Something
interesting happened today. I just got off the phone with
Daniel Valencia, a guy who's been a moving force in youth
work in Mexico City. He own the rights to series of books
about "Mentoring" 
that
are out of print and we were hoping to convince him to allow
us to share those resources via our web site like other authors
have done with their no-longer-distributed materials. During
our phone conversation I mentioned that Annette and a team
of colleagues have been working for the last 1½ years
on a foundational youth ministry curriculum which includes
a 450 page text book plus 20 interactive, animated classes.
That information got him very excited - I think I heard a
muffled "ayayay".
He told me that he was spearheading a youth workers
track at a leadership school in the city and asked, "Is
there any chance we could meet tomorrow?" I jumped
at the chance, "Yes!"
Ten
minutes later, I chatted online with a Bolivian leader, River
Claure, who asked me about the curriculum Annette is developing.
He's teaching youth ministry at a Bolivian college
using, in part, the textbook Annette is working on. He was
asking when the animated, interactive classes -- which
are based on that book -- would be done.
These
conversations plus 2 others with seminary professors over
the last few weeks lead us to think something good is happening
in youth ministry in Latin America. And the fun thing is…
we get to be a part of it!
J
u s t t h e F a c t s
13
of 20 - # of interactive classes we've developed
for the youth work course
79,236
- youth leaders who used our web site this month (ParaLideres.org)
15
- # of kids from our local church who are going to Argentina
for training
15
- days Annette and I were sick with some nasty cold/flu thing
last month
5
- average # of pots of tea we drank each day during the sickness
7
- # of times we unsuccessfully attempted backing up a VERY steep,
narrow street which we accidentally went down (it dead ended)
If
you'd like to read more about the steep
street we got stuck on, the one apparently made only
for donkeys and dogs, click
here to read the story with photos.
On
another note, I included the cost of a nice restaurant as
well as the auto repair to give you an idea of the sometimes
incongruous prices in Mexico. |
25
- # of minutes before we got back up the steep street (we finally
had to wake some guy up, ask him if we could use his dirt driveway
to turn around, move his jeep, do a 33-point turn and drive
forward, wheels smoking, up the cement "street".)
85
- dollars it cost us when we let our friends choose the restaurant
2 weeks ago
3
- # of hours we spent at the restaurant eating
45
- dollars it cost to repair a broken leaf spring on our
truck [including labor]
1.5
- hours it took a mechanic to repair it [he made a replacement
spring from scratch]
Glad
Not To Be In This Alone!
Tim & Annette
