(Photo: a filming session with Emmanuel Espinosa)
Young people are constantly looking to build relationships, meet new people, share their interests and interact with famous people. Enter social media, which allows them to do just that.
While positive interactions are taking place in this way every day, social media is also helping to fuel addiction, anxiety and depression among some young people. They feel discouraged and inadequate when they compare their ‘popularity rating’ (the number of ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ they have) and their lifestyles with those of their friends who post photos of their seemingly glamorous, fun-filled lives.
Dazzled by their lifestyles
Many millions of young people also follow celebrities on social media, and are dazzled by their lifestyles, too. Just looking at some of the comments and interactions on the social media accounts of celebrities shows that young people crave to be like the celebrities they follow and are looking for advice and guidance.
All this got us thinking at the Bible Society of El Salvador. How could we use social media to help these media-savvy, celebrity-obsessed young people to encounter the life-changing message of the Bible? How could we unleash the healing power of God’s Word in their lives to minister to their needs and tackle their depression, anxiety and addictions?
That’s how our ‘Tres Cada Día’ program was born (‘Three A Day’). The brainchild of Pablo González, General Secretary of the Bible Society of El Salvador, and Emmanuel Espinosa, a famous Mexican Christian rock musician, ‘Tres Cada Día’ uses technology, social media and celebrity to get young people into the Bible. It encourages them to set aside just three minutes a day to hear God’s Word and to think about it during the day.
Recalibrate their lives
This, we prayed, would help young people to recalibrate their lives and aspire to biblical values, not those presented to them in their social media feeds. To attract them to the Bible’s message, Emmanuel Espinosa and other famous Latin Americans read out the daily devotions, which are also shown on screen. These are accessible via our website, YouTube channel and through our through our free iOS or Android apps, and can be shared via Twitter or Facebook.
We thought Tres Cada Día would be serving the youth of El Salvador, but God is using it to reach thousands of young people each day throughout Latin America and into parts of Europe and Asia, too.
These daily devotions minister to me and I learn a lot every day.
– Valeria, Puerto Rico.
Tres Cada Día helped me at a key point in my life where I was searching for God. These daily three minute devotionals are making a real difference.
– Maria, Guatemala.
It does exactly what your slogan says: ‘a break to feed your faith’. God bless you for taking the time to help us, feed us and teach us.
– Byron, El Salvador.
We have been encouraged by the response and will soon start translating these devotionals into English and French, in order to use them as missionary material in other countries, too. Please pray that this program will help many millions of young people around the world come to know and love God.
If you’d like more information please do get in touch. You can email me at langloispablo@gmail.com
Click here to read more about this ministry and one of El Salvador’s top recording studios, based at the Bible Society.