321LAUNCH.ca myLAUNCHtools.com

Issue 4-13 | Winter 2011

what’s insideNEW LAUNCHee STORIES

ANNUAL LAUNCHee RETREAT

A TALE OF THREE KINGSNEW FACES ON THE LAUNCH TEAM

unveilingmyLAUNCHtools.com

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- rachel ’s min ist ry -Every day when I wake up I sense the Lord is showing me more of His vision for ministry in Canada, to bring people to Christ in such a fresh and powerful way, and for the outside world to see Christianity not as a religion but as the only way to have a truly successful and fulfilled life. I would like to begin with developing interactive seminars which could hopefully lead into developing a fellowship centre.

Coach: Barb

- joe l ’s sports outreach -The “High-School March Break 11” event is a sports ministry, reaching out to troubled, church-going youth. This ministry will reach out to youth, some of them are lost and underprivileged, and this is an opportunity to get them involved with something that they enjoy and at the

same time receive the message of Christ and listen to testimonies of others whose lives have changed because of what God has done.

Coach: Randall

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My idea is to organize outdoor trips to Christian camps and cottages in the Muskokas for children and youth living in low income housing neighbourhoods. I believe that God will use these times of new experiences in His creation to draw His precious children to the One who created them.

Coach: Melissa

- emma’s camp tr ips -

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Is there something you want to do to help people in your community (school, church, neighbourhood, or beyond)? Do you have a God-given idea stirring in your mind and heart that you are ready to put into action?

Apply to LAUNCH, get coached, and turn that Kingdom dream into reality!

e: william@youthunlimitedgta.comw: 321LAUNCH.ca/launchees_apply.php

- could this be you? -

?

An evangelistic movement online to lead gamers to consider the claims of Christ. The idea is to create a multiplying community of Gamers who take Jesus seriously themselves and are willing to point others to Christ. I think the gaming world is a very dark and spiritually empty place where people go to escape reality, and are desperately in need of Christ who can truly set them free.

Coach: Jamie

- suraj’s gaming outreach -

MEET THE NEW FACES

AT LAUNCHMELISSA BURKELAUNCHee ManagerI am so excited to be a part of LAUNCH! The thing that most excites me is LAUNCHee - Coach pairings. When I was a young girl I had the opportunity to be mentored by some amazing women, and it is my pleasure to be a part of making that happen for other young women. Those relationships helped shaped me and led me to all kinds of exciting paths in my life. I am a recent M.Div graduate from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto and have spent many summers serving in various capacities at Ontario

Pioneer Camp and loved it! I am thrilled to be a member of the LAUNCH staff team and will be serving in the role of LAUNCHee Manager.

Besides my work with LAUNCH, I am married and enjoying life in Toronto. I am an avid garage-saler and burgeoning banjo player.

SURAJ REDDYLAUNCH Software Developer

I’m in charge of the programming of myLAUNCHTools.com. It all started as a summer job in 2009 - I loved the role, and so stayed on. :) In the upcoming year, I’m hoping to help develop several fun and interactive tools that will help young leaders grow as leaders in God’s kingdom. Living out kingdom dreams excites me the most - I’m all about the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20, telling the whole world about Jesus), and I love the idea of young leaders contributing to it through God-given, innovative and creative ideas.

A fun personal fact about me is that I have lived on 4 continents. I grew up in South India. Around grade 7, my parents moved to Eritrea (in Africa) and lived there for a year. Eventually, my family moved to Canada. My mom got a job in England so I followed her there, but then moved back to Canada and have lived here ever since!

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MONICA KAYLAUNCH Ministry Coordinator

I am enjoying my role with LAUNCH, as I love to see God move in and through both the youth who apply and the adults who coach them. LAUNCH is expanding! I am excited to serve the staff and youth as I utilize my leadership training and experience, assisting Carl (LAUNCH Director) with future visioning, strategic planning and the cultivating of new ministry partnerships.

On a more personal note, I am married to Greg Kay, the Worship and Community Outreach Pastor at Spring Garden Church. As far as other passions, I love Ultimate Frisbee, music and art, my friends, and my 3 year old daughter, Chloe. Greg and I are expecting our next child in December.

Congratulations to William and his wife Cristina on their new baby boy, born on October 21, 2010. Logan joins his big sister Abigail in bringing excitement to their new home in Burlington. Please continue to pray for the entire Raposo family and celebrate with them in this new season.

LOGAN RAPOSO

We’re excited for Diana Skinner (Coach Manager) to return from maternity leave in February 2011. Welcome back!

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Since 2007, LAUNCH has participated in the annual Change Conference (organized by our friends at the Canadian Youth Network). This year, we were pleased to target this October event for the release of myLAUNCHtools - an online creative place for young Christian leaders to discover and stretch their leadership.

The site (designed for group and/or individual use) is built upon an engine that allows young leaders to take some unique assessment tests in order to better understand themselves. Our Leadership Test was unveiled at the Change Conference, with unique Spiritual Gift and Teamwork Assessments coming in November and December respectively. What makes the site so valuable is that it...

a. facilitates young leaders receiving complete "360 degree" feedback from key people in their lives to help them discover their blind spots,

b. provides individual analysis to help piece everything together and,

c. encourages the development of an online personal growth plan with built-in accountability and progress reports.

Our release at the Change Conference was so much fun for us since our entire team was involved throughout the day. We were able to connect with youth workers and student leaders at our LAUNCH booth, share about our program and myLAUNCHtools from the platform, facilitate two small discussion groups and offer free online access to try our new tools during our afternoon workshop in our make-shift computer lab!

We are eager to see how God will use these new resources to further develop young Christian leaders. Please help spread the word to youth workers, camps, teachers and students. Don't forget to check it out yourself at www.myLAUNCHtools.com.

“As a youth pastor, I am constantly looking for new and effective ways to foster spiritual growth in the students... after hearing about myLAUNCHtools, I was immediately excited to put them to use.”

- Ben, youth pastor

UNVEILING the TOOLSmyLAUNCHtools.com @ Change Conference 2010

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a tale of 3 kings// gene edwards

Book review by Monica Kay

Whether young, old or in between, most of us have been faced with

the challenges of being a good leader, a good follower or both.

Each trial carries with it the potential for God to shape and refine us; the more difficult the

challenge the more significant the refining may be.

Recently, as Carl headed off to a young leaders retreat, he passed me a small book to read. He was about to hand a copy to each of the young adults who would be

present on this equipping weekend. Carl shared how the book had caused such a paradigm and

perspective shift for him that he had read it on a yearly basis for

close to a decade. Now I was intrigued. What exactly was written

in this “Tale of Three Kings”?

The story unfolds as a play where the protagonists are the biblical

figures of Saul, David and Absalom. It addresses an oddly timeless

question: “What do you do when someone throws a spear at you?”

Each of the figures represents themselves, but also those in our modern day situations as leaders

and followers, ourselves included. We meet Saul as a king who was appointed by God but has gone “mad” with jealousy, control and

fear. Under Saul’s frightening leadership, we see David as his

faithful servant - crushed, humbled and further shaped into a man after

God’s own heart. Later we watch David again as a wise, old, meek

king with a rebellious and ambitious son, Absalom. Have you ever

worked with a leader like Saul or David? Or led someone like

Absalom? Has anyone ever thrown a spear at you?...

Read the full review on our blog at321LAUNCH.wordpress.com.

Annual LAUNCHee Retreat

This fall was our second annual retreat of LAUNCHees, both current and alumni. The focus this year was to challenge our young leaders to lead with an awareness of who they are. Read William’s full report of the day and view more photos on our blog at 321LAUNCH.wordpress.com.

Collect AirMiles for LAUNCH!

Supplimentary AirMiles cards are available for those who would like to collect points on our behalf to help cover LAUNCH expenses such as travel, training and equipment. If you would like to receive a card to help us raise points, contact us at LAUNCH@youthunlimitedgta.com.

Upcoming Events

November 22, 2010:LAUNCH Tools Workshop

December 2-5, 2010:Canadian Youth Workers Conference (cywc.ca)

January 7, 2011: Youth Unlimited’s DOXA Gathering

February 26, 2011: Todays Teens Conference (todaysteens.ca)

Find more events on our website at 321LAUNCH.ca

LAUNCH is a program of Youth Unlimited (Toronto Youth For Christ)50 Gervais Drive, Suite 302 Toronto ON M3C 1Z3t. 416-383-1229 x238 e. LAUNCH@youthunlimitedgta.comw. 321LAUNCH.ca w. myLAUNCHtools.com

LAUNCH WILL DEEPLY INFLUENCE THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG, INNOVATIVE CHRISTIAN LEADERS, ADDRESS THE SYSTEMIC BARRIERS THAT HINDER THEIR GROWTH AND RELEASE THEM FOR LONG-TERM KINGDOM LEADERSHIP

f rom the d i rectorf rom the directorfrom the directorf rom the d i rectorf rom the directorf rom the d i rectorCARL NASH

Years ago I remember coming across a great story about a young girl named Jenny. When she was five years old, Jenny saved her money for several weeks to buy a pretty string of pink pearls from the dollar store. From that day forward, she wore them all the time, even when she slept. As the tale goes, Jenny’s dad would tuck her into bed and occasionally ask her to give him the pearls before he kissed her goodnight. At first Jenny strongly refused, but after several weeks, the evening finally came when she tearfully took off

the plastic necklace and reluctantly offered them to her father. As he accepted her gift, he smiled and slowly reached into his pocket to offer Jenny a red velvet box, which held a long, beautiful strand of genuine white pearls.

I felt a little like Jenny this summer.

Over the past year I had prepared a strategic plan, which would allow LAUNCH to work with several university students (on government grants) and further develop our online leadership resources. I had it all worked out. In April, when we received the exciting news that we would be able to hire five summer students, I was more confident than ever that we could take our previous materials (which had been over two years in the making) and make significant enhancements.

Within a few short weeks, my carefully designed plan had all crumbled. Some of the students approached me, along with my friend who was helping give leadership to the project, and told me that the most efficient strategy would be to set aside all the original resources and start from scratch using a brand new programming language. That was not an easy week for me! Every part of me wanted to take the safe route and cling to our original tool. I was comfortable with it. So much work and energy had gone into producing it. It was my pretty string of pink pearls and I did NOT want to give it up! Eventually I realized that these students had far more relevant expertise than I did, so I reluctantly gave permission for the summer project to start from square one. It was quite a ride.

As you have already discovered in this LAUNCH Pad issue, their decision was a good one. I am pleased to encourage you to check out our ‘genuine new pearls’ at www.myLAUNCHtools.com.

What a great leadership lesson. It makes me wonder about other areas in which I need to let go of something comfortable in order to take the next step or accelerate growth.

Thanks to so many of you who continue to support LAUNCH and believe in our mission to invest in young Christian leaders. Together, through God’s power, we can keep making a difference.