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youthHOPE

transforming the lives of global youth

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What would your teenager do for an iPad?

11
May
2012
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

Global Youth Survey on Sex Education

23
Mar
2012
Chalkboard - Sex

A multi-national survey of youth was released on World Contraception Day.  The published findings are quite alarming. The survey shows an increase in number of sexual partners and a decrease in knowledge about sex (36 percent of Egyptian youth surveyed believe showering after sex is an effective form of contraception.) The researchers highlight that only 55 percent of youth in Europe receive sexual education in school and only 75 percent in most of Asia and the USA. They cite the lack of sexual education that youth receive in schools as the problem. I find this quite interesting. If half of the youth in Europe and three-fourths in most of the rest of the world are receiving their version of sexual education and the numbers continue to rise, a broke system. Providing more access to condoms and more sex ed in schools is not going to fix the problem, and their research seems to prove that. Change will happen among the youth of the …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Newsworthy Tagged With: education, global youth ministry, sex education, survey, youth ministry

Youth Unemployment and a Challenge to the Church

21
Mar
2012
youth-unemployment

Dozens of articles and reports by the UN, CNN, BBC, Unicef and others in the past few years have focused on the global youth unemployment crisis.  As the global economy continues to waiver and bend, millions around the world fight the effects of unemployment. According to a report by the International Labor Office, there were approximately 81 million unemployed youth between the ages of 15-24 at the end of 2009--the highest ever. Many governments and organizations are establishing programs and schemes to fight this trend, to give hope to a generation trying to find their place.  In the UK, the prime minister is planning an incentive that would give employers subsidies to employ 18-24 year olds for six-month periods.  Throughout the world, programs are starting up to train youth for small business ventures and entrepreneurship opportunities. The world seems to be taking notice of this global youth crisis, slowly, but …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: adolescence, Christ, church, community, current events, education, global needs, global youth ministry, job creation, opportunities

Would you like to start a college in India?

02
Mar
2012
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

Less Equals More

13
Feb
2012
Less-equals-more

< = > Less equals more. Having the opportunity to minister cross-culturally has made me more aware of my own cultural. I have grown to understand my worldview better because I actively work to learn others in order to communicate Biblical ideas in culturally relevant ways. Materialism is obviously a problem within the church here in the United States. Most are aware of this. I do feel I am more aware of the negative consequences because of the exposure to those living joyfully with much less in cultures where materialism is not a huge issue. I am surprised that our culture in the US is starting to perceive the negative effects. (Spoiler alert: while our culture might be beginning to see the problem, it still desperately needs help in identifying a solution.) Take this TED video as an example. The speaker states that we have three times more space than we did 50 years ago, but that across the board we are less happy. I …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Newsworthy Tagged With: community, culture, holistic needs, Jesus, worldview

Eternal Youth

13
Jan
2012
banking

Apparently the title of this blog is also a slogan used by a 100 year old bank in Thailand. They define the phrase a little more in their advertisements saying, "Eternal Youth: always being young, never growing old." They use this slogan when they introduce forward thinking changes to the banking system. One has to assume this is because they are aware that the majority of the population associates innovation and change with youth. Few traits span the wide gap between Eastern and Western culture. Creativity of youth is among that short list.  Therefore, it seems natural to both the Western and Eastern mind for a bank to introduce its ideas for innovation and improvement through the portion of the population between childhood and adulthood. Why then does it seem to be so unnatural for those within the church to attach value to the differences in thought patterns between its established leaders and its youth? Do you look at this …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Newsworthy Tagged With: church, creative, innovative, leaders, youth

Presentation Matters

07
Nov
2011
somalia-famine

Youth Ministry is beginning to think globally. Mission trips and awareness programs have become a staple. Your youth group though, do they care? Do the youth God has entrusted you to disciple share His same heart for the nations? If not, I suggest it may be your fault. Not because you aren’t hip to the times and aren’t putting the issue before them, but rather because how you are presenting the information. Check out this article recently released by Psychology Today. As Americans, being obsessed with productivity and efficiency you would assume we would be more willing to give to a cause that offers us the best return on investment. We’d be most concerned with our money impacting as many lives in as many ways as possible. But an article recently released by Psychology Today states otherwise. Their research shows that Americans are actually far more likely to respond to appeals made on behalf of just one person. My …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: global youth ministry, media articles, youth ministry

Is There Anybody Out There? – A Global Youth Cry

03
Nov
2011
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

Get Youth Onboard

23
Oct
2011
110826_7d03b

Youth are ready and capable for ministry today. Example 173: coming out of SE Asia via the link below, which highlights youth from Thailand and Cambodia meeting together for a peace camp. Number is obviously fictitious (though I'm sure one could get to 173 examples, some of the first few were Jesus selecting 12 young men to be his original disciples and the apostle Paul's relationship and letter to Timothy) and the article doesn't actually speak about youth engaged in ministry, but rather a more general example of youth being responsible for real change within society. This story is an interesting addition to the conversation though, because it is an example where youth are succeeding (all be it slightly) while adults are failing. Google Thailand and Cambodia in the same search, and you'll immediately be introduced to the ongoing border disputes. The adults in power continue to quarrel, but a few select youth from each country are …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsworthy Tagged With: adolescence, Southeast Asia

Machine Gun Preacher – Movie review

15
Oct
2011
Machine Gun Preacher Movie

Saturday, my friend, Jimmy Akers & I went to see the movie:  Machine Gun Preacher (releasing nationwide November 2nd).  Being a Christian, Global Youth Worker, and someone who has a heart for orphaned youth in Africa, I have to be honest...the movie was extremely tough to watch.  It starts out with the Lord's Resistance Army slaughtering children brutally in a scene that is way too graphic and sadly, accurate.  They force a young boy to beat his mother to death with a club in order to see what he is made of. The movie tells the real life story of Sam Childers, who has dedicated the past decade of his life to rescue children from Joseph Kony’s LRA of Southern Sudan.  After the gory opening scene, the next scene you see is Sam (played by 300’s Gerard Butler) being released from prison while telling the guards to “go-f-themselves” and then he has sex with his wife in their car.  After returning home, you watch him …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Needs, Newsworthy Tagged With: media, Uganda, youth ministry

Idolatry sells

13
Sep
2011
scion_0

Idolatry comes in many forms.  The worship of nature is idolatry.  There's hero worship.  Then, there's the worship of created things.  The New Testament includes coveting in idolatry also (Matt. 6:24). Recently, a South Carolina teen brought my attention to a new TV commercial put out by Scion - a car brand backed by Toyota.   He posted on facebook, " After seeing the new Scion commercial, I know now never to buy one."  Of course this sparked my attention. The ad in question features a caricature of the false god, Zeus.  He opens with, "They call me Zeus because I'm the God of the gods.  You know what else I'm the god of?  Awesome."  The Scion vehicle is a low-end automobile - marketed specifically toward youth.  Scions are known for bright colors, loud stereos and tricked out features.  Scion bills Zeus as the "creator of the High Voltage Scion tC." Some will view this commercial and shrug it off.  Some will …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gospel, Newsworthy Tagged With: gospel, youth ministry

The Demise of Guys?!?

04
Sep
2011
Screen shot 2011-08-29 at 4.39.06 PM

There are some alarming statistics in this brief 4 minute TED.com talk. It isn't about the weakness of the economy or the decline in belief in a literal heaven and hell among youth, but rather the decline of the youth themselves. At least the male half that is. Check it out: So what's our move? How does this affect the way we do youth ministry in technologically advanced societies? All technology, like medicine, has potential side effects. Within youth ministry, like most other fields, the benefits of new technology are much easier to label. Mostly because they are immediate, while the side effects take time to surface. Sex, or rather porn, was talked about quite a bit for such a short video, and while the statistics were alarming, the church is responding. How is the church going to respond to the other major side effects - decrease in social skills and attention span, today's youth in developed countries are facing …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsworthy Tagged With: media, videos, youth ministry

Adolescence: Extend it or disregard it?

01
Sep
2011
anthony

This recent story of a teen being charged with a felony for robbing an elderly man at gun point has gotten a lot of press. Mainly from people who think the punishment does not match the crime. He did only steal 7 cents. I am not interested in that debate though (mainly because I think it is rather simple, it does not matter if he stole 7 cents or 7 million cents. He and his mate held a man up at gun point. Just because they accidently picked a seemingly poor man has no effect on the heinousness of the crime. I guess maybe I am slightly more interested than I previously thought, as this parenthetical thought is expanding quicker than the average weight of adolescents in the US. Sorry, too soon? Anyway…) The debate I am interested in is whether the defendant should have been punished as an adult or a juvenile. I think how a society answers that question has serious implications. I think how the Church answers this question has a …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsworthy, YM Advice Tagged With: church, News, youth ministry

Advertising Aside

28
Aug
2011
tch-110815-matthew-james-hmed-9a.photoblog500

Jesus walked into a synagogue and there was a man there "who had a withered hand." Religious people watched Jesus to see how He would respond. It was the Sabbath and they saw Jesus' healing the man as work. Jesus said to the man, "step forward." After some dialogue with the religious people, Jesus looked at the man, and said, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  (This story comes from Mark 3:1-5) Fast forward 2,000 or so years, to the story of a British youth, Matthew James. Recently, Matthew wrote a letter to a professional Mercedes race car team. Now, the 14-year-old is now the proud wearer of "the most advanced prosthetic limb in the world" valued at around $57,000. Today, advertising is everywhere.  Would Mercedes have helped the boy without putting their logo on the bionic hand?  Only God knows.  It is admirable what Mercedes did for the boy:  partially …
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gospel, Newsworthy Tagged With: Jesus, News

Jobs for teens not always a good thing

05
Jun
2011
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
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