I rolled onto my side, fluffed the pillow up under my head and stared at the wall. Every part of me wanted to sleep, except my mind. It was spinning at 10,000 rpm trying to figure out how to make the most out of the youth ministry materials we are developing.
AHA
The solution popped into my mind. I crawled out of bed, groped in the dark for a pen and paper, and wrote:
That's how it started.
Since that night God has been putting together a team of Mexican Christians with a wide variety of talents who are helping make happen this first ever Spanish language youth ministry web site.
There's Veronica Domínguez, 26 year old seminary graduate, full-time youth pastor, and published author who will be writing a monthly youth ministry Q&A column.
Carlos Olivares - owner of a successful poling and market research firm - will contribute a column as well. Each month he will analyze one statistic from our massive poll, which his firm conducted, about Mexican youth's values and religious beliefs. 
Contributing writer, Jorge Bernaldez, is a dynamo of a youth leader in his mid 20's who travels all over the country motivating young people to put their faith into practice.
Then there's our wunderkinder illustrator/cartoonist, Benjamin Leon Casasola who, at just 16 years of age, shows an artistic talent that we hope to help develop into something great. 
And last, but not least, our translator and cultural assistant, Dora Luz Flores, who not only makes sure Annette and I don't embarrass ourselves in print, but helps us effectively communicate the strategic importance of ministry to the more than 50% of Mexicans who are youth. 
As a team, we will be meeting both a real and a felt need in the Mexican church. According to our survey of Mexican youth workers (a separate but complimentary study to the values poll) their #1 and #2 greatest needs for their ministry are Resources and Training. Besides the regular columns on the web site, we will also publish a monthly youth meeting curriculum and a discipleship curriculum that anyone can freely download and print off for use in their church. And slated for early spring is a discussion forum where youth ministers from all over Latin America can exchange ideas, ask questions and get answers.
As for the many who don't have Internet access, we have plans to mail a printed version of the monthly youth ministry curriculum. And believe it or not, we already have more than 400 youth ministers or churches on our mailing list who have requested the material.
Management guru, Peter Drucker, said in the October 1998 issue of Forbes magazine that progress has rarely ever happened in isolation. It is so easy as a foreigner to want to pull away and inward from the cultural stress I experience regularly in Mexico. But thank God (literally) that He has not allowed us to isolate ourselves, but rather has linked us with other talented members of His body with whom we hope to make a lot of progress in youth ministry for His sake.
