Learning in Community

This is part 2 of our special interview with 15 year Seattle YFC Veteran Minta Buse. If you haven’t checked out episode 9, listen to that first! In this episode Minta describes the difficulties of being a youth worker when the money isn’t rolling in, what it has been like to have empathy for a culture she wasn’t born into and how creativity is born out of diversity. You won’t want to miss a second of this!

To support her work and the work of her partners in South Seattle, Everett, Bellevue, and Monroe consider giving at https://seattleyfc.givingfuel.com/yfcgive.

This week Josh is back with Rachel to welcome Seattle Area YFC veteran and friend Minta Buse to the podcast. Their interview covers everything from building relationships across cultures, to working in immigrant communities, the way we value and pay youth workers, and how Minta grew up without a TV. Listen to Part 1 of their two episode interview with her right here. 

To support her work and the work of her partners in South Seattle, Everett, Bellevue, and Monroe consider giving at https://seattleyfc.givingfuel.com/yfcgive. 

Right now amidst COVID-19, young people who have experienced severe traumas are still in need of love, support, and healing. We know that at the center of every practical need in these young people is a deep desire for relationship and that doesn’t change even from a distance. Today on the Learning in Community podcast, we welcome back guest Erin Randle to wrestle with how to come alongside young people who have experienced trauma.

We’ve all heard the saying, “It takes a village,” but what does that look like practically? Today we discuss how we can ALL be connected to the mission of reaching young people everywhere with the message of hope.

When we look at the vast landscape of young people there are so many different cultures, personalities, interests, subgroups and they are all made in the image of God. A lot of these young people do not fit into the mainstream and they will never come looking for us -- they are on the margins. In the time of Jesus’ ministry they were fisherman, tax collectors, the poor, the abused, the shamed and it was His strategy to go find them. Today we discuss what it looks like to seek out young people on the margins.

Music: "Daydream" by Brian Silas Ki

**We are recording under COVID-19 restraints and apologize for the additional background noise this episode. Thank you for your continued support!

Our families, communities, churches and young people are divided in so many ways and we as believers are somehow supposed to overcome all this tension and misunderstanding to be the bridge. Honestly, that sounds impossible in our current climate. Today Josh and Rachel are joined by producer and TYFC Volunteer Care and Training Manager Danielle Bender to unpack exactly how we can build unity on our teams, within our communities, families, and interpersonal relationships.

**We are recording under COVID-19 restraints and apologize for the additional background noise this episode. Thank you for your continued support!

We are not in the business of transaction, we are in the business of relationship — and that includes relationships in our community. Listen as Josh and Rachel interview TYFC Development Officer and THE Tacoma Ministry Guy, Doug Jonson about his journey of building relationships with (basically) everyone in his city. Learn how community collaboration can transform your ministry from a program that burns you out to a movement that catalyzes your whole hood.

It can be hard to tell a young person the good news in a world that feels anything but GOOD. Today Josh & Rachel unpack how to come alongside young people as you connect scripture and the Gospel to the reality we’re all living through.

Resources:

The Very Good Gospel by Lisa Sharon Harper

We don’t love young people in a vacuum and neither did Jesus. The murder of George Floyd and movement for black lives in this season has sparked national outrage and will forever shape this generation of young people...and Jesus meets us in the middle of it all. Today we invite TYFC’s Volunteer Care & Training Manager Danielle Bender to help us unpack how we are processing our grief and practicing lament in this moment as leaders and how we’ve created space to process grief and practice lament with young people.

Resources: Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing by Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole

The coronavirus has no doubt had an impact on the ways we connect with young people, but as believers we know that Jesus left the 99 for the 1. Our first and last priority in reaching young people is relationship. Even in quarantine that doesn’t change. Listen as Josh and Rachel unpack practicing deep ministry in a digital world that’s stretching us thin.