transforming the lives of global youth
Check out our journey "to the ends of the earth" and hear from youth pastors about the ride. Thanks to all for your help and support to help the Hillman's reach youth in Bulgaria in Jesus name!!
Click on VIMEO to see video on a bigger screen! …
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Summer is over, which for most youth workers in the U.S. that means another busy summer is in the books and mid-week small groups have recently begun. For some, the routine that the school year brings is refreshing. For others it is nothing short of a life saver. Not only because now the public school system has to deal with the lovely youth God has entrusted them to disciple for at least 35 hours of the week, but also because the transition to a new school year offers hope that their summer blunder will be forgotten.
We have all heard the stories. We all know the guy who knows the guy who took his youth group to see the Hangover 2 during their CIY trip not knowing what it was. Or the guy who forgot the pastor's kid at the Christian concert that had gotten rained out. Personally, I may have gotten the cops called on my room while at a hotel traveling back from a service project to New Orleans. Apparently balloons popping on the …
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A couple weeks ago ESPN ran a story about a 7-year-old Argentine kid signing with football giants Real Madrid. Apparently young Leonel Angel Coira (pictured left) displayed proficient enough skills to warrant serious interest from Los Blancos as well as cross-town rivals Atletico. Many Westerners may find themselves tempted to make knee-jerk judgments about the matter, so I'm quite interested in beginning a conversation revolving around one of the main themes emanating for this story: the value of young people.
This move highlights the lengths to which people will go to secure the services of quality individuals who will add value to their team, in this case, a professional football team. Now, there is a certain degree of assumption one must permit when speculating on the value of athletes of any age. For example, one could easily suggest Leonel might lose his right leg next summer in a freak skiing accident and we'll never see him …
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An intentional 30 days of prayer for over 1 billion Muslims around the world has begun.
How should the Christian respond?
Last night, I took my 3 daughters to our local library and my eyes were captivated by an Islamic children’s book, proudly displayed, most likely with the onset of Ramadan. The author describes a young girl going to her grandmother’s house and hearing the nearby mosque announcing “It’s time to pray, come and pray,” 5x a day. The story tracks the girl’s time with her grandma, her interest in praying, and culminates with her receiving her own special prayer clothes, prayer rug and miniature mosque figure because there is not one nearby her house. The figure is a clock that goes off and reminds her to pray and the modern Muslim prayer rugs have a compass which points the Muslim toward Mecca. This might seem like a nice story but the truth is: This. Is. Bondage.
The word “islam” means, …
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YouthHOPE will be training in various locations this year. You can find us at the Chilean National Youth Workers Conference as well as in Zambia. Check out this video of Miguel Faundez, YouthHOPE's Director of Global Youth Ministry Training discussing our work in 2011 conferences. …
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I did my graduate work at Johns Hopkins University at the School of Public Health in 2003/4. It was the only school I had applied for, mostly because I had my sights set on going to the mission field, and also because I had decided that the only reason I would delay going overseas was to get my Masters in Public Health at the #1 school in the world. ha. Surprisingly, at the best school in the world for public health, among the top achievers in the field, I found the bottom line of all my coursework was this: It is hopeless, we can do everything we can to try to save lives, but people are people, and they will not just change to make healthy choices. Many many of our programs will never make a difference and will fail. People will always eat unhealthy diets, they will always smoke, they will always have sex outside of marriage. We can't change people. It is the fallenness of the world without the salvation and …
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I found Irrawady’s article on Burma’s Education Crisis very accurate to what I’ve seen In Myanmar on my travels there the past few years. I’ve spent 8 months in Myanmar over the last year and a half working on projects focused on youth ministry leadership and researching the viability of the entrepreneurship school we plan to launch in the spring of 2012. We have taken great length to understand the situation of education in Myanmar. Below are some excerpts from the article that stood out to me.
“We used to have the best education in Asia,” a high school teacher told The Irrawaddy. “If we continue at this rate, our public education will forever be ruined, and I can’t see how the next generation will manage the country.”
“Everyone just buys books in the market, which you can copy the assignments from. During the lessons we just sit there and listen to the teachers. There is no discussion.”
“The …
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One of the most recognized names in Christian hip-hop is an artist named, Lecrae (www.reachrecords.com). If you listen to his music, you will hear theology-laced rhymes over top of some of the best beats around (DJ Official). In his song, “Anger Management,” the rapper proclaims:
"The Gospel manages our anger, ya feel me? The solution is to gain a heart that's thankful for grace in Jesus Christ!”
This song and lyric are so timely in my life. The phrase stood out to me immediately. I thought of Jesus, who while on the cross prayed for His accusers: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Stephen, a later disciple of Jesus prayed a similar prayer as He was persecuted through stoning. In Acts 7, we read his words to God, “Do not charge them with this sin!” Wow.
I found myself asking introspectively: Do I let the Gospel manage my anger? What does that even look like? Recently, 3 …
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