Where we're (I'm) going in 2009

1st of all let me say that we (and specifically me) are going wherever God is going and leading.

With that said I wanted to share a few things that I personally will be working on in 2009.

1. Ministry management system - this is a fancy way of saying the tools that run behind the scences to enable the "experience".  The goal is to cover 4 key areas; relationship management, child sponsorship program management, integrated reporting, and field empowerment.

2. Country 10 - as you know we're working internationally in 9 countries today.  The US is what I sometimes refer to as country 10 - we want to make sure that everything we do in the US is laser focused on one thing - developing orphaned and neglected children into mature Christians equipped to live in their own culture....and to do this in the best (ie the best process, Biblical foundation, Christ centered, as good stewards, for the furtherance of the Kingdom and not ourselves) way possible

3. Field work - I've already got international projects queued up for 2009, in fact I am expecting to get my passport back today for one of them. I will share more details as the 1st project of 2009 gets closer.

4. Growing the body - a big part of being a part of God's family  is helping other parts grow. One of the ways we can reach our core goal of - developing orphaned and neglected children into mature Christians equipped to live in their own culture, is by helping grow the church as a whole.  Some ways we can do that is through empowering believers to put their faith into action, to make the local church an active part of the work God is doing around the world, and enabling other ministries we may partner with to be effective as we work in unison.  I've thought about how to put this into words... one thought I have is this - developing individual Christians and the local church into mature, effective individuals and bodies of believers equipped to reach orphaned and negleceted children.

5. Teaching my own family -as important as getting work done now, the most important thing I can do is to grow the next generation of Christ-followers.

Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Experience and the served.

When I think about misisons end to end (that is the person providing financial support to the person who is being served in the field) I want to examine the person being served first.


What should the experience be of someone being served (that is what should they expect)

1. They should hear the Gospel (Mark 16:15)
2. They should experience the love of God through people (John 13:34-35)
3. They should have their physical needs met (food, shelter, clothing, education, health care) (James 2:15-17)

I realize I've simplified it down to the kernel, and I've done so intentionally.

In a future post I will examine what the experience should be for a missionary or mission team

What's next.

I will spend the next few posts examining some of the way that experience matters to different people.

OK, what is mission experience?

Now that is the million dollar question. What is mission experience?
To sum it up mission experience is the end to end experience (that is the the affect a mission has) of:

• The missionary
• Staff in the field
• Local nationals who are partners in ministry
• Ministry partners (NGO's, Churches, etc...)
• Those being served
• Support staff
• Donors who support the mission

Throughout the lifecycle of a particular missionary undertaking whether it be a short term process, or multigenerational.

I will discuss more in depth as time progresses the importance of experience to each of the roles I described above as well as practical ways to enhance that experience.