friends as jewels came back to me as I read the notes I received for my birthday. Each note was a reminder of a treasured relationship. Each note made me wish I could sit down over a meal with that person to enjoy the relationship again. The notes also made me remember friendships and expressions of love over the years from people who didn’t happened to write in this year.

In March 2011, Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection was valued at $150 million. On my birthday I felt infinitely richer.

And Three Weeks Later...

A few scenes from our "Amazing Race" (click to biggie-size it)

The past 3 weeks were jam-packed with stress, purposefulness, urgent needs and incredible moments. In our prior blog post we asked for prayer and it was humbling and a good reminder for me to see how clearly that made a difference. There were lots of times this weekend that God showed His presence. I think more than any time in the last few years.

Regarding those 3 milestones that we told you about, here's what happened:

1. Both Annette and I finished teaching our trimester courses (we had students from 7 countries) 
2. With help from staff members, we've nearly finished all the interviews of potential new students 
3. The "Amazing Race/Survivor" sort of retreat was even better than last years (for more details, read below)

It is an incredibly difficult weekend where we put the students thru a battery of "challenges" similar to the "Amazing Race". We get them out of their comfort zone in as many areas as possible. The goal is to create genuine community in a short period of time and accelerated personal growth.

In last place at the moment, this teams has just been told they
have  to walk another 4 miles even though it's nearly 1 a.m.

Crossing the finish line with their team spirit intact

The event is as challenging for the staff/organizers as it is for the students! There is a ton of work and logistics and it is painful for me to see these students we love go thru all that they go thru. But I'm learning to trust the process because in the end (after celebration and debriefing) they really appreciate the experience and the unity among the teams is amazing.

This is how I looked after 3 days of the "Challenge"
with no bath and very little sleep

At the end of the "challenges" part of the weekend - they had barely slept, had walked around12 miles thru the night, slept on the ground with no tents, eaten weird food and done awkward things in public places all while carrying a big processional ark - they walked into the retreat center tired, some limping, smelly and exhausted and we had them sit down in comfortable couches and served them hot drinks (it's autumn here and crisply cool), and then we washed their feet with warm water, bath salts and sponges while our academic director read about Jesus doing the same thing with his disciples at the last supper.

Using 2 bamboo poles and rope, they had to carry all their belongings

What most moved Annette and me was how the students from last year, who this year helped run the event, requested to do the foot washing. As we stood back and watched them lovingly wash and dry the feet of these newer students - doing it as if it were an honor, not perfunctorily but with kindness and dignity - I realized we'd accomplish what we had come to do. We'd passed on the DNA which had been passed on to us. I took a pic with my cell phone and uploaded it to Facebook with the caption "Success!"

Thru your prayers, notes and support, you were part of that success.

Pics, Struggles and Prayer

click image to biggie-size

Here are just a few scenes from this trimester at the youth leadership institute in Buenos Aires... learning, personal formation, celebrations and sharing life together. It is definitely not a boring place to be.

Over the next 3 weeks there will be a more than normal amount of work and stress due to the confluence of 3  milestones:

1. End of trimester exams and projects (now until May 19)
2. Interviews of prospective students for next trimester (starts May 30)
3. A 3-day "Amazing Race/Survivor" sort of retreat for students (May 20-22)

We have also had a lot of students who are struggling with tough emotional, physical, work and family related issues. Our role as spiritual directors is to accompany, encourage and love them thru these times. It is a privilege to serve these dedicated youth workers in this way and, as you can imagine, it is also a significant burden. 

Please pray for us and for them during the next 3 weeks. We need it.