Quick Update on...

Life here is good...the pace keeps picking up as we have 60 days before classes start and the amount of work to do before then is... yikes.

The school finally has an administrative assistant, which helps a TON. We're finishing up the first round of interviews of prospective students and are moving on to meeting with their supervisors, which is a logistical nightmare, because they are all crazy-busy. But we're determined to have them in the loop, so we appreciate your prayers for that step of the process.

I'm in the thick of trying to help the professors produce their course materials which will break out of the talk, talk talk mold. And we're trying to get logistics of project based education hammered out and communicated. But the feedback from prospective students and other leaders we've been able to contact so far has been very encouraging. I think we are all sensing that the institutes are the right thing at the right time.

One More Beautiful Year

On June 4th, 19?? Annette was born. Today many people are happier and wiser because of that auspicious occasion. I know I am! Happy birthday, Beautiful.

Wool in June

I've coined a new term: seasonal dissonance--the uncomfortable feeling caused by the lack of agreement between the season I'm experiencing and the season I associate with this month.

June was always one of my favorite times of year. The school year was over and the long, sunny, days of summer stretched out in front of me.

Today it's drizzling and in the 40's. The sun rose at 8 am and set before 6 pm. Not too bad for the end of November, but odd for the end of May.

Yesterday we listened to Vince Guaraldi's music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Perfect for the weather but Christmas isn't just around the corner. In fact C.S. Lewis might have had Argentina in mind when he wrote about a land where it was "always winter and never Christmas."

It's going to be disconcerting to wear wool in June, but I look forward to pulling out my flip-flops in November.

Stampede

In the first 3 weeks since we opened registration, 352 youth leaders have already applied to attend the youth workers institute, and we receive more each day. Classes begin in August.

After more than 2 years of working with the team that will be opening campuses in Argentina and Guatemala, it feels good to receive such a enthusiastic response from Latin American youth leaders. Classes don't begin until August and every day we receive new applications. Each campus only has space for 50 to 80 students, so as part of the selection process every potential student must be interviewed personally.

Annette and I have 100 people to interview over the next 30 days... and if the 6 people we interviewed on Thursday are representative, it will be tough to select only 1 out of every 2.5 of them.

Time Lapse

Earlier this week we returned from a trip to the US which included our twice annual meeting with our OC team, the IMT (International Ministries Team), time with family and visits with individuals and a church who give to our work here in Argentina.

The trip was chock full of great things* but the most helpful was being with so many people who see our life in terms of years, not days. Each morning I have my list of things I want to accomplish and throughout the day I am frequently frustrated by how slowly I can check them off. For example, email feel like Hydra’s head: I finish off one and three more arrive in its place.

However when we gave our ministry report to our team, who hold us accountable for our goals and objectives, I saw that a lot has happened since we saw them last. Besides the web site, which continues to go strong, and personal mentoring, the EJ Institute for youth leaders has a director, a location, professors, a web site, on-line registration and we’re deep in the process of selecting our first group of students.

And over lunch at Bonita Springs Presbyterian Church, Paul Fahenstock reminded us that a few short years ago we didn’t know what we should do after finishing our project in Mexico.

It does feel like we’ve come a long way.

Global Work... Zero Commute Time

Sometimes i stand back and marvel at this odd life where we are in constant - sometimes frantic - contact with so many people, in so many places, working on so many different projects nearly simultaneously.

A camera in our 10 ft x 10 ft office would just show the two of us sitting in silence, eyes glued on the screen, typing furiously (and me occasionally getting up to make tea, or go to the bathroom or look something up in a book).

But I'm working on an article with a text editor in Chile, a managing editor in Guatemala, an artist in Mexico and a magazine designer in Argentina while Tim talks with a Mexican about an upcoming event in Costa Rica, works with a web designer in Uruguay and a programmer in Argentina for the online registration process for the school for youth workers here in Buenos Aires and Guatemala. And those are just the major projects during part of one day. It's a good thing we don't have to pay for our internet by the minute :-)

Faty!

First we found Barfy hamburger patties. Now we've encountered Faty: edible bovine cooking fat. You can't say there's not truth in advertising here in Argentina :-)

For everything you lose, there is something you gain

Images from the Last Few Days

I Can't Imagine Doing That

Esteban asked us what it’s like to "raise support” for our salary and work-related expenses.

If you're interested how those funds were invested in 2008 click here.

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Recently I realized that I haven’t enjoyed summer since the mid ‘90’s because the temperature in the highlands of Mexico where we were for ten years changed from dry and cool to wet and colder and while Orlando had summer weather most of the time but it lacked the carefree, wear-flip-flops-while-you-can-because-winter-is-right-around-the-corner feeling.

But January in Buenos Aires is Summer. The city empties out as people flock to the beaches further south, or over in Uruguay or Brazil and those of us who stay weather the heat and humidity with shorts, sundresses and ice cream. We’ve begun to really appreciate the “good airs’ the city is named after and our youth ministry institute meetings are so much more enjoyable when they take place in the shade of a big tree and are accompanied by a cookout.