Our June '04 Ministry Highlights

Click here to read our cut-to-the-chase monthly update about what we've been working on this month.

A Day in the Life of Us

i got up early to write (i'm trying to get back into my daybook journaling after being sketchy about it the last few weeks) and tim is still in bed so i wanted to let you know what's happening in our lives. Last night but we ended up walking over to our friends hamburger and taco place, El Localito, and stayed for quite a while. we haven't seen our friends, who run it, for quite a while and it was nice to chat. the dad was quite cheery and jovial, which made it nicer. apparently they're talking about closing because they just arent making much money at all plus it is a lot of work. in the last few years tons of small eateries (think, holes in the wall with food) have opened up around here, many of them sell food either in the street or out of their own house, whereas our friends rent a place, pay electricity, etc so that competition is a bit unlevel.

We spent yesterday morning with one of the kids moms from church. she is the sweetest lady, a widow who supports herself selling clothing, and her son Victor is the youngest of the youth leaders at church. he's very smart and driven but treats his mom very badly - constantly correcting or criticising her. he's a choleric, she's sanguine so i'm sure there's plenty of things she does "wrong" from his point of view. she had wanted someone to "talk with him" but i think yesterday she saw that she just has to stop allowing him to treat her that way. we tried to help her see that she needs to do that not just for their relationship and for herself, but so he doesn't let himself get comfortable treating people that way.

As an example of why it's so important for parents to help their kids work on their poor "people skills", we recently heard Joel Hunter (from Northland) say that 80% of people who are fired, get sacked because they can't get along with people, not because of something related to how well or not they do the actual task of their job. very interesting.

They absolutely LOVED it

The first group of students just came back from Argentina. I picked them up at the Mexico City airport last night and they couldn't stop gushing about their time at EJE (see two articles down or click here).

On the way home from the airport they answered my questions, like:

Q: what was you favorite meal
A: argentine beef was mentioned by all, rizotto and alfajores got honorable mention

Q: What did you most enjoy about your time in Buenos Aires
A: everyone was overwhelmed with what they experienced during the EJE retreat, but more than one mentioned that it was great getting to know Argentines and experiencing all the cultural differences

(on a side note: Annette and I just received confirmation from friends in the U.S. that they will be heading to Argentina with us in late-August for some strategic meetings and succulent beef!)

Then and Now

A visual history of just how far we've digressed:


click the image to see it large enough to count our freckles.

Parentless Gringos Teaching Parenting Skills

Our local church asked us if we'd teach a parenting teens workshop (6 weeks worth!)

I'm not sure what they were thinking... consider this, we're two gringos with no kids and they want us to coach Mexican parents how to produce healthy happy teens?! I'm thinking the lead content our city's smog is having an effect on their cognitive abilities. Of course, it must be damaging our brains too because we accepted. Here are our topics (translated from Spanish):

Expectations, Goals and Dreams: the ultimate purpose of parenting
Metamorphosis - What Happened to My Sweet Little Kid?: understanding teens within the family
Time Bombs in the Home: how to avoid destructive family patterns
Chauffeur, Chef, ATM machine?: a parent's role in their teens life
The Plugged-in Generation: media and contemporary culture
Popcorn & Candy: how to have fun as a family

Last night we survived workshop #1. There were around 50 people. We had no idea how it went over - they were hard to read.

Just published our June '04 newsletter

We just published our June 2004 newsletter. Here's a blurb to whet you appetite:

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...

Click here to read the entire letter which includes a few photos + life in Mexico facts.

We've been working with youth in Mexico for 8 years. For the last 2 years, Veronica Dominguez (3rd from right) has taken over leadership of the local youth group that we helped lead. She has done a stellar job and the group has grown in maturity.

Today, she did something we never would have had the faith or guts to attempt - organize and lead a group of Mexican students on trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Last September - with the help of those who support us financially - we sponsored Veronica's participation in an event called EJE in Argentina. She was so impacted by this retreat, that she wanted her "kids" (the youth group back in Mexico) to have the same experience... but that's next to impossible since most kids in that group come from middle class families whose monthly income adds up to less than the price of the plane fare to Buenos Aires which is around $700. But she took on the challenge, came home to Mexico, motivated the kids to consider it> She and the kids begged, borrowed and stole to raise the funds (actually no stealing was involved, but they "sold" lot's of their stuff). Only 9 months after returning with her dream, Veronica is taking 18 students down to Argentina to experience EJE for themselves.

In the process she help unite parents, kids, our community's leadership as they worked to pull off this trip. Veronica, and the team of people helping her, raised or are raising nearly $4000 dollars to help kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to go (this is a HUGE amount of money in our area). But possibly even more amazing, Veronica got a solid commitment from the folks in Argentina to send 15 of their EJE-trained people to Mexico next summer to organize the event here (together with the 18 kids from Mexico who participating in EJE in Argentina this week). It will be the first time a life-changing EJE event has happened on Mexican soil. Go, Vero, Go!