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BUT, please have your whole family join us for our Thanksgiving Eve Services. 7pm at all Shelter Rock Church campuses.

Today Natalia, Ren, and Ana led us in devotions, then we enjoyed a wonderful and much-deserved day off. We went to the market for a little shopping, then we went on a glass-bottom boat and did some snorkeling over a reef. We saw lots of beautiful fish and other sea life. We had lunch and enjoyed swimming, snorkeling, and lounging at the beach. This evening we had our closing service with some amazing worship. Tyler went out into the hallway and invited kids from the other church group staying in the hotel to join us, and several did. I then shared on how we can continue living out our faith when we get home. After small group time we gathered together and shared things we saw in one another this week, then took time to share memories about our graduates. 

Today was our last day at our three ministry sites. We started off the day singing Happy Birthday to Brad Spicher then were led in devos by Josiah and Mike Fenimore. We finished painting the fence at Blossom Garden, visited our new amazing feiends at Westhaven, finished building a cabinet, installed a door, and mixed and poured four more columns of concrete at the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf. We’ve done a lot of physical labor this week, but more importantly, we’ve loved on many people – those society would consider outcasts; “the least of these” as Jesus would say, and in them we have seen the face of Jesus more clearly than ever before. It has been an honor to be in their presence! This evening Rebekah, Tim, and Ady shared their devos then we had pur small groups.

Today we returned to our three ministry sites – Blossom Garden Childcare, Westhaven home for the developmentally disabled, and the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf. The BG crew did some painting and then interacted with the children. The other team went to Westhaven first where we had an amazing time playing music and dancing, doing crafts, and serving snacks to the residents. You likely cannot comprehend the joy and stimulation this brings them! After our farewells we left and went to JCSD where we continued working around the campus and on the construction of their life skills center.

One incredible highlight to share … There is a wheelchair-bound girl named Kerri Ann at Westhaven who just exudes Jesus! Mission Discovery knows her well from their years of visits. She told us she wanted a Bible, and yesterday Hannah told her she would give her her Bible! Today she delivered it and you should have seen the smile on her face. She has also been asking to be baptized for quite some time. Unfortunately her church would not baptize her because of their insistence that it must be by immersion, which is impossible for this young lady. Jen and Scott approached the director and asked if we might be able to baptize her today, and he agreed! We asked her if she wanted to be baptized today, and she lit up. When we gave her the news that she could, she had no words and simply covered her mouth and cried tears of joy. Nathan from MD drove up, and we all gathered under the shade of a tree where she professed her love for Jesus, and Jen, Nathan, and I had the tremendous joy of pouring a bottle of water over her head to baptize her. It was one of the most sacred things I have ever witnessed or been a part of! I will post the video when we have a stronger internet connection. Another group has arrived at our lodging, and they all have cell phones (Quite interestingly, our students have commented on how much they are missing out on by having their phones!) and it went from turtle to sloth.

This morning we were led in devotions by Kat and Brad. Wow! They both gave us some powerful things to think about today. We then headed out in two teams. One team returned to Blossom Garden and painted the three murals we sketched out yesterday. They turned out awesome! Some talented artists on our team! The other group spent the morning at Westhaven a home for people who are deveopmentally disabled, singing, playing games, feeding them, and more. This afternoon they returned to the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf and continued their work projects. It was another awesome day! This evening Donna led us in worship and Ben, Tom and Claudia shared their devotionals with us. 

Years ago I watched a video seminar on time management. Apparently, not much stuck, but there is one thing I have never forgotten. In speaking about dealing with clutter (be it on a desk, a pile of mail, or e-mails) author Brian Tracy used an acronym to help in deciding what to do with it. Remember T.R.A.F.

• Toss
• Refer
• Act
• File

Of course, if you are a youth worker like me, sooner or later you (or, more likely, one of your Jr. High students who see it posted above your desk) will have the revelation that this acronym might be more easily memorized by remembering F.A.R.T. Either way, may this little nugget help you de-clutter, delegate, and empower you to put your energy into what needs your attention.

“Please stop referring to the kids in our youth groups as ‘students,’ author Jeff White requested in a personal comment in his excellent little book The Skinny on Communication. His premise for this preference is that, “The word student is an academic term that implies a primary role or learning and studying.” He expounds, “Will teens learn stuff? Of course. Is that the main reason they’re a part of your group? I sure hope not.” I think that’s a great insight and one that caught my attention and caused me to reflect.

Interestingly, I have chosen to call youth “students” for the past 15 years intentionally rather than “kids” as White refers to them as, for a similar reason. “Kids” is the term that we use in our church to refer to our ministry to babies through elementary school. Calling teenagers “kids” can also carry connotations we don’t really want to communicate. Kids [doesn’t have to, but] can imply that they are immature and/or potentially incapable of dealing with the things that we want to challenge them with as they are in the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. The reason I chose to go with the term “students” many years ago was not because I wanted to communicate that when we come together we will simply be engaging in academic exercises, but rather because it is a term that captures the phase of life the youth I am working with are in. (For example, on a form it will ask for occupation, and there is usually an option for “Student.”)

Youth. Teenagers. Students. Young People. Kids. These are several terms we use to refer to the people we work with in youth ministry. At the end of the day, this might be just an exercise in semantics, but each word can communicate something slightly different. Of course, I have found that I vacillate between terms myself. While most of the time I call them “students”, I certainly find myself at times calling them “my kids,” or “the young people I work with,” or the other terms afore mentioned.

Youth Workers: Have you ever thought about the terms you use to refer to the youth you work with? What term do you use most frequently? Why do you prefer that term? I would love your input. 

Youth: What term do you hear most frequently from your youth workers? What term do you prefer to be called? Why? I would love your input. 

We are so proud of our beautiful daughter Claudia who is going to be competing for Miss Teen New York in January! If you would like to help her reach her sponsorship goal, you can donate here. Claudia’s e-mail for the form is claudiamahaffy98@yahoo.com. Whether you can support her financially or not, please send her a word of encouragement, and pray that this will be a great experience for her. Thank you!

When people who have made it out of poverty have been asked what helped them get out of poverty, education was almost unanimously named as one of the elements. This morning we visited two public schools to see how Forward Edge is partnering with them to improve education and opportunities for children to received an education. After our visits we had a team lunch at a restaurant which has been started with a vision to provide skills training and job opportunities for people in order to improve the community. We then took a little excursion to visit Masaya Volcano, which is an active volcano. It was really neat! When we got back to Villa Esperanza we toured the Life Skills Center, which is currently under construction. Here they build as the funds come in, so they are moving by faith. About $65,000 has come in, and they are believing God for the additional $120,000 needed to complete the project, which will allow the girls to learn skills that will enable them to earn a living and break the generational cycles of material poverty which lead to so many of the problems that plague communities. I just want to give a shoutout to my very own daughter Claudia who saved up and gave $200 to this project last week! I am so proud of her! We then heard more about specific ways to engage and partner in the initiatives being undertaken by Forward Edge.