Maybe it’s because I’m teaching “Contemporary Youth Missions” this term. Maybe it’s because my class is reading part of “Let the Nations be Glad: the Supremacy of God in Missions” by John Piper (affiliate link). Or maybe it’s just because God has been impressing this on my heart. I’m not sure, but I do know that the Great Commission has been on my mind a lot lately.
We had over 60 photos sent in for the contest. It was really fun to see the representations from different countries. People sent in pictures from Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, and other places.
Oaxaca is also a state in which opportunities for youth ministry training have arisen in the last few years. Juan, one of the graduates from the Seminary program in Mexico City, has returned to his home state, fired up his youth ministry at his local church, and has begun training youth workers for local churches starting with a certificate level program in Puerto Escondido.
When I was in Oaxaca at the end of December, Juan told me that there was an opportunity to start another certificate level course in the capital of the state, and we are looking into the possibilities to begin in February.
Saturday we had our first Youth Ministry Forum at the Seminary. It was a first for many things.
I think it was the first time the format was used for a youth ministry event (at least at our Seminary). We tried to make it very interactive and participatory.
We also transmitted live on the Internet (using Ustream), including the members of the chat in the discussion. We had about as many people participating via the internet as we had in the auditorium.
There were people from Juarez, Oaxaca, Monterrey and all over Mexico watching what was happening. I never heard if there was anyone from any other countries watching the forum. But overall, it was a good discussion.
Here are some pictures we took of the event.
I skyped into the board meeting of Youth Ministry International in order to give a little report on what is happening in Latin America, and I received such an encouragement from David Adams, the director of the Center for Youth Ministry at Southern Seminary in Kentucky. Check the video to hear what he said.
His words were just what I needed to hear, and they reminded me of Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”
