Category: Spiritual Development

YMCA Sends Missions Team to Mexico for 5th Service Trip

Posted on by Katie Anderson

Pictured from right to left, in front row: “in selfie” Bruce Osborn (Director of Spiritual Development), then Dave Wasserman, Brandon Davis (EV Short Term Missions Director), Azumi (EV Teen), Savannah Wasserman, Stacie Gorecki. Back row: Jasmine Martinez, Jaime Wasserman, Kim Osborn, Eden Wasserman, Kim Holt.

In February 2023, the Glacial Community YMCA sent a team of nine people to Puebla, Mexico, as part of a mission trip partnering with the orphanage, Esperanza Viva. This was the YMCA’s fifth team to go and serve in this capacity, an outreach and service trip that first began in 2018.

Esperanza Viva, a ministry of Living Hope International, is an orphanage/youth home in Puebla, Mexico that currently provides shelter, family, healing, and hope to approximately 100 children living there.

The Y team’s week consisted of morning service projects around the campus, meals, crafts and recreation with the children, cultural activities as a team, learning more about the ministry of Living Hope International, and relationship building with both children and staff. Trips usually last 8-10 days and include some sightseeing time as well.

In 2020, the YMCA commissioned then-employee, Karlee Webb, as a full-time missionary from their staff to go and serve in the ministry of Living Hope, residing in Puebla at Esperanza Viva. The YMCA at Pabst Farms is proud to be among a select few YMCAs that have commissioned, sent, and helped support a missionary to serve full-time in this modern era.

“The Y has continued to send teams to serve, love, and build relationships within the ministry of Living Hope and Esperanza Viva, because these experiences are life-changing. The children love interacting with teams, and our volunteers are deeply impacted by that love as they serve and care,” said Bruce Osborn, Director of Spiritual Development for the YMCA.

The YMCA offers missionary opportunities multiple times a year, to both members and community participants, as well as their staff members, with trips seen as unique opportunities in leadership development.

The YMCA also partners with the Y-USA and other YMCAs around the country to help support the mission of the Y in Valparaiso, Chile. Past trips to Chile have included service projects, community outreach, teaching seminars, program development and support of their George Williams School.

Osborn adds, “The days are long for our team members during the week, but the work is rewarding. It is a recipe for a radical shift in the priorities of life, and one that I wish everyone could experience.” To learn more about the YMCA’s mission and service work, please visit https://www.glcymca.org/mission-trips-service/.

Blameless

Posted on by Katie Anderson

Written by Bruce Osborn, Director of Spiritual Development

A Spiritual Reflection

A high-profile court drama, played out on most all major news outlets, ended yesterday. The verdict was given and a man was pronounced guilty of the murder of two of his family members. I wasn’t there to hear either side of the case. So, all I have to go on is what was reported. And the end result of the cases presented was a man pronounced guilty.

It brought back memories from a few years ago when I served on a jury.

Guilty was also the verdict handed down from that jury, a jury in which I was a member.  The case?  A difficult story of a young man, who seemed to have started with all the finest of intentions, but ended up guilty of a crime he never imagined he was capable of committing.  And because of poor decisions, his life was forever altered.  Tears shed, a family left in disbelief, and broken pieces of a life lay scattered along a path of deception and constant surrender to the wrong influences. 

That’s usually how it happens.  One decision, seemingly insignificant, leads to another, and before we know it, we find ourselves in a place we never thought possible.  Looking back, it’s easy to see the crossroads, the danger signs placed in plain view, warning us to stay straight.  But many times, we ignore those warnings and continue to chase our own desires, our own passions, thinking that all will turn out okay.  One wrong turn leads to another, and before we know it we’ve lost our way and we’re in a place we don’t need to be.  Choices. We make them every day.  Some good.  Some not so good. 

I can’t tell you how many choices I’ve made that I wish I could revisit.  I am guilty, and most likely you can relate.  We’re guilty.  Maybe not to the degree of the young man on trial, but our actions have been offensive to those closest to us, and more importantly to our Savior.  And our choices have put us in places we never should have been.  We are all guilty of the spiritual cancer of sin. Romans 3:23 says we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s best for us.  And that cancer eats away at our spiritual life, to the point that if we let it go unchecked, unconfessed, we die inside.  And we soon learn that the separation it causes between us and God is too much to bridge on our own.

Oh, but there is hope…

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”– I John 1:8-9

Yes, there is hope for all who will trust in the One who became the once-for-all sacrifice for sin.  Apart from the cross of Jesus Christ, and our faith in Him, we have no way of approaching a holy God, no possible way of shedding our guilt.  No works of our own, no philosophy, no religion, not by science or reasoning will we ever gain His acceptance.  But by His grace, through our faith, and our surrendering to His authority over our lives, we can confidently know we belong to Him.  And when we arrive at that place, when we have said yes to His invitation, we are pronounced blameless!  He becomes our defense, our advocate (I John 2:1) to the Father.  No more guilt!  Simply defined, that’s grace.  And it’s all because of the work of Jesus on the cross, not my work.  That’s my hope!  And it can be yours too!

The jury is in.  Innocent is the verdict for all who are in Christ.  Go ahead, live free!

“He (Jesus) will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God, who called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”  -I Corinthians 1:8-9

Lessons Along the Journey

Posted on Updated on by Katie Anderson

Written by Bruce Osborn, Director of Spiritual Development

A Spiritual Reflection

The Glacial Community YMCA is a unique place.  Over the course of 35+ years in ministry I have served in a variety of places, but this one is different.  Much different.  And over the course of the 16 years I have been here I have learned, and continue to learn, some valuable lessons.  Allow me, if you will, a few moments to share some of those lessons with you:

  • All people are valuable.  No matter where we are in life, or where we have come from, we all matter.  And because of our God’s great grace, our best days are ahead.  And by using what God has gifted us with, each of us can truly make a difference in the lives of others, the life of this organization, and in our community. 
  • Relationship, relationship, relationship.  It truly is all about the relationship.  Our relationships in the workplace, at church, in the community, and in our neighborhood are important, but there is none more important than our relationship first with Christ, and then with our family. 
  • An open-door policy.  This is modeled from the top.  Our CEO has always operated with this policy.  And anyone (member, volunteer, or staff) has the freedom to stop and chat, gain some advice for life, or seek guidance on a YMCA related issue.  And there might just be a conversation about the latest round of golf to be told too.  That kind of policy creates openness in all other areas of our organization.  
  • Leading by example.  Our staff and volunteers are incredible.  Everyone is quick to join the effort to see that our organization succeeds.   No task is too small and no feat is too great.  By faith, and a little hard work, great things are accomplished every day. 
  • Being mission focused.  The YMCA has an outstanding mission.  And this YMCA lives out that mission every day.  It is seen throughout our facility and our programs.  We are daily seeking to “put Christian principles into action…” in all we do.  
  • And finally, respect.  Everyone who walks through our doors brings with them a story, a history, and dreams for a better tomorrow.  And each of those stories and dreams matter.  They matter to us, and they matter to our God.  And our organization sees value in each of those stories.

So, what is your story? What dreams do you carry? Our YMCA community is a place where those stories can be shared. It is a place to be heard, because, as I have found, it is much more than a story. It is more than a history.  It is a life. It is a record of the journey God has for you. And this Y is a place you can serve, grow, and relate to others whose journey might look very similar to yours, or very different. But the value, the respect and the relationships you find at our Y are what we are all about. So, come, tell us your story and find hope for your journey in life.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” – Jesus’ words in Luke 6:31