January 6 was the first of a six-day event called Third Wave 2015, an event for selected Nazarene youth leaders around the globe. SENDAS hosted the event with 169 participants and representation from thirty-five countries in six global regions of the Church of the Nazarene.

The event was organized by Global Nazarene Youth International (NYI) with SENDAS’s own Gaby Bustos spearheading the organization of the event for Costa Rica. Gaby is the Mesoamerica Central Field Coordinator, and she also serves at SENDAS in the Academic Department for course of study and undergraduate programs.

In preparation for this event and others, SENDAS renovated the Guanacaste dorms, with the help of Work and Witness teams. This renovated dormitory provided comfortable lodging for many of the participants.

During Third Wave the participants attended workshops, enjoyed the global market, fellowshipped late into the evening, worshiped together led by an international worship team and heard excellent sermons from leaders such as Dr. Gustavo Crocker, General Superintendent and Dr. Verne Ward, Global Mission Director. The participants traveled to beautiful sites in Costa Rica and spent one day in ministering in four communities of Costa Rica alongside approximately 150 local church members.

Gary Hartke, NYI Global Director, shared this about the event. “The SENDAS campus was an important aspect to the support to the Global NYI sponsored Third Wave Leadership Conference. Participants quickly built relationships with others due to the proximity of lodging, dining hall, meeting areas, etc. Enhanced wifi installed a few weeks prior to the event made the use of translation through Google Translate and other tools possible. Throughout the week participants enjoyed a beautiful setting for an historic event.”

SENDAS is proud to have hosted Third Wave 2015. We pray the event will have long lasting implications for Nazarene Youth Ministry around the world.