Young Life Nicaragua Reflects Worldwide Body of Christ 

About half of the 519 Young Life leaders in Nicaragua are Catholic, and half are Protestant. It wasn’t a recruitment effort that created this mix. A culture of being on mission together was established before the first Young Life Nicaragua club began in 1988 in the city of Matagalpa.

Young Life is an ecumenical ministry, and Young Life serves unchurched kids as well as kids who may have been raised in a Protestant or Catholic church but are no longer attending. “We are a bridge between the street and the church,” said Hollman Mendoza, regional director for Young Life Nicaragua.

Mendoza, who is Catholic, said that when it comes to connecting kids to churches, Young Life leaders say, “Go to the church where your parents go. I’ll go with you.” If a student has no church background, Mendoza said, the Young Life leader will take the student to the church the leader attends.

There are 102 neighborhood Young Life clubs in Nicaragua that serve an average of 1,580 middle school and high school students each week. Of the 17 “departments” or regions in Nicaragua, 10 of them have Young Life clubs.

Young Life leader training in Nicaragua sometimes includes instruction from Protestant pastors and Catholic priests. “We proclaim ‘Jesus is one,’ and the Nicene Creed is very important to us,” Mendoza said. 

Kevin Suwyn, Young Life senior vice president for Latin America, said, “Catholics and Protestants working together is tied to the mission that God has given us to reach kids. It’s not just a good idea or a philosophical bent. It’s not just a drum we are beating," he said. "It's about the urgency to reach the next kid. How could we not go together to reach the next kid?”