In my early years of ministry I was greatly influenced by the methodology of Young Life, an international youth ministry designed to reach out to disinterested and lost teenagers. I spent 13 years on the YL staff and much of what I learned then, has shaped who I am now.

One key tenet of Young Life ministry is called contact work. It is simply going to where kids are and winning the right to be heard. Chuck Reinhold describes contact work as “Getting to know kids’ names, it is being seen, it is making friendships, it is doing activities with them, it is having deep conversations about their problems. But the purpose and passion of contact work is to draw kids to Jesus Christ.” This can only be done by being there with them.

What I used to do on the campus of a suburban high school, I now do in a Mayan village in Guatemala. My setting has changed dramatically, but my work has not.

You would think that this kind of ministry is easy because it is so simple, but it is not. It is difficult and challenging as you step into a culture that is not your own. It challenges my self confidence, my boldness and forces me to rely fully on Jesus.

15 years ago, the high school culture was a foreign mission field for me. Now my foreign mission field is the tiny village of Santiago Zamora.  My goal now, is exactly what my goal was back then. I want to represent Jesus well as I follow His lead into meaningful relationships with people.

My hope is that you resonate with this goal and that you are doing this same thing in your neighborhood, office or school. Let’s commit to pray for each other as we step out and live the words of Paul to the Church in Thessalonica:

“Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” I Thessalonians 2:8