Activated Ministries’ Youth Development Program – Discover your potential!

Isaac Lopez

Activated Ministries has been inspired about starting a Youth Development Program with one of the local orphanages, Reino de los Ninos, located in Maneadero just south of Ensenada, Mexico. We have developed a program aimed to teach the young people character building principles such as motivation, making good choices, and self esteem. Each one and a half hour class is packed with power points, video clips, and fun interacting activities to help bring home the principles that are being taught in each lesson. The students are also left with assignments and homework that must be completed before the next class.

Activated Ministries started the weekly classes two months ago with five students, ages 16 – 21, all of whom are orphans. We are very pleased with the progress so far.

When we asked Erika, the Director of the orphanage, what she thought about the classes, she said, “This is a great opportunity for these young people to be able to take this course because right now they are very indecisive on what to do with their life. Not long ago, one of our young people left the orphanage, but came back shortly after because things outside did not turn out as he had hoped. They don’t know how to deal with certain situations that come up, and others drop out of school because they are bored or do not know what career to take, etc. These seminars will help to motivate and teach them how to become better people and how to deal with real life situations.”

The five young participants look forward to the weekly classes and are always excited when class day rolls around. We asked one of the students, Santiago, how he liked the classes so far, and he said, “I really liked the class ‘Optimism verses Pessimism’. I’ve never really heard that before and I didn’t realize how pessimism was affecting me in my life. What I learned in this class is going to help me to be more positive.”

Activated Ministries plans to incorporate different activities into the six month program, such as a first aid training course with the local Red Cross, dinners out where we will focus on teaching social etiquette, as well as recreational camping excursions.

In the near future, we hope to expand our program to a second orphanage north of Ensenada where the young people are facing similar challenges.