Praised be Jesus Christ!
I just wanted to give everyone an update as to where various aspects of this apostolate are at in terms of completion.
RCYM 101: Equip the Call is my 10 lesson, video-based training course meant to equip someone who feels called to serve in youth ministry in a rural parish. I've written the curriculum, recorded the lessons, and have edited all but one video! Once that last video is edited and finalized, all of the lessons will be posted in my online community where people can purchase and view it. I will be offering the course in this beta-version at a discounted rate to some select individuals so I can receive feedback.
Bosco's Garage is the online community for Rural Catholic Youth Ministry named after the patron saint of youth: St. John Bosco. It's where rural youth ministers can offer support to one another and I can offer coaching and advice (and learn a whole bunch myself!). Think: a Facebook group, but way more versatile. Imagine if St. John Bosco owned a coffeeshop/garage thingy where you could go "talk shop" with other people doing rural Catholic youth ministry! Anyway, the community is basically all set up and ready to go. In the next few days, I will be reaching out to friends of mine who will be given a beta-run trial of the community so that I can receive feedback, they can receive support in their rural ministries, and future community members will join a community populated with some pretty awesome people in it!
www.ruralcatholicym.com is my website (duh!). This is, oddly enough, the last phase of launching this project. This will be where people interface with RCYM. It will have information on the apostolate - goals, offerings, etc. - as well as a portal into Bosco's Garage. I have purchased the domain name and started some preliminary designing.
Marketing comes after launch. I will be working with both dioceses and individual parishes. I will be offering a partnership program to dioceses called the Diocesan Co-Laborers Program, which allows them to partner with RCYM and receive a special diocesan space within Bosco's Garage, as well as RCYM 101 at a discounted rate.
Of course, in addition to all of this, I am working on other little projects, having key conversations with people, and changing diapers, but none of those things seem appropriate to post here! Lol.
Check back for updates. And if you donate, you'll be added to my mailing list and will not only be reminded when these updates are posted, but maybe even get some extra little inside scoops into how the apostolate is doing.
In Jesus through Mary,
Kevin Losleben