Author name: Andy Braner

Founder/Director of KIVU and The KIVU Gap Year, LDG World Ambassador. Andy Braner, along with his wife, Jamie Jo, are the Founders of the Kivu Gap Year, a dynamic, life-changing extension of their 15 years of leading Camp Kivu, formerly in Durango, Colorado. Hundreds of adolescents and Millennials from around the world have benefited from their creative, wise and life-changing programs. It is also LDG’s privilege to have Andy as a valued and active member of our Board of Directors. Twelve years ago Andy invited Wes Roberts, LDG’s Founder, to be his mentor, and it is a welcome friendship that has steadily grown over these years with Andy and Jamie Jo. This couple has two daughters and three sons, from high school to early elementary…two graciously adopted from Rwanda. They live in Breckenridge, Colorado Andy has a heart to test this process cross culturally as he is currently involved creating experiences where American Youth interacting with Middle Eastern Youth. He is annually leading trips to Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. He’s written five books on youth culture, and has over 20 years of youth experience. His latest book No Fear in Love: Learning to Love other as God loves them is a look into the heart of fear in culture and what drives us to love well. Here is where you can learn more about the exceptional Kivu Gap Year: Any high school student you know needs to investigate this outstanding program.

Whole-Life Mentoring In Support of Education, Anywhere At Any Age

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”There’s nothing sacred about spelling tests as a way to learn spelling…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] …or flash cards to learn math facts, curriculum as a way to teach, testing as a way to collect data. There’s nothing sacred about most of what we do every day in education, and yet we, as […]

Whole-Life Mentoring In Support of Education, Anywhere At Any Age Read More »

Developing a Serving, Caring Heart in Leaders

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Leadership is often counterintuitive.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] The normal way we see leadership in Business, Institutions, or Non-Profits is as a linear command-and-conquer strategy. Usually we see C-level executives, no matter what type of organization, who set the course for the rest of a company, including those who may or may not

Developing a Serving, Caring Heart in Leaders Read More »

Mentoring Women in Later Years

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”I Am the Older Woman!” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] How did that happen? The realization came with a shock, as I was reading Titus 2:2 and pondering these words: Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and

Mentoring Women in Later Years Read More »

Mentoring Moms

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”‘Mom Shaming’” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] Have you heard the term? It’s one of the newer terms I’ve recently heard related to moms.  It appears with our advances in technology. Some have used media to give their opinions to moms who don’t feed their kids the right food, don’t use the right sunscreen,

Mentoring Moms Read More »

Mentoring Women To Discover Their Full Purpose In Life

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”I sat across the table listening to every word she said…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] …I thought I was looking in the mirror. Well kind of, with her being 10 years younger and freshly out of high school, while I sat with a rounded belly carrying baby number 2 and 8 years of

Mentoring Women To Discover Their Full Purpose In Life Read More »

How Do You Treat Others With Different Core Beliefs?

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Not long ago…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] …I was walking the hallways of a journalist convention held in Raleigh, North Carolina. The question for the conference was basically how do news organizations deal with the “Religion” section of the paper? Is there a new way of reporting on faith in the age of

How Do You Treat Others With Different Core Beliefs? Read More »

Who Are You?

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Have you ever considered what you believe to be true about life?” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] These beliefs shape your understanding of who you are and why you are alive. I remember Wes Roberts sharing with me that he loves to begin conversations with strangers by asking, “Who are you?” Most often the

Who Are You? Read More »

A View of Life from an Emerging Adult…

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”…The Decade from 20-30″ size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] (In all my 74 years of life, in my own decades of having lived through my own bits of joy and tumult personally and in our world, I need to clearly state, with deep thanks to our Creator, that from across the globe I am having

A View of Life from an Emerging Adult… Read More »

Who are you?

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Have you explored this question?” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] (In all the decades of life one may be granted, that first decade is crucial for life-long development in all of the 8 Dimensions of the Circle of Life. Therefore, faithful grandparents have written about the value of life-enhancing mentoring of those kiddos in

Who are you? Read More »

The First Decade of Life

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Zero to 10…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] That’s not the description of a very slow car at a drag race. It’s the crucial years of a child’s first decade of life. Mentors and other leaders, who are familiar with Leadership Design Group, know we view life in terms of decades: 0-10; 10-20; 20-30;

The First Decade of Life Read More »

Your Foundational Family

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Family…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] We all have one, but not all illicit warm, fuzzy memories. Sometimes families can be difficult. Estranged – or just plain strange! What is it about this dimension that can be so difficult and yet so foundational to every other aspect of our lives? You were born into

Your Foundational Family Read More »

The Financial Dimension of the Circle of Life

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”We were stuck.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] $60,000 in student debt and newly married, I was in seminary and my wife was teaching. My car broke down and I needed a root canal. There was no money in the bank and no plan. We were toast. We were afraid! We were mastered by

The Financial Dimension of the Circle of Life Read More »

What We Believe Matters

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”How healthy is your core?” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] My son, Chris, was four years old during the time his grandfather was sick with cancer and passed away. It was during this time I learned the value of asking my children what they knew about things. By asking Chris what he knew about

What We Believe Matters Read More »

Learning to Nurture

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”People on the grow!” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] That’s what effective mentoring is all about. Learning to nurture well requires helping mentorees explore and discover who they were meant to be, rather than trying to mold people into who we want them to be. This, of course, requires the careful listening and question-asking

Learning to Nurture Read More »

Mentoring and Being Mentored

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”‘Follow me as I follow Christ’” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] Last week, I was sitting with a great man of faith who lives outside of Washington D.C. In recent months, he’s become a new mentor in my life. I found that being mentored in his way includes answering compelling questions about faith, life

Mentoring and Being Mentored Read More »

Vocation: The Search for a Map

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”With great anticipation, I placed my index finger on the left-clicker of the mouse and pressed.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] Only a few more seconds before the next screen came up and my questions would get answered. I would finally have the map to navigate my life and vocation. Instead, when the next

Vocation: The Search for a Map Read More »

Lifelong Learning

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”‘What’s That?’…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] …the soft, high voice inquires repeatedly. Or “Who is that?” over and over again. My granddaughter is only 19 months old, but she is an extremely deliberate learner of everything around her. (I’m intentionally learning my neighbors’ names, just so I can introduce her without the awkwardness

Lifelong Learning Read More »

Get A Move On! Physical Fitness in Life’s 8 Dimensions

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”‘Chicken Fat.’” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] Do you remember it? It is also known as the “Youth Fitness Song.” In 1962 President John F. Kennedy commissioned Broadway composer Meridith Wilson to write a theme song for the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness (thanks Wikipedia). Its first two verses may inspire some spontaneous calisthenics.

Get A Move On! Physical Fitness in Life’s 8 Dimensions Read More »

Elderly woman with camera

The Advantages of Growing Older

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”So Wes, why did you choose me to write about the advantages of growing older?” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] After all, I’m young and getting younger by the day! OK, so the years are adding up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t choose to be younger. I also work with older people all

The Advantages of Growing Older Read More »

Woman walking

Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up

[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”When I grow up I want to be _________.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] I watched as a room full of rowdy 8th graders took the stage. An adventuresome, excited presence filled the room as each kid glided across the floor as their name was called to be given a diploma and a “congratulations

Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up Read More »

Scroll to Top