Unexpected Feedback

Was the youth leadership institute useful to you?

This was one of the questions we asked some of the Instituto Especialidades Juveniles graduates and professors. Here's a bit of their feedback:

Annette says that Mauricio is one of the best writers
and thinkers to come through the institute

Mauricio Constantino: Chiapas, México

I have grown in every area of my life as a result of my time at the E.J. Institute but if I had to highlight one thing it would be the project-based learning. This has fostered a wide variety of positive habits and is the thing I have most incorporated into my way of doing youth ministry as it has provided me with the opportunity to reflect, investigate, analyze, project, execute and evaluate what youth groups need. The courses included in the degree plan have all improved my ministry as they give me a holistic view of youth culture and help me engage with it better.

Ricardo y Jimena González: Santiago, Chile

The experience-based learning alone is worth the investment. Above and beyond the information we’ve gained, the experiences in life and ministry that we share with our fellow students by helping each other are priceless. Furthermore, knowledge and the years of ministry and life experience of our professors further enriched our stay in E.J. Institute. Now our big beautiful challenge is to transmit this experience to the young people we work with. 

Gustavo Pavón: Buenos Aires, Argentina

I can describe the E.J. Institute in five words: excellence, projects, friendship, commitment and guidance. There is no amount of money which can buy the times shared in class and the relationships forged with my fellow students and professors.
 

Sofía Hernández: Toluca, México

The IEJ wasn’t what I expected. It exceeded my expectations in every area:  classes, teachers, community, activities, and friendships. Every single thing is part of an amazing community with the beautiful desire of transmitting the love and grace of God to the lives of young people. Today I can see in our youth groups how this involvement in the lives of teenagers makes a huge difference, inspiring them to get closer to God in a free and confident way.

Gisela Noemí Rodríguez: Mendoza, Argentina

Far beyond professors or classmates, at the E.J. Institute I met friends, people who love me, value me and take for me. It is not a mere intellectual training, but training for life.

Marcelo Gallardo: Audiovisual Engineer, entrepreneur, artist, specialist in new media and applied technology, and volunteer youth worker. Professor of Media & Design.

I love helping youth leaders improve their work and the EJ Institute focuses on the deep aspects of youth work, not on the superficial elements. Since I also work with teenagers,  the learning that goes on in the classroom is not limited to the students… I learn a lot from them. 

Bad News

Flooding in Buenos Aires (BBC News: 4/3/2012)

In the last few hours we were contacted by three friends here in Buenos Aires each with difficult news:

• A youth pastor and his wife who work in a tough drug riddled neighborhood had their car trashed, their church building smashed up and the church warden's house burned down by some drug dealing neighbors who hours earlier had put guns to the pastors head and verbally threatened them to stop meeting. It seems that many of the 30 or so youth in the church are getting clean and therefore buying less drugs from these thugs. The police say the won't do anything because the perpetrators are "narcos" and too powerful to touch.
• A close friend and youth leader who is also Annette's teachers aid at the Institute, texted us to say that their house was seriously flooded yesterday on her father's birthday (he is a pastor). They had nearly 2 ft. of water in their home. This was on top of their car getting totaled last year when a horse jumped thru their windshield, 3 violent robberies, and other misfortunes in the last few years.
• Another youth worker and lawyer, who invests her life helping kids from destitute barrios of Buenos Aires told us that yesterday's torrential flooding (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22023196) destroyed most everything these people had. She wrote asking if we had blankets, bedding or even mattresses to give to these kids who she works with.

Please pray for these friends who are struggling to love those around them in Jesus' name... but who are paying a heavy price.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Our current office (aka: the guest bedroom)

In case you’re wondering what we’re up to, our life is pretty routine. Here’s a glimpse of the excitement of it all.

Get up. Go downstairs.

     Have breakfast, coffee and prayer with Roger and Joy (Tim’s parents)

Go upstairs to our “office.”

     Work.

Go downstairs to make:

     Tea, lunch, coffee, dinner.

Go upstairs.

     Work.

Go to bed to do it all again the next day.

Sometimes we even go outside but our range of activities stays pretty narrow then too. We hike or run or have a meal with friends or worship with Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church.

Dinner with Kara and Xavier
(He did the programming for www.ParaLideres.org website for 10 years)

This narrow scope of activities is exactly what we need right now. From late May 2012 till after New Year’s our calendar had been so full of training events around Latin America and Spain that we hadn't been able to make much progress on some of our other objectives like the teaching videos that were filmed in July and October, writing the curriculum that will accompany those videos, developing the courses we teach at the youth leadership institute, coaching and mentoring over Skype, and guiding the design process of the Agape-Spain conference we’ll be facilitating in April.

weekly Skype mtgs with colleagues in Spain

We have four more weeks before we start traveling again. In mid-February we go back to Argentina to teach for a trimester, in the middle of which we go to Spain for the Agape conference. Before then we need to have the videos and the curriculum ready to go... a tall order, especially the 10 week curriculum. But our local church in Argentina is going to be using it in their small groups come March so ... upstairs....

Outcomes 2012

For those who just want the bottom line - no emotional stories, no smiling faces - the following tells what we were a part of during 2012.

click image to BIGGIE-size it

The infographic above should give you a idea of the keys areas of our involvement and impact. Not reflected are some extra projects that your donations have allowed us to fund, for example:

• Partial salary for a director of an online youth ministry school
• Scholarships for 2 students at the EJ Institute in Buenos Aires
• Scholarships for 47 youth workers and pastors to attend Life-on-Life training events
• Scholarships for 17 Colombian missionaries to get coaching skills training
• Hundreds of hours of web programming and design that allowed us to finished the new version of the ParaLideres.org website and blog making it easier for youth workers to find what they need among the tens of thousands of resources.

A Month of Premieres

Líderes Posmo isn’t Annette’s first published book, but it is mine   It is a curriculum for youth groups, including nearly everything a youth leaders needs for camps, retreats, one-on-one discipleship, small and large groups, which we wrote in the spring of 2012 together with our Spanish colleague, Felix Ortiz.

It is published by a division of Harper-Collins, and debuted at the International Youth Leaders Convention (www.convencionliderazgo.com) in October where the three of us led a seminar on how to present the gospel to and disciple youth who have grown up in a postmodern, post-Christian culture.

We also launched at the convention the series of eight teaching videos we recently filmed as well as the new version of the ParaLideres.org youth ministry website, which continues to serve around 9,000 visitors per day.

Please pray: That our investment of time, energy and money in the video series, book and accompanying website will – like the loaves and fishes offered to Jesus – be taken by God and used to nourish his people making them more able as his agents in this world.

Coming Attractions: We are leading workshops for youth leaders and pastors in Bogota, Colombia for most of November. Please pray with us that God would guide us as to how to best serve those involved in these events so that will have increased capacity to to advance God’s kingdom and build up others in Christ.

Thank you for your prayers, love and encouragement.

Sleeping on Gym Floors

Filming at Fisterra, Spain, which during the Roman Erawas known as the end of the earth

The training time on the "Camino de Santiago de Compostela" in Spain was excellent. This year we did training with the 21 participant during the daily 15 to 20 mile hikes as well as afterwards. Walking, talking, carrying a big backpack and sleeping on gymnasium floors is fun but exhausting. We walked 6 days for a total of 140 kms/86 miles.

A matt on a gym floor... this is how we slept most nights

celebration dinner at Santiago de Compostela
after finishing the 140 km walk

The 21 participants of the discipleship training gave us great feedback and we felt it was a worthwhile investement of time, energy and funds. These photos plus the ones you can see on our "Spain 2012" album on Facebook will give you a sense of our experience walking, training and eating in and around the city of Santiago de Compostela and Spain in general. As you will see in the pics, we were also filming a series of 8 videos during and after the training event. It was something new for us and we got to enjoy lots of beautiful scenery and great fellowship.

Part of the training was something called "Life Maps"
that we did individually with all 21 participants

Filming a video about the effects of the Fall
on our relationship with God

there were blackberries all over Galicia, but
not so much now that I ate most of them

In 24 hours we leave Spain, where we are currently with our team director and his wife, and fly to Buenos Aires for the month of September where we will be helping the Argentine film maker, Sebastian Pasquet, do post-production work on the videos. Annette will also be doing some writing, and we hope to finish the latest version of the ParaLideres.org website that a team of us has been working on for over 2 years. 

Staff, trainees and pilgrims at the "Fuente del Peregrino"
hostel which is run by Agapé-Spain

In October we go to California for our twice annual team retreat plus the 60th anniversary celebration of our organization, OC International. Then we're in Orlando, Florida for the Internationl Youth Ministry Convention where we will be teaching and working as chaplains for the 1500 youth leaders who will be participate. We will also be launching the video series we just filmed during the convention as well as the book Annette, Felix Ortiz and I wrote
.

Thank you for your prayers, love and encouragement.

Why We're Back in Mexico

When we lived in Mexico we got together with Veronica every Thursday, sometimes over pizza with the whole team who worked with us on the ParaLideres.org web site, sometimes to work on plan for Sunday’s “youth church” meeting, and sometimes just to catch up over a cup of tea. Then we left Mexico and we didn’t see each other for two years until she attended the Roots level three training event in Costa Rica (Level one is basic principles for youth work; level two is how to train others in those principles; level three combines a look at "new challenges in youth work" with personalized mentoring for people who have proven faithful with the first two levels). 

The first night in Costa Rica as she introduced herself to the group she broke down and cried inconsolably. She was tired, discouraged, disheartened. She had a vocation to work with teenagers but was burned out and ready to quit.  At the end of the ten day event she was refreshed and recharged. Four years later she is still working with teenagers and is a role model for others in youth ministry in Mexico. 

A happy reunion with old friends on our first day back in Mexico

This July, Veronica, together with a team that includes her husband, Diego, has organizing a Roots III in Mexico and we’ll be facilitators. So for the first time since we moved out of Toluca in 2006 we’re back in Mexico. We’re enjoying seeing old friends and eating great food: pozole, tacos, hand-made corn tortillas… the list goes on.  

Ruben & Sylvia and their little girl, Keyla

We’re excited about the event, which we will lead with Ruben and Sylvia, colleagues from Seville, Spain. Experience has taught us that events like this are high impact and therefore incur increased “resistance” so we would love your prayers to accompany ours for: the participants, the logistics (both for the event and for our visit), the team (sensitivity to God’s spirit as we prepare and lead the sessions and mentor the participants), as well as for safety and health.

You may be aware that violence is rampant these days in Mexico and our bodies are no longer accustomed to the altitude or the food. We would love for ourselves and our colleagues to be protected from these issues so we can be freed up to enjoy and accomplish what we think we’re there for. (Though we know God may have other things in store for us). Thank you!

Homeless but not Purposeless

click image to biggie-size and make it legible

Our eyes lit up and we looked at each other with barely suppressed glee when the head of Youth Specialties, Latin America asked us to be the spiritual directors for their youth ministry institutes. That was 5½ years ago and now our part in this project is coming to an end. (Click on timeline)

the very moment we were invited to help start the institute

We accepted the challenge of helping launch these two university-level institutes with a written agreement that we would part of a team of 5 -10 other staff from Argentina and Guatemala, that we would not need to do fundraising, and that we would not have administrative responsibilities (it's what we are worst at and most dislike). If you're familiar with startups you'll smile knowingly at the fact that there was no other staff for the first 6 months and then 2 unpaid and very part-time staff for the next year. So we did a lot of administration and nearly all the fundraising.

Lots of planning, organizing, administration,
and staff training during the first two years

We imagine it's like raising a baby; it pushes you to the edge of your sanity but you end up loving it. So now that we've accomplish what we set out to do –help get things started, create a prototype and then work ourselves out of a job– it is hard to let go of what we have grown to love: the staff, the city, and especially the youth leaders into whom we've invested our lives. But for the last few years we've been phasing out of our various roles here and as of May 28th we're done.

Some of the youth leaders of the Instituto E.J.

At this point, we don't know where we'll be based next. But we do we have a full schedule of projects for what is left of 2012:

• Manage the ParaLideres.org and blog.paralideres.org websites
• Youth work training events in Mexico and Colombia
• Leading a seminar on coaching in Colombia
• Discipleship school in Spain
• Co-writing a year-long, youth group curriculum book for Harper-Collins/Youth Specialties
• Developing a video series and accompanying curriculum about communicating the truths of the Christian faith to postmodern, post-Christian youth

All of these are within the mandate we've been given: to providing resources and training for youth leaders in the Spanish-speaking world. But none of them define where we will live.

It will be interesting to see how God guides us to the next where... and, as always, we need your prayers towards that end.

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).