• Home
  • Who We Are
    • What Compels Us
    • the Development Team
    • Global Youth Workers
    • Strategic Partnerships
    • FAQs
  • Where We Work
    • Argentina
    • Bangladesh
    • Bulgaria
    • Chile
    • Haiti
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Southeast Asia
    • Thailand
    • Zambia
  • Get Involved
    • Opportunities
    • Internships
    • Apprenticeships
    • Ends of the Earth Bike Ride
    • Send & Support
    • Pray with us
  • Blog
    • E-News
    • Archives
  • Contact

youthHOPE

transforming the lives of global youth

facebook twitter blog flickr rss

About Aaron

Aaron is a pretty intense kind of guy who loves to cook and have long philosophical and theological conversations. He has traveled to more than 35 different countries, is proud of the fact that he is bilingual and resists every temptation to look like a tourist.

What would your teenager do for an iPad?

May 11, 2012 by Aaron Leave a Comment
ipad

Last month, I finally broke down and bought an iPad (refurbished iPad 2 for $349!!) as prices dropped with the release of the new model. I am really anal retentive about my electronics and have to make sure I need them and that they are going to serve the purpose that I expect from them. I know I probably should chill out, but that’s what happens when you have high expectations and not that much money. As I was doing research about the iPad and whether or not I could travel solo with it, I ran across some crazy news. 1. A 17 year old named Wang sold his kidney to buy the new iPad and the iPhone 4s that came out earlier this year. Five people were arrested including the doctor and “organ broker”. The youth received $3500 for the kidney, which was sold for $35,000. …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Newsworthy Tagged With: adolescence, culture, current events, global needs, gospel, parents, poverty, relationships, youth ministry

Hope and Hunger: The Games We Play

April 17, 2012 by Aaron Leave a Comment
the hunger games

 “Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little is effective, a lot is dangerous.” Those are the words of President Snow from the film Hunger Games (you can watch the actual clip here).  I just went to see it with my family and some co-workers this weekend.  I had read the trilogy last year after my youngest daughter, Sofi, started reading them. The publisher primarily targeted the teen/young adult literature market, but they have become the latest craze crossing generational lines, similar to the Harry Potter series. The books were by far some of the best fiction that I had read in a long time.  Since I’ve become familiar with them, I have noticed that there has been a lot written about the underlying socio-political messages the books bring to the table.  The gamut stretches from identifying the saga with the “occupy” movement, to Fox News talking about an anti big government message.  Even the Christian …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Media Reviews Tagged With: adolescence, Christ, culture, current events, global youth, Hope, Jesus, videos, youth

Young and Wild

March 26, 2012 by Aaron Leave a Comment
Joven-y-Alocada3-3-review

I was chatting with a friend in Chile the other day and he asked me if I had heard about the new Chilean movie that had just won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It is called Joven y Alocada - Young and Wild (WARNING: the trailer for the movie is VERY graphic, please do not watch it if you think that you would be offended. The movie itself is rated NC-17 and is extremely sexually graphic, which is not uncommon for Chilean TV and film.). It is about the life of a young girl who grew up in an very conservative “evangelical” (a term used in Chile to describe the non-catholic or protestant Christians, which usually have a Pentecostal style) home. Her uncle was the preacher and her parents were very involved in the church. The thing is that their kids were just not vibing with this ultra conservative lifestyle. It was a very controlling and legalistic environment. The oldest daughter was kicked …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Media Reviews Tagged With: adolescence, church, culture, holistic needs, Malawi, relationship, sex education, videos, youth ministry

Would you like to start a college in India?

March 2, 2012 by Aaron Leave a Comment
street-kids-india

During the last year, we have been talking with several different ministries in India about partnership opportunities. There are some wonderful ministries that God is working through in India and this year we will be visiting some of them to learn and look for direction about moving forward. We are very excited since the need in India is so great. Only about 2% of the country is Christian, where more than half of the 1.2 billion people living there are under the age of 25 years old. There are few places where the global youth ministry opportunity is greater. As I was reading the news the other day, the following headline slapped me right in the face “In India, the challenge of building 50,000 colleges”. I read the article and learned that India is trying to solve the problem of the need to educate more than 100 million young people over the next ten years.  At the moment a mere 17% of their graduates are immediately …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: Bible College, campus ministry, church, global needs, india, job creation, opportunities, partnership, poverty, students

YouthHOPE’s 12 New Year’s resolutions for 2012

January 18, 2012 by Aaron 1 Comment
2012-new-year-wishes-on-sea

We are extremely excited about what this year holds for our lives and ministry. God continues to bless us, challenge us and provide the resources that we need in order to carry out the vision that was placed on a heart. The following are some of our 2012 goals that we have decided upon through prayer and planning:   1. MOBILIZE our first 2 full time YouthHOPE teams to Chang Mai, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar.2. CREATE awareness and raise funds in support of the Hillmans, our global youth workers in Bulgaria by facilitating 11 people, including several Fort Myers-based youth pastors and YouthHOPE staff, to participate in a 300 miles/5 day bike ride called “To the Ends of the Earth”.3. PARTNER with the Hunger Strike Challenge and Food for the Hungry to facilitate the sponsoring of 100 Cambodian youth, by promoting the event to youth pastors and youth ministries.4. RESEARCH, write and publish about how to better inform and …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Goals Tagged With: create awareness, Goals, mobilize, partner, recruit, research, resolutions, teach, train

Is There Anybody Out There? – A Global Youth Cry

November 3, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
IM000038.JPG

The other day I was reading an electronic newsletter from some missionaries, Paul and Mary Triller that are supported by the local church that I attend.  I met them a couple years ago and have been following their ministry.  They are not specifically focused on youth ministry, but as their organizational goal states “empower and multiply a new generation of leaders to create movements to facilitate the expansion of God’s Kingdom,” they are intent on looking at the younger generation as a place to invest.  The following is something they wrote in their last e-newsletter: "There are about 52 orphanages in Moldova, they house approximately 6800 boys and girls. The most they can look forward to is being released after their 16th birthday with $30.00 and a bus ticket to 'home'. They are easy prey for human traffickers. They are sold into slavery. They are turned into prostitutes forced to perform sex acts from 30-50 times a day. …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: Europe, global needs, global youth

Where are the youth?

October 11, 2011 by Aaron 5 Comments
girl_bulgaria[1]

I am sitting in church in the city of Velingrad, Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a country of about 7 million people. In the last census, there were approximately 64,000 people or about 1% of the population that identified themselves as protestants. Even the church that I am visiting is small, there are about 50 enthusiastic believers that sing beautifully their praises to God. The pastor is personable and has a somewhat casual style of preaching. I feel welcome and comfortable in spite of the fact that I understand almost nothing that is said (I don't speak Bulgarian). However, there is something missing. Something inside of me doesn't feel right. Then it dawns on me that there are very few faces that are younger than me (an old man of 41). I notice a few couples in their early 30's with young children, but the majority of the congregation is made up of women 50+ years. I looked around as we sang and spotted one teenager, running …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Youth Worker Stories Tagged With: Bulgaria, global youth, global youth ministry

Our Summer Interns are AMAZING!

June 10, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
SE Asis Intern Team

I had the chance to spend a day with our intern teams at Pre-Field Orientation which took place at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida.  After having followed the process of planning and recruiting for the four YouthHOPE internships, it was great to finally meet the people that will be sent out as global youth ministry ambassadors.  I must tell you that I was very impressed with the quality of each and every one of the interns.  One of the reasons that I spent the day with them was to provide some training in the area of global youth ministry, to share the vision of YouthHOPE and also to teach on the subjects of worldview and culture.  They interacted well and seemed very eager to learn.  To me a "learner spirit" is one of the of important characteristics that we look for in our interns.  While they go to serve the people in the country of their internship, they also go to learn from them.  It is only with …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Internships Tagged With: Haiti, Internships, Kenya, Malawi, Southeast Asia

Jobs for teens not always a good thing

June 5, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
child_labor

One of the projects that YouthHOPE is developing is about creating jobs for youth.  Unemployment for youth is at an all-time high and it is impacting their lives and communities in a very negative way.  Many youth are looked to in order to help provide for their families and for the millions of AIDS orphans, even to be the head of the household.  We feel like one very tangible way that we can share the love of Christ with them is through the creation of jobs.  You can read more about this type of ministry in our Southeast Asia project. There is a flip-side to this.  And it is even uglier.  One of the things that we like to talk about is the potential that youth have.  We are not the only ones that believe that.  However, there are too many that want to take advantage of that potential rather than empower.  Child labor was dealt with in the United States in 1924 when the Child Labor Amendment was passed to limit, …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: job creation, Southeast Asia, unemployment

Global Youth Marketing Forum 2011

April 27, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
global-youth-marketing

Just read about this global youth marketing forum that took place in Mumbai, India.   "The third edition of 'Global Youth Marketing Forum 2011' was organized for February 8th - 9th, 2011 at Taj Land's End in Mumbai. This year's theme was 'Tapping the power of the trend setting Hip Hop Mindset, Culture and Lifestyle'. The event is a platform for several youth obsessed brands coming from across the globe. It is the largest rendezvous of Youth Experts, Marketing Professionals, Cool Hunters & Brand Specialist who will offer insights on what keeps youth craving for the Brand? What Youth like? What Youth want? How to capture the Youths attention in an increasingly intriguing and "Multi-Tasking" youth segment of today." So here are some thoughts: How can we become the "youth experts and cool hunters" in global youth ministry in order to better reach the youth of the world with the transforming message of the gospel? What …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferences, Newsworthy Tagged With: current events, global youth

Thoughts about YouthHOPE’s 2011 Interns

April 2, 2011 by Aaron 1 Comment
intern

I was in church worshiping on Sunday and we sang the song With Everything.  The lyrics of the song really started to make me think.  The opening verse says: Open our hearts, To see the things That make Your heart cry, To be the church That You would desire. Light to be seen. That made me think about the 14 YouthHOPE interns preparing right now to go to the five countries where they will come alongside youth in some pretty challenging situations. Some of them will work with Haitian youth, many of whom are still living with post traumatic stress disorder from the earthquake that devastated their nation. Some will be showing the love of Christ to young people in SE Asia who were taken advantage of and abused. It is my prayer that as the interns go into these situations, that God would allow their hearts to hurt as His does and that that would spur them on to be the church that we are called to be. …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Internships Tagged With: global youth ministry, Haiti, Internships, Kenya, Malawi, Southeast Asia, Zambia

Could global youth ministry be dangerous?

March 20, 2011 by Aaron 2 Comments
mob_attach

So far I have felt  mostly safe wherever I have traveled to work in youth ministry.  I am pretty much of the school of thought that there are bad people everywhere and so you need to be smart and not too careless, like counting hundred dollar bills in public on a crowded subway.  I am pretty used to getting stared at in areas where there are not too many North American or European tourists.  I also trust that God will protect me to do the work that He has called me to do and if something does happen to me, I will still trust that God is control. A recent event and an article that I read about the USA funding some youth activities has really got me thinking. Now the activities were political in nature and were aimed at helping youth to have a voice in needed reform.  That doesn't seem anything like what global youth ministry does, or does it?  If our aim is to transform the lives of global youth then there potentially are times …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsworthy Tagged With: current events, global youth ministry, persecuted church

1 Minute to Save the World

March 15, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
Screen shot 2011-03-15 at 10.02.32 AM

Here is a great video where youth from Nairobi, Kenya come up with solutions for how to make their community a better place.  Through the competition at 1 Minute to Save the World, they filmed a very cool video.  This is exactly the approach that YouthHOPE wants to take.  We want to involve global youth in being creative about meeting their needs and sharing the love of Christ with others. Check out other videos on the  1 Minute to Save the World website …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: global youth, Kenya

No future without youth

March 6, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
world's youth

I am teaching a class at Cincinnati Christian University on Global Youth Ministry.  It has really been a great experience and I have connected with some great students.  Just a short time ago, I had the chance to read through 24 book reviews of one of the most comprehensive studies of youth and adolescence from a global perspective The World's Youth.  It's not light reading as it is a very academic sociological study of what adolescence looks like in eight regions of the world. I'd like to share two quotes that impacted me and made me think about why and how we do youth ministry at YouthHOPE. "A society that does not pay attention to its youth has no future." pg. 303 One of the positive things (actually they known or stereotyped far more for the negative, but that's a different post) that youth are known for is creativity, passion and willingness to take risk.  They are the innovators and change agents in society.  There …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Newsworthy Tagged With: Bible College, global youth ministry

World Youth Day

February 27, 2011 by Aaron Leave a Comment
World Youth Day 2011

I have been following this event called World Youth Day for several years now. The Catholic church has been organizing this for more than 25 years.  The purpose of the World Youth Day is three-fold: putting trust in the young, gathering together and meeting the international world on a human level. "World Youth Day is not simply a gathering for the young people of the world, but a time to put trust in the world's youth." Below is a video that highlights last year's World Youth Day: In 2008, World Youth Day was held in Sydney and more than 400,000 people attended.  Last year, more than 70,000 youth gathered for the Pope's message in St. Peter's Square.  Now this sounds really good to me at first, but I want to take this opportunity to analyze this event, and I want to begin by asking some questions. First of all, what was accomplished?  In youth ministry, we have criticized the use of numbers and being too …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsworthy Tagged With: global needs, global youth, holistic needs, prayer, videos
« Older Posts

Blog Archives

YouthHOPE's flickr stream

New Leader Entrepreneurship
Training School Teachers

Partner With Us – Fill out a Ministry Application!

Click here to start the application process to work with us on a future project!

Receive YouthHOPEs E-News

Newsletter Signup

Noteworthy Reads

Screen shot 2011-08-26 at 9.50.41 AM

Meet the Interns!

journal of youth

Worship: England vs. Singapore

hspostcard_yh

A Youth Resistance Against Injustice

DSC_0125

Safe in Haiti After Earthquake

Topics of Interest

adolescence Apprenticeships Bible College Bulgaria Chile Christ Christ in Youth church community conferences culture current events education global needs global youth global youth ministry global youth worker gospel Haiti holistic needs Interns Internships Jesus job creation Kenya leadership development Malawi missiology mission work opportunities parents partners poverty prayer relationships resources Southeast Asia support raising Thailand unemployment videos youth youth group youth ministry Zambia

Blog Posts

May 2012
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Recommended Blogs

  • Fuller Youth Institute
  • Global Youth Ministry
  • Urban Action
  • Youth Workin' it

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2012 youthHOPE | design by robin cornett | Log in