What today's politics shows us

Brazil has a pretty corrupt government and in recent years the people have recognized why and posted why. The government is corrupt because the people are corrupt. The government is a reflection of the people and we are a people that has been dumbed down.

How long will it take us in the US to see why we are where we are at politically? It amazes me that in an age of so much information we can be so misinformed. There are so many great sites, videos, articles out there that can help us find growth in areas of weakness. Yet our priority is displayed when our feeds are filled with memes and murders. Our preoccupation with the news, politics and sports keeps us from books with oceans of knowledge. I can't help but wonder what would happen if we started sharing TED talks and lecture links that could contribute positively to our daily interaction. If our conversation turned to encouragement and help rather than the easy to have Debby Downer newscast we frequently find ourselves covering.

Today I listened to part 1 of 30 Biblical counseling sessions that are free on youtube. Biblicaltraining.org has free classes for new Christians all the way to Pastors. TED talks are usually really good and done by experts in their field. Then youtube can allow you to learn all kinds of different trades/abilities. Don't slump to using technology just for your entertainment, use it for your growth. And if you need to pay for information in order to take it seriously, let me know and I can get you on something.

I have seen the future!

I have seen the future and I am excited! I have not spoken too often about Servant Leaders, the mentorship in church training project that has been consuming more and more of my time. Part of the reason has been that we have not really launched anything yet. Up until the last month or so my main preoccupation with the project has been translating and gathering resources. As I have received more information about this project I have realized how big this could actually become. I have become more and more involved with the English side of it as well. 

The goal of Servant Leaders is to equip leaders within the church to fulfill their capacity for ministry. There are many resources for Pastors out there, but these resources are for all members to learn and for more qualified members to become leaders in the church. The idea is for the Pastor to mentor the leaders of his church through the Servant Leader material. In order to do this, a platform website is being custom designed by a computer software programmer for this specific purpose. This month I was able to get a sneak peak into the platform and its capabilities in its early development. 

Recently I heard from an American Pastor that there were not much resources aimed at the lay leaders in the church and I am hoping that Servant Leaders can fulfill that need. The missionaries who started Servant Leaders were in Costa Rica and Ecuador. They are now US based, but make frequent trips back and are able to mentor Pastors through the Servant Leaders program. One thing that excites me about this is being able to be involved in mentorship of leaders from all over the world from wherever I am at (pray our internet in Brazil improves). I have already contacted the missionaries in the Amazon about being involved there still as I do miss them. Then I can be involved with friends in the US as well!

We are still filling in so much information on the website and platform that it is not ready for full use, but we are starting to play around with it more. This is where you come in, if you want. The resources are divided up into different categories like courses (that we would teach through module), seminars (that take 1-2 hours and can be done on a weeknight) and other resources. I am wanting to experiment with a seminar called Constructive Conflict. I taught it in Portuguese in Brazil and am wanting to see if there is anyone that would like to go through the seminar with me online. We want to play around with the different capabilities that we have. I am guessing the time commitment would be close to one hour, two hours max and your money will be paid back if you don’t learn anything (actually it is all free to you). If you are interested, please contact me through the comments section here, or my email carrel@gmail.com or through facebook messages with your name and email address and I will send you info about the seminar Constructive Conflict and how to go through it. Thanks!