Transformation leads to transformation

This post comes from Wanda Ashworth Valencia, one of CBF’s field personnel working at Open House Ministries in Homestead, Fla.

Martin Villa during his elementary school years at Open House Ministries

I love watching the children and youth of Open House Ministries (OHM) grow up, discover their true potential and emerge as leaders.  This summer, OHM will hire two of our high school graduates to be our summer camp directors.

Martin Villa has been a part of the OHM family since his elementary years, participating in summer camp and after-school programs.

As a youth, Martin’s faith became very real to him, and he began serving as a student leader.  For the past three years, Martin has been a trusted mentor and friend to the children of OHM.

Martin Villa, now a high school senior working at Open House Ministries

Martin’s co-director this summer is Jose “Oso” Argueta.  A friend invited Oso to OHM three years ago.  Although we have only know Oso for a few years, he has proven himself to be a great role model, coach, tutor and worship leader.  Oso worships God exuberantly and encourages those around him to also connect with God.

Please pray for these young men as they begin to prepare for their leadership role this summer and begin their college careers this fall.

Perhaps your church or small group could serve with them?  We still need a mission team for the week of June 24 – June 29.

To learn more about Open House, visit their Facebook page.

Clarks assist with flood response in Philippines

As residents in the South once again clean up from heavy storms this week, we offer this report from CBF field personnel Cindy and Ryan Clark in the Philippines from their relief work in the aftermath of severe flooding in Cagayan de Oro, which is translated “City of Golden Friendship:”

Ryan and Cindy Clark with their local contact in Cagayan de Oro, Rev. Raul Ramon Roa, director of Kagay-an Evangelical Disaster Response Network, left.

We traveled Jan. 5-9 to Cagayan de Oro to provide pastoral support to volunteers and psychological first-aid training to teachers and ministers. After hearing that CBF would be funding a disaster relief project at Cagayan do Oro following December’s Typhoon Sendong, we called a meeting of Bukal Care and Counseling Center (BCCC.) Bukal had taken a small team down to Cagayan de Oro the week before to assess and train pastors in debriefing techniques. This first trip was funded by Springhill Baptist Church in Virginia.

The original plan of the trip was to debrief and do crisis response training with public school teachers and local pastors in the mornings and give pastoral support and debriefing to survivors still living in shelters around the city.

Plans changed when the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the morning we left that all religious groups offering conseling and debriefing must cease their activities.  We were told that WHO did an assessment and discovered that religious groups claiming to be doing psychological support were actually directly evangelizing traumatized persons. One specific activity of groups was showing Christian oriented films at night designed to influence a conversion experience.

Our local contact, Pastor Cleto Bacarro, went ahead and scheduled the crisis response training at Grace Christian School, a private school that became an emergency shelter the night of the storm. During the story, the school’s administration and staff jumped into action providing emergency aid to hundreds of people who were fleeing the rising flood waters.

Faith in 3D challenges students to imagine a different world

This post comes from Colleen Burroughs, vice president of Passport Inc. and CBF’s current moderator:

Students at Japan in Epcot's World Showcase during the Faith in 3D event.

As over 1,500 participants walked into Epcot’s World Showplace for the opening session of the third iteration of Faith in 3D, they found themselves wandering through glowing lights and neon colored activities designed to inspire writing, drawing, playing, building and dreaming.  The initial responses were eyes wide with wonder and jaws dropping in amazement.  Perfect – that’s what we were going for!

Then, bright and early the next morning, participants, sponsored by three distinct faith traditions (but welcoming six), were bussed in behind the Disney gates and allowed pre-access to Epcot’s World Showcase®.  Just think about that for a minute.  How do you go about promptly loading up 1,500 teenagers and adults (that’s 30 charter-sized buses) at 7 a.m. and successfully “sneaking” them all into the park two hours before the regular crowds have even gathered?  Well, let’s just say it was magic and some great logistical planning.

Karen community at Crescent Hill to receive briefing from Sen. McConnell

This post comes from Steve Clark and Annette Ellard, CBF field personnel working among Karen refugees in Louisville, Ky.

Hi Friends,

Steve Clark and Annette Ellard

We are pleased to invite you to a very exciting event this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will conduct a special briefing with refugees from Burma regarding recent developments there and his first-hand impressions of reform efforts following his visit to Burma this week.

In the past two months, many things have been happening that signal reform in Burma:  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s historic visit in December; last week’s ceasefire between the Karen National Union and the Burma government after more that 60 years of armed conflict; the release of more than 600 prisoners, including 1988 pro-democracy eaders and other political prisoners.

We believe God is doing something amazing and that a wave of change is in process.  This is an exciting moment in history for us and the people we minister among and love so dearly.

The Benefit of Peers in Youth Ministry

One of my favorite youth ministry blogs is “Rethinking Youth Ministry” by Brian Kirk. Kirk’s blog provides a number of resources and articles that help me think outside my sometimes very familiar practices of youth ministry. To “rethink” our ideas and practices is not simply to change what we do and how we do it but to give thoughtful consideration to the question “Why do we do the things we do?”

While I find blogs and articles about youth ministry helpful to the rethinking process, they’re also somewhat limited in their ability to help me contextualize the ideas and practices they promote. That’s why I find opportunities for professional development and peer interaction to be of tremendous benefit to rethinking and thereby improving my ministry with teens.

I want to invite you to join me and other youth ministry peers at the upcoming ChurchWorks conference in Norfolk, VA. You’ll hear from Ken Medema and Brian McLaren in addition to some focused time with the CBF Youth Ministry Network.

Cory Goode is an associate pastor with student emphasis at University Heights Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri.