Youth Seek To Change Society

Did you know that thousands more Latin Americans are entering the United States daily now than before 9/11, despite the reputed border tightening?

The reason is sheer necessity, and statistics tell part of the story. For example, 20 percent of the Guatemalan population is between 15 and 24 years of age, and 31 percent of them are functionally illiterate.

They have little prospects for jobs or for freedom from endemic violence and instability. The situation is somewhat similar in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and many other poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

Verbo Promotes Social Change

Not only that, in most of these nations at least half the population is under 22. With their poor education and the minimal job prospects in depressed agricultural economies, picking fruits or vegetables or working as construction peons in the USA is better than barely surviving at home.

The solution to the illegal immigration problem isn’t tighter restrictions and expensive, repressive policing, but helping promote a climate that makes people want to stay in their countries of origin.

Since 1976 Verbo Ministries has been providing spiritual and material changes through the application of biblical principles that address and transform poverty, political instability and social inequities.

Today, our ministers and social workers are training new generations to walk in Christian spiritual integrity at the same time as they become a relevant force in their communities and nations.

We discovered that the traditional message that teaches that all Christians have to do is evangelize people and teach them to be separate from the “world” unfortunately is not going to change societies.

Teens Join the Work

Jesus told us that although we are no longer of this world system, we are in it as salt and light. Our task is to do his will as he taught us, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

With that understanding we are forming both small youth discipleship groups and larger councils comprised of young leaders from Verbo congregations in various countries. In the former groups teens and young adults learn to apply the real ties of the Kingdom of God to their personal lives, and in the latter they apply their faith to transforming society
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In Guatemala we started a state-recognized university to equip new generations of young professionals in godly business and professional skills and principles.

Our young people are now dialoging about expanding their Christian influence in Latin American society. At recent Verbo conferences in the United States and Guatemala, respectively, hundreds of young men and women strengthened their spiritual understanding or studied how to address the tremendous influence Postmodernism is generating in Latin America through movies and television programs like MTV.

Leaders Seek Relevancy

They realized that today’s youth is no longer attracted by old fashioned methods and themes that aren’t relevant to lives filled with decisions on early sex, AIDS, abortion, drugs, gangs, alternative life styles, freedom from parental control and the pressures of consumerism.

They saw that a true and deep relationship with God is the starting point of the effort that will bring change to their societies

At the Verbo North American conference over 230 young Hispanics from California to Florida to Canada met in Louisiana for an “Encounter with God.”

One of the participants, Paula Rodriguez, reported that the supernatural dimension showed up more than they expected. The youth were healed in their inner man through many sessions with titles like “Forgiveness,” “Paternity,” “Healing of the Soul,” “The Cross,” and “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which proved to be the most supernatural event in many of their lives

Encounter Changes Lives

Another attendee, Estuardo Turcios said, “In the conference we realized we are ready to do the will of God. Moses’ life changed when he had an encounter with God. In the same way, many of us who were at the conference are now ready to let God shine through our lives.”

In contrast to the USA event, which was geared to a broad base of adolescents and young adults, the Guatemala event was designed to provide understanding for youthful leaders confronting Postmodernism.

The delegates learned that when Christians abandon their responsibilities to be light in this world and to do good works that will lead others to glorify their Father in heaven, then ungodly secular philosophies and values invade mainstream society.

They saw that the meaning of words change in the hands of postmodernists: “Tolerance,” for example, means “acceptance of various types of unbiblical behavior from abortion to homosexual marriage,” while “bigot” refers to Christians and other people who espouse the nation’s founding moral values instead of the relativism of personal choice over God’s Word.

They challenged each other to be relevant forces for godly values in every area as the pathway for their Latin American homelands to achieve the full potential of the natural and human resources God has given them.