January 2011

Yesterday was our first day back at work. It’s been a nice 4 weeks of holiday for our team!

ASTEP is now nicely settled back in their homes in the USA. We sorely miss them but have great memories of a wonderful holiday program through December. It was a month full of laughs, fun, and over flowing creativity. The ASTEP participants wrote songs and poems, created dramas and dances, and performed their little hearts out. What a great time we had.

This first week back will be filled with meetings, debriefing, and such to decide how the year will run. We have a feeling that it may be different than we anticipate, but we also know that God is in control.

Our main focus this year will be on Saturday Live youth program. It will operate as normal, but will have a greater focus and intention. We will continue to run skills classes, worship, and present spiritual teachings to the youth.

Out of this, we will pour into the youth that are shining potential leaders. This is our junior leadership team that meets once a week for leadership training and spiritual development. It is our goal that they rise above their generation and become influencers to those around them.

The Youth House will continue to operate as a leadership and training house for the four current residents. In the month of February, official leadership courses as well as skills classes will commence on a weekly basis for these guys. Some of the skills classes will include basic training of Word, powerpoint, publisher, how to maintain a budget, how to run a blog, and other basic computer skills.

YMS looks forward to the new year and how we will continue to grow as a program.

Blessings,

The YMS team