National Missionary Convention (17-20) – I first attended this conference as a Bible College student in 2006 with the sole purpose of finding a youth ministry internship outside of the States. I failed. That experience though created a greater passion within me for pursuing global youth ministry and eventually played a part in YouthHOPE’s creation of our internship program. I’m looking forward to sharing about our 5 global youth ministry internships, connecting with past interns, and recruiting more full-time global youth workers.
National Youth Worker Convention (18-20) – This has been going down every year since 1970, so everyone in Youth Ministry already knows what it is all about, right? Everyone except me that is, I’ve never been. I’m excited YouthHOPE has a presence at the convention this year, and really excited for youth groups to start doing The Hunger Strike Challenge (here is one reason why).
Extended Adolescence Symposium (21) – I’ve been looking forward to this for months. I read Teen 2.0 about a year ago on a bus from Lilongwe to Lusaka. YouthHOPE has always been about youth being ready and capable of doing ministry, so while I didn’t agree with all the arguments presented (Who ever does?) I did agree with the basic premise. There needs to be a shift in Youth Ministry whereby youth workers start treating adolescents based on their giftedness/maturity and less like children. I am currently reading Emerging Adulthood and have interacted with the ideas within the book at workshops, conversations with youth workers who have been influenced by the book, etc. I see how these two philosophies can conflict and I see the importance this issue has on shaping one’s approach in youth ministry. I am looking forward to being a part of the discussion, and not just for academia’s sake. This symposium has the potential to impact the way I do youth ministry in the coming years, and therefore the potential to impact the lives of youth in Chiang Mai, Thailand (though it would be a slightly delayed response as my wife and I aren’t heading out until Feb 21st). If you are going, I’d love to connect with you.
Meeting with US based ministry (21) – We are all about partnerships. This meeting is about potentially creating a partnership with an organization that facilities hundreds of apprenticeships each year (in the UK I hear they’d call it a gap-year ministry). They mobilize students to urban locations within the US, they are interested in potentially expanding to cities outside of North America and are interested in partnering with us to do that. I’m looking forward to seeing if anything solidifies, and either way it will be a great conversation and I love that youth ministry within the States is beginning to think more globally.
Gabe teaching in schools in Bulgaria (17, 18 & 21) – Gabe is one of our global youth workers. He has the opportunity to share in public schools in Velingrad this week. A city where literally one youth attends a protestant church. Gabe and his wife Melissa teach active learning workshops infused with biblical principles within the public school system. They also connect with youth through adventure based sports. That gets me excited, but really there is nothing special about this particular week. They do this every week.
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