Category Youthmark Stuff

Join Us!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

The next couple days are going to be a lot of fun. On top of putting the finishing touches on our Spring Tour,  ‘Together,” I will be speaking at the NW Ministry Conference alongside some great people!

If you are in ministry in the Northwest, I hope you’ll join this VERY AFFORDABLE conference. In fact, if you’re in Youth Ministry, you really should consider the “Speaking To Teens” additional seminar put on by Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins.

I’m excited to have Greg Stier here this year for the NW Ministry Conference as well, but most excited to have Jeramy and Jerusha Clark up here this weekend as speakers as well. Jer and I have been best buds since college and I can’t wait to have this extended time with them (they’re crashing at our place).

Here is the info for the conference, are you coming?

I’d love prayer for Friday afternoon, I’ll be training Youth Leaders for “Mission51!” Hoping they catch the vision for the 51 weeks beyond a mission trip/camp/retreat!

A little surprise feature, I’ll be on the big-screen on Friday morning as well… stay tuned!

Grace,
Brian

 

A Different Northwest

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This last weekend was an absolute blessing! Thank you NorthWest Bible Church! As I mentioned yesterday in my blog, NWBC served as the test-market for our Spring Tour. Not only was it a lot of fun, it was a huge success from my perspective. There are several little tweaks we’ll make over the next couple weeks, but for the most part the “core” is all there. On top of all this, it was great weather! Sunny and 85, truly a different NW than what I am used to in the early spring.

When it was all said and done about 40 students and leaders were exposed to this year’s “Together” tour stuff. I am VERY excited about it and think that it is the best retreat materials we’ve put together yet. It is very different than the first couple years (I aim to have the retreat look/feel different each year, while keeping things consistent enough that participants at least feel some sense of routine). My favorite “moment” of this years retreat, thus far, is going to be the Saturday afternoon short-session. I believe it will be very effective for Mission51.

One very cool element that I’m stoked about is that along with some of our own stuff we’re using Dare-2-Share’s (D2S) “G.O.S.P.E.L.” acrostic as part of our training this year. Over the last few years I’ve formed a friendship with several of the folk at D2S. Much of Youthmark’s DNA and D2S’s DNA match. At the core, we both REALLY believe that we ought to be living and sharing the greatest news with everyone! However, many Christians don’t believe they can, or are trained enough to do so. I believe the best thing we can do is help students (and adults) discover that it isn’t that hard and there are ways to easily remember the key points we should share in order to tell the compete story! The G.O.S.P.E.L. is one of those tools that I believe hits that mark (you really should check out Propaganda’s music video that captures this so well here). Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I simply asked if we could use it and share the love! They very graciously said “of course!” So thank you Greg, Debbie, Jason and all others at D2S! Students walked away having being trained in a few tools to share Jesus with their lost friends on their own campus, at their clubs, in their community and even at their own church!

I return home a blessed man to have had another weekend with my Texas friends. I can’t wait to see them on their Idaho Mission, but I’m even more pumped to hear about their mission this spring in Spring!

Grace,
Brian

Consistency? Nah!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

The last few weeks have been swamped. No doubt about it. A number of times I have wanted to sit down to blog, but not once did the inspiration or amount of time needed to blog strike. For most of the nearly three years I have blogged I have been consistent; that all went away the last couple weeks. Well, I guess I did become consistent — consistently not posting!

I finally am making the time on my way home from Houston, via Denver from our “pseudo” First Spring Retreat. We didn’t market to Texas this year, therefore we weren’t offering a retreat in the area, however, our friends at NorthWest Bible Church of Spring, TX still wanted the Youthmark training for Mission51 and their trip so they volunteered be the “test” team. It was fantastic. I will be sure to post about it sometime this week!

On top of the craziness of preparing for the Youthmark “Together” Spring Tour, I have taken on a consulting role with an organization that has taken up some time as well. In time, I’ll be posting about this as well.

Then, factor in a couple weeks ago when I had the privilege of playing “Full-Time-Single-Parent” for serveral days, the busyness stacked up. I now know how Elisabeth feels when I am away for Youthmark and/or speaking opportunities. We had some airline miles available and decided it was a good time for Elisabeth to get away and have some down time with her parents. She enjoyed about 4 days down in SoCal and especially enjoyed the rest (sleeping in!). I’m glad she had this opportunity, she’s a great Mommy and Wife, I’m thankful she got to play the role of “full-time-for-a-few-days-daughter” in Southern California.

I’ll look to get back into the groove of some regular blogging; I think I once titled a post “consistency breeds consistency,” well, I’ll try to live by that when it comes to some blogging again!

Grace,

Brian

 

Mid-Week News and Notes

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Have a few posts permeating in my mind, but don’t quite have the time to get it fully done, so today I’ll hit ya up with a few bits and pieces from the last few days…

  • WordPress, which hosts this blog was down most of yesterday, or at least mine was down; first time since I started blogging that this has happened. Props to WP; they’ve been very reliable.
  • Got up at 3:50 AM yesterday (Tuesday) was out of my house at 4:20 AM and returned at 1:20 AM this morning. Drove to Albany Oregon to “booth” at the IFCA Regional event. Good connections with some Pastors. Crazy to do that all in one day, but couldn’t leave Monday because I was speaking at Young Life Monday night and needed to be back this morning for a few commitments.
  • Absolutely STOKED about our Spring Tour Together. I have loved all of our spring retreats and the training materials, but there’s something about the content/layout and format that just has me extra jazzed this year.
  • I don’t think that I ever blogged about this, but many of you know through Facebook and such that my oldest, Halle, had a fall in February. You can read the story on Elisabeth’s blog here.  Anyway, long story-short; hit her chin on a window sill, bit through her tongue (5 stitches on top, 2 beneath) and through her lip (3 stitches) and chipped a couple teeth. Those chips (which we couldn’t find) were eventually found embedded in her lip (X-ray)… so then oral surgery was required. Today the dentist fixed her teeth.  Okay… so here’s the whopper, the bills are just starting to come in and of course insurance will cover a lot (though we need to meet our deductible first), but get this, our estimate is that we’ll get billed for over 10k… that’s an expensive fall.
  • Was honored to preach last week at my home church, Faith. Summed up the themes from Malachi 1-2 thus far, while pointing toward our application of how we can/shoul love, honor and be influencers for the Lord. Check it out here if you want to podcast it.
  • Got to see my college roommate, Darryl, yesterday in Salem on my way back up. Such a great stop! Very encouraging.
  • Still 3-4 churches making final decisions on missions this summer; please pray that they register a team with Youthmark!  We want to see as many as possible trained for Mission51!
  • My NCAA bracket… mmm. Enough said.
  • Will is potty-trained (‘not at night, but by day! Woo hoo!)
  • Anyone know how to fix a TiVo? We can’t afford the $200+ they want to charge.

Grace,
Brian

CONTEST: WAIT Baseball

Brian Aaby 11 Comments

Before I post an SMS post that combines my love of Youth Ministry and the joy of March Madness, I thought I’d buy myself a little time by doing a “What Am I Thinking” (W.A.I.T.) Contest.

Here’s what you do:

  1. study the picture
  2. think of something funny to say, a caption, title or tag line
  3. enter the contest by commenting on this post with your said caption, title or tag line.

Here’s what I’ll do.

  1. read the entries
  2. laugh at some
  3. create an “in the running” from those that I laughed at
  4. pick a winner.

The winner will receive the “just in stock” summer 2011 YMV shirt from Youthmark.

No worries if your comment doesn’t go through right away, I need to approve of yours if you haven’t submitted a comment before or in some time.

Have fun with the “baseball” edition of the W.A.I.T.!

Grace,
Brian

********* IN THE RUNNING **********

“I saw Benny Hinn do this once… come out!” ~Ben Potloff

“A train leaves Los Angeles at 5:00pm going North at 100 mph while a center fielder leaves his position at 7:05pm going south at 15 mph. What time will they meet?” ~Ray Hausler

“I saw my life flash before my eyes, so I bowed my head to pray…Jesus take the wheel!” ~Carrie Underwood Heather

“Man, I can’t catch anything: a ball, a break, or a train!” ~Mark

************** “WINNING” ****************

Congrats to Ray, loved it. There were several great ones, even some non-in-the-running that made me laugh and almost put in there. Ray, fb or email me your address and shirt size and we’ll mail you your prize!

SMS: Connecting Nationally

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

I believe it was my 7th or 8th grade year the three-point shot was added to the basketball courts for middle-school basketball! I loved shooting downtown and now the shot from 20 feet was worth an extra point. In an attempt to avoid the bunch-ball bombing that our coaches feared, our coach issued a challenge; unless you were able to hit 5 out of 10 at practice, you wouldn’t get to shoot them in a game. On top of this challenge, he gave an added bonus. Whomever made the most during this 10 shot challenge was going to have a set play run for them during the next game, freeing that person up for a three point shot!  Connecting from long-distance became my ambition!  I won the contest (7 of 10) and nailed my long-distance beauty on an out-of-bounds play the next game!

This last weekend I got to connect from long-distance once again.  I traveled to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference (SYMC) in Chicago. Because I value these long-distance learning and networking experiences so much, I offered this or one other national conference as an incentive to our “early bird” registrants for a Youthmark Mission Venture. Most of the early-birds are heading to San Diego in the fall to the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC put on by Youth Specialties) but one Youth Pastor (Nathan) decided that the SYMC and Chicago was for him.

I’ve posted in the past about networking and the value I sense in connecting on the local level through city, regional and area networks. But from time to time I think there are some major benefits to connection nationally. I decided to make this the subject of todays Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) post.

Connecting Nationally Provides a Refuge. Though the refuge of “being known” in your local network is huge, the respite of not being known has advantages as well. I had the opportunity to work with The Shelter at the SYMC. Three different times I met with Youth Leaders who just wanted to talk and be coached through specific issues by someone they didn’t know. Sometimes an outside source, completely separated from your context can provide such a valued view. In addition to providing this refuge, I had conversations with others who provided that sort of view for me. Guys like Doug Franklin (LeaderTreks) and Brian Cress (International Justice Mission) were a couple of the valued conversations that stood out to me (veteran guys who have forged the way). In addition I was able to connect with folk that I’ve known better on line than I had in person, taking friendships to a new level (guys like Brian Ford).

Connecting Nationally Gives Broader Training: The SYMC in particular gave me opportunity to learn at a greater depth from ministry leaders in the context of Forums and Workshops. I really like the NYWC and SYMC (and I’m sure others) because you can get some real broad-stroke training from people you wouldn’t normally hear from.  For instance, those who are not in a city where Dare-2-Share comes for their tour would benefit greatly from their training.  My first exposure to Doug Fields and Purspose Driven stuff came at a conference like this. At the NYWC in particular I have sat in on seminars that I specifically known that I would disagree with the presenter, it’s very helpful to know a different point of view rather than just be inundated with views from people who you always hear from.

Connecting Nationally Gives Great Exposure: The SYMC is pretty particular about their “vendors,” “speakers” and “talent;” choosing to only partner with those with whom they have relationship. Youth Specialties on the other hand has a literally hundreds of vendors and many more speakers and a broader stroke of artists/talent. I love the different approach that these conferences take. At YS I am exposed to other ministries in both the exhibit hall and the teaching times. Whereas at SYMC I got to know more about the practicing partners of Group Publishing (parent company of Simply). Orgs like Youthminstry360 and the already mentioned, LeaderTreks are a couple that I’m really impressed with.  One nice thing for me, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people upon meeting me said, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Youthmark, you guys are the ‘Mission51‘ people, right?”  How cool.  I guess we even have some exposure!

Connecting Nationally Allowed Me To Connect Nationally. Along the lines of the last point, I was able to greater network Youthmark. Besides the existing friendship I already had with many national folks at some of the previously mentioned organizations, I was able to meet leaders from many other organizations. Though some would see them as “competitors” I really feel that through the relationships built we are all on the same team. I genuinely like just about every person I meet at these conferences. One “competitor” that stood out is the parent organization of Youth Specialties (YouthWorks), I say competition in jest, YW has probably 20,000 students out on trips each summer (Youthmark is hoping for 1000); but Eric (a “high up” with YW) and I hit it off at SYMC, we spoke a number of times. As my iPhone powered up after my flight home I read on my Facebook Wall something that blessed my soul!

“Youthmark is gonna really push the youth ministry world to invest in prep and especially follow through on student short term mission experiences. Hoping they change will not suffice.”

Thanks Eric! I am praying that this is true and that Mission51 becomes a theme for all ministries, because then, the KINGDOM wins!

If you are in youth work and have not done one of these national conferences, I would suggest you try to get to one every year or two. It’s one part refuge, one part teaching, one part exposure and whole lot of connecting! I return feeling like I just hit a fadeaway three pointer at the buzzer; ready to take on the world!  Let’s do so, together!

Grace,
Brian

Consulting and More

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Chopper Dave to the rescue!

“Chopper Dave” is a faceless guy we’ve all come to trust.  Sure, his name may not be “Dave” but you know who I am talking about, the traffic voice on the radio with the thumping sounds of a helicopter in the background. It seems the position description is changing as I see more “TV-traffic-gals” showing up on the morning news giving us the high-tech traffic maps showing the highways to take and the roads to avoid during the morning or afternoon traffic rush.

Sometimes it just pays to listen to the person who has a different view than we do from the road.

I enjoy the role of “Chopper Dave” in ministry.  Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to do this for a number of churches. This is something I would love to do more! I’m able to do so at a very affordable rate where everyone feels like it is a “win.”

Who Would Benefit? My most common consulting has come in the form of Student Ministry, however, I have worked with Senior, Lead and Executive Pastors as well.  Here are the most common forms of consulting I am doing:

  • Transitional Consulting: Churches that are in transition between Youth Pastors have hired me to consult them through the transitional process including the assessment of needs, training of lay staff to carry the load and developing a philosophy of ministry.  In addition, I have developed the search process, team and the position description.
  • Ministry Remodel: Some ministries just need fresh eyes and an assessment that can lead to some new strategies.  Quite often this starts with a new philosophy of ministry.  This is most-often done with an existing pastor/director in place; but can be done with key volunteers implementing the changes as well.
  • Specialized Consulting/Training: Sometimes there are smaller aspects of a ministry that need tweaking, retooling or specialized training of staff.  Administration is often an area of weakness for Youth Ministries, I have been able to train Youth Pastors with key admin systems for communication, calendaring and training of volunteers.
  • Staff Training: Weekend retreats, one-night training seminars or a couple sessions with a volunteer team have proven to be ideal settings to bond a team, create momentum and infuse groups with practical “how to” knowledge.
  • Interim Role: I haven’t done this… yet, but I would consider a well defined interim role with a church to help establish the things needed for long-term success in a ministry area.

Perspective and Ownership!

Why? I believe that long-term ministry needs to have sustainable strategies that are rooted in Scripture and carried out by the Spirit through willing vessels.  I love working with individuals and teams to create the ownership needed to carry out long-term ministry.  Specifically in student ministry I believe that ownership in the program comes from Students, Parents and Leadership!  In essence, I eat, sleep and breath “Mission51” so in this context, it means helping a group understand that we are on mission all the time, let’s train and live in such a way that we understand our own Jerusalem is our mission!

Does your church/ministry need a fresh perspective? I’d love to talk to you.  Again, there are creative ways to make this work financially (in other words, we’re creative and affordable).

Do you know of a church in transition? Feel free to pass on my information to them and we’ll see if it could be a fit to help the church or organization the time of transition.

Don’t let distance detract, because of regularly schedule “other” stuff that Youthmark does, I am able to take on consulting roles virtually in any location; let’s chat we may be able to work it out where “travel” is not really an added expense!

Contact: info@youthmark.com

Grace,
Brian

So To Speak…

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, The United States and India of all places.

Summer 2010, Speaking with former Laker Mike Penberthy and worship led by Everfound

I know it’s not a lot, but it’s fun to reflect upon the places the Lord has given me the opportunity to speak. In addition to these countries, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to preach and teach in some pretty scenic settings; I think of the chapel viewpoint in Port Alsworth, AK. How about the scenic camp on the top of the ridge in Maui? Colorado is pretty much beautiful everywhere and I’ve done numerous camps and retreats there.

When I think back to ANY of these camps, conferences or retreats it’s never the scenery that stands out to me.

I sat here for 10-15 minutes struggling to remember the places.  But in each place I remember the faces.

The stories these faces told:

  • The boy in Oregon who by the age of 14 had been in and out of too many foster homes to remember. He trusted in Christ when he finally understood the pursuit and passion of a loving Father who doesn’t abuse.
  • I remember the look on the Mother’s face two years ago while speaking at Exposed, I said, “I think that our teens addiction to texting may end up being a worse epidemic than driving under the influence of alcohol.”  She later came to me crying telling me her husband was killed two weeks prior by a teen-texting driver.
  • The teary eyed girl on Vancouver Island who admitted to years of an eating disorder and knew Jesus wanted her to surrender all of herself.
  • The vibrant young man just this last summer who said, “I’m all in!”- I’ve followed him on FB ever since; by all indications, he’s lived all in since! He’s leading others to Christ!

  • Live and Love Loudly tour

    I remember hundreds of the faces of students with arms outstretched toward God or one another singing “How He Loves Us” at the top of their lungs just this last spring at each of the “Live and Love Loudly” spring retreats.

There are scores of other stories I could post. And I hope many, more faces to know.

Over the next few months I have several speaking opportunities I am really excited about, but I am willing and ready to take on a few more. A few weeks ago I added a “speaking page” to this blog. I’ll keep an updated list for each month; if you’d like to add your group or organization to this please do contact me (Youthmark has a toll free line: 800.455.1450, or email info@youthmark.com). Whether it’s a one-evening event, a retreat, a church service, parent gathering or Youth Rally, I’m intrigued by all of these and more!  Let’s chat!

Elisabeth speaking at women's event

In addition; any ladies group, women’s ministries, MOP’s etc. I would HIGHLY recommend you contact us to get in touch with my wife; I’m biased, but I think she’s just about the best I’ve heard; but I know the groups that she’s spoken to are not nearly as biased but many would share that same view!  Elisabeth speaks with such grace, Biblical wisdom mixed in with great story-telling and appropriate humor!

Speaking of speaking, just checked out the website of an upcoming opportunity I have this summer; I love the video near the bottom of the homepage, Summit is going to put on a great camp; check out their site here.

Grace,

Brian

 

You Know What I’m Thinking?

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Jerry Seinfeld had a great line in one of his stand-up acts, he was talking about the difference between men and women and our thought processes.  It was something like:

“Women, you want to know what men are thinking?” (sounds of applause from women).

“Nothing!” Seinfeld answers his own question, “we’re just walking around, looking around.”

Well, there are times when that is me; but lately, I’ve been thinking a lot! I’ll give you a few of those snapshot thoughts.

  • I’m thinking: We have a great family at Faith.  We’re truly blessed by our church.  Though I love the worship services, teaching and other programs, it’s not at all what I think of when I think of our church, I think of the people.
  • I am really thinking: I’ve allowed doubt and discouragement play too major of a role in my life the last couple weeks.  Spiritual attack is evident, but that does not mean the enemy can defeat me/us.  Praise God for His grace!
  • I’ve thought: I am not as disciplined as I’d like to be. My biggest “time” enemy is balancing out what needs to get done for me/Youthmark and meeting the needs/wants of others.  I am social and really enjoy relational ministry, but I can only be free to minister best when I’m done with what needs to be done.  I’d like to create better balance by being more disciplined with the number of meetings and even better, the length of time I spend in these settings.
  • Another thought: Of all the things I get to do with Youthmark, the Spring Retreat may be the thing that excites me the most. Creative thinking, time with teens and youth leaders and inspiring us all for Mission51 gets me pretty pumped. April and May are going to be awesome! (Here is a highlight video from last year if you want to see in two minutes what one of our retreats is like.)
  • I’m thinking: My wife is truly a gifted woman of God!  I really dig her. I love dating her and I really appreciate learning from her (she’s a wonderful Mommy and by her example spurs me to be a better Daddy).
  • Another something that I’ve been thinking: Spending money can be easy and not spending money can actually be fun.  Weird thing to think, but it took us not spending money for me to discover this. We’re excited about some of the cost-saving measures we’ve made and I’m actually pretty pumped about some of the time, family and financial ramifications these measures will have.  However one more thought about this; medical bills stink.
  • Something else I’ve thought: I still love Youth Ministry!  Seriously, it’s so much fun to teach college students each week.  I love some of the discussions we get into.  But I’m just as jazzed about my work with Young Life.  A couple weeks ago we had one of the most fun discussions with a group of 12-15 high school students, most of whom would admittedly say they aren’t Christians.  We gave the group the opportunity to bring up any subject they’d like to discuss.  “Creation,” “Porn,” “Relationships,” and several other questions about Christianity topped their list.  These students WANT to talk about spiritual matters and have a lot to say.  I wish Pastors and Youth Pastors had a little more time freed up to be with these wonderful wanderers!
  • I’m sitting here with this thought: I don’t think the Mariners will be very good this year. I’m hoping for .500, but honestly, I’m thinking 75 wins and 87 losses.
  • I’m also thinking about my 4Runner.  It needs work, but I can’t afford it and even worse, don’t know how (or have the confidence to do it myself); secretly I’m hoping that someone reads this blog and says, “Brian, I know how to replace brakes and do some other general maintenance things on cars, I’d be happy to do that for you.”  Like I said, I’m just secretly thinking that.

Sorry Mr. Seinfeld, this time you are wrong, I’m a man and I’m thinking a lot of stuff.

Grace,
Brian

Here, There and Social Justice

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I was on a conference call yesterday with a couple prominent leaders of two different humanitarian aid organizations. These men are solid believers who want to see not just physical needs met, but spiritual needs met as well. “Social Justice” has been a buzz word the last few years; and Humanitarian Aid organizations are a part of the buzz.  Some have even become polarizing among churches and individual Christistians because of the organizations practice of providing aid  (food, water, shelter, medical, etc.) or aid-plus (the Gospel, education, etc.).  We’ll return to this phone call in just a bit…

About a week ago I posted the first in a series of posts that touch on a similar theme.  Through these posts I am basically asking the question about how a youth leader, church or leadership team should go about choosing a mission trip. The first was entitled, “Their Needs vs. Our Wants.” It built a case that we should be more mindful of the “need” of a receiving area then just meeting the “wants” you have as a group.  The second was entitled “Us/Them.” This post essentially gave a little balance to the first by making the point that you can both meet needs presented to you and see discipleship/growth take place in the lives in your group.  I believe this is done through training and has little to do with your destination.

Today, we bring in this “Social Justice” aspect.  We’re just a blink of an eye away from another natural disaster, whether something happens today, next week or not for a few months, something will happen on this planet that will tug on our heart-strings.  It may not even be a natural disaster like an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami; it may be a Depravity Disaster you become aware of (sex-slavery, violence and crime-rings, neglect of children in the inner-city or rural setting, etc.).  Regardless, our hearts will break and we’ll feel a natural, Spirit-born desire to do something about it.  And we should!  Sometimes the call is for financial support; other times we’re called to action… called to go.

Even as I write this blog a “tweet” just appeared in my TweetDeck from a nationally known Pastor “find a need and meet it.”

Let me get back to that phone call with the two humanitarian aid organizations (both have national and international influence).  We (Youthmark) are specifically looking at a specific area of need,  an area I have been aware of for about the last six months and consistently been thinking about how we could be of help.  I discovered this need after the publishing deadline for our mission brochure, but am certainly adding it to the places we want to serve.  Listen to what was said of this destination during this phone call:

  • “It’s not uncommon to see a 12 year old girl with all of her adult teeth already rotted out.”
  • “Just last week one of the 14 year olds we work with told us she is pregnant, I wish this wasn’t just accepted as ‘normal’ here.”
  • “We have women who walk to the store with completely unkempt hair, because their moms never ran a brush through their hair, they don’t know any different.”

When I asked about possibly bringing in a group or two they said:

  • “We’d want you to work with the children and youth the most; we’d have to put up flyers weeks in advance, you’d have to go door to door, because nobody has Internet… but you’d get a ton of youth to show up, they have nothing going on.”
  • “Some of these kids have NEVER been outside of this community.”
  • “You’d be such a blessing to this community, thanks for even considering this.”

To me it almost sounds like an underdeveloped, typically labeled “Third World” country.  But it’s not.  It’s a rural suburb (if there is such a thing) outside a major US city in the sun-drenched south… very close to what others have called “The Happiest Place on Earth.”

Social Justice causes will always exist; but I’d like to see a team raised up to meet both the physical needs in this community (stuff as simple as painting, assembling park equipment, repairing hurricane damaged trailers, etc.) but then extend that aid by providing education, hope and have all of it done with the Gospel in mind!

This year’s Youthmark training is entitled Anywhere for a reason, I truly believe God is calling us to all places.  No matter where we are we’re to be a missionary showing grace and compassion and always being ready to share why!  It’s because we are recipients of that very same grace, compassion and the Gospel!

I’d love for you to spread the word about these opportunities and the others.  Ultimately we want participants trained to be missionaries ANYWHERE!  It’s all about Mission51, but let’s do the “other one” (the one week mission) really well too.  Perhaps your “other one” this year would be to Florida? That would be pretty Socially Just of you! Contact us at 800.455.1450 and find out the details.

Grace,
Brian