What Do I Do?

For those of you who may be wondering, "What exactly does the Program Coordinator for Avance do?", I hope that this post will begin to answer that question.

-- Coaching/mentoring/discipleship/counseling.  This is probably my favorite aspect of my job.  I love pouring into the lives of the young women on the team, and helping them to grow in their personal walks with the Lord, as well as their maturity in ministry.  Some are on the field for a mere two months, and others up to two years, but, regardless of the time that they spend, I am always delighted to see the work that the Lord does in and through their lives during this time ... and it is such a privilege to be a part of that work!  Not only do I get to challenge them during their time on the mission field, but I also try to help them discern where the Lord is leading them as a next step after they leave the Avance program.  

-- Cultural Liaison with host families, churches, and ministries.  Our ministry is very personalized, in that each participant is placed with a local Mexican host family, participates in their church, and usually also serves with another Mexican-led ministry, as well.  While we believe that this is a very effective learning and ministry model, it also means a lot of work for those of us who make the connections with the families, churches and ministries!  We do a lot of communicating back and forth with our host contacts up front to set up the placements, and then also once our participants have been placed, we continue to follow up with our contacts to make sure that the relationships are going smoothly.   

-- Educational talks and practicums related to culture and ministry.  We believe that a large part of effective ministry on the field is due to ongoing training, both in terms of ministry and also an understanding of the cultural context in which one is serving.  Sometimes our ministry can be unknowingly undermined by attitudes and behaviors that we bring from our home cultures, but are not acceptable in our host culture.  Part of our job as leadership in Avance is to help to minimize any obstacles that might arise to hinder the message of the Gospel!

-- Mexican ministry involvement:  Since the majority of my workload through Avance is helping our participants to be effective in their service with Mexican ministries, I have been focusing largely on the aspects of the Avance program for the past year.  My own involvement in direct ministry among Mexicans has often been simply my participation with our partner ministries at events that they have. I have also been singing in a local worship choir comprised of young adults from many different churches.  Finally, I have begun to get more involved in my church, in attending studies and building deeper friendships.  Please pray for me that God would give me wisdom in balancing my ministry commitments and also that He would lead me to other ways that I can serve in local ministry here.

This is not an exhaustive list, and there is so much more that could be said, even under each of these headings!  Please, as you have other questions, send them my way, and I will be happy to answer them!