It was
a surprising but not unpleasant question coming from the pair
of youth 
leaders
standingin front of us. They weren't however asking me, but rather
our friend and colleague, Veronica Dominguez. Naturally timid,
she blushed, but as she scribbled her name on the piece of paper
they held out, her face glowed with barely concealed glee.
During our
time in Argentina, this happened more than once. Apparently the
nearly 1000 pages of Bible studies and youth ministry articles
she's published via our web site have had a significant impact
in the lives and ministries of youth leaders. And since we were
participating in the largest youth leaders conference in Latin
America - 2000 leaders - she was a "star".
Annette
and I were so proud - like parents whose child was given an achievement
award in front of all the other parents and kids at school. Veronica
considers us her mentors and we consider her our legacy, besides
being a valued friend. She is a reliable person to whom we have
entrusted what we've learned and she is faithfully teaching it
to others. During the last 6 years we've seen her mature both
as a person and in her work with teens and young adults. She's
the expert now; we stand in her shadow…and are happy to be
there.
Numbers about our life lately:
- 450
- miles that Annette has run so far this year
- 3
- rooms in our house we had painted recently
- 30
- dollars per room that it cost to paint them
- 2
- seminaries in Mexico which are now using our training curriculum
as the basis for their youth worker courses (to the best of
our knowledge, these are the first schools in the country to
offer courses on youth ministry)
- 2000+
- nuts that have fallen off the walnut tree in our backyard
- 3
- dogs stolen from us since we've been in Mexico
- 1
- dogs we've adopted from the street in the last months
- 3029
- miles we drove during the 3 Raices conferences last
summer
- 7
- tacos that Tim ate the other night at a friend's taco
place