Announcing... The NEW Latin America News & Stories Website

I (Melissa) am excited to share with you our new ReachGlobal Latin America website -- completely dedicated to news and stories from the field.

Why am I so excited to tell YOU? Because this site reflects the lifeblood of RG LA -- personal accounts, testimonies, stories and lots of God-moments from the field. Basically, it's a site focused on what you do through the grace and empowerment of the Lord.

While the RG website is more conducive to static info about our ministry, this new page will feature dynamic content. We will regularly share stories and photos from the field, and eventually we hope to share videos, too. Each story includes a variety of "Calls to Action" (Serve, Pray, Give, Connect, Share) and offers the option for comments and dialogue for anyone who would like to participate.

It's easy to search the archives, view stories by country, and share the latest news with a friend.

There are a few things we'd like you to do to make this new site a success:

• Share the link (http://www.rglatinamerica.org/) on your Facebook, blog, website, next newsletter, etc. We need to get the word out and word-of-mouth is the best way to do it!
• Continue to repost new articles on your Facebook, blog, website, newsletter, etc. Look out for the emails requesting your help.
• Consider stories from your ministry that we could publish on the site. The site can't function without an ongoing flow of new information. I am here to help with this process.
• Write a story or article for the site. Not everyone likes to do this, but there are some writers out there amongst our staff. Now that there's somewhere great to put an article, there's no excuse not to write what's on your heart!
• Take photos!
• Send me your feedback. I would love to know your thoughts on the site, so please contact me with any comments, questions, or ideas.

Leadership: Latin America and RG Directional team

Our Latin America / Caribbean area leadership team includes:

• Keith Anderson
• Miguel De Marco
• Michael Gunderson
• Omar Rodriguez

Bob Werntz serves as an ad hoc advisor, Arthur Ellison serves as the PrayGlobal representative, and Melissa Putney is our communications observer. 

This group meets twice a month via conference call and twice a year in person (our next face-to-face meeting takes place mid-February in Costa Rica) to review current work in Latin America and strategize for future endeavors. Each of these leaders brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the table. They are available to you, so do not hesitate to contact them.

                                                                                                                                                        

The ReachGlobal Directional Team is the senior leadership of the mission. This team meets in person three times a year, and is comprised of the International Leaders from each of our five divisions; the associate executive directors for TouchGlobal, Personnel and Finance; and, of course, Tim Addington and Gary Hunter. 

The Directional Team met most recently in mid-November, and I would like to share a few highlights from that time:

• The ReachGlobal Sandbox states that we measure for effectiveness. In previous years, RG has focused on individual and team health, multiplication and holistic ministries – all important parts of the Sandbox. This year you will see more focus on measurement. While it is true that God is free to change our course in ministry and that spiritual advances are not easily measured, there are a number of indicators that can be tracked.
  
  Over the course of 2011, we will be implementing a new measurement process, beginning with the leadership. You will be hearing more about how it impacts your specific areas of ministry in the weeks and months to come.  Meanwhile, be sure to complete the little three question survey that Ken Warwick sends out at the end of each month.   

• One of our own staff, Linda Gunderson, presented a proposal to the Directional Team for improved care for missionary spouses who may not have regular check-ins with supervisors, KRAs or PRDs. We will pilot this program in Latin America this year, and we are praying for great participation on the part of our folks.

• ReachGlobal recognized that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to staffing can exclude valuable potential staff. In an effort to expand our impact in the world through non-North American and other “non-traditional” workers, RG will be implementing a five-level definition of RG staff relationship. This leveled approach will provide more flexible means of partnering with international and other non-traditional staff.  

If you have questions about our area leadership or mission leadership, please don't hesitate to ask.

Greetings, Saludos, Bendições and Bonjou

Greetings, Saludos, Bendições and Bonjou from Costa Rica. I trust that our loving God will bless you, your families and your ministries in this upcoming year. 

2010 was a fascinating year of changes for many of us. As you can see from the greeting above, although we live in a primarily Spanish-speaking world, we work in four languages in our area alone.

January 12, 2011, marks a year since the devastating earthquake in Haiti that resulted in a new field for our area. In 2010, we witnessed God’s hand and followed His leading in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. In 2011, we expect to see an international team of missionaries come together, committed to seeing healthy churches multiplied in Haiti – a country that has been without hope for so long.

Two veteran missionary families (the Hillis and Oates families) retired from ReachGlobal after many years of service. We rejoice in the testimony they are to God’s faithfulness.

At the same time, we welcomed a few new missionaries to RG LA – the Jenkins family, Melissa Putney, the De Marcos and the Wilsons. Others entered the on-boarding and support team building pipeline – the Ziels and Ashlee Nuest. God has been gracious in planting a vision for LA missions in people’s hearts. 

Roles changed in 2010 as well. A number of our staff have seen their focus move to new arenas and now serve from different places. Through these moves, we’ve extended several relationships with other organizations that share our heart for church multiplication. For example, as the Porters worked with a new partner ministry in the Dominican Republic, their relationship proved fortuitous as we launched into Haiti.

Communications became a new focus for the area. As Melissa Putney stepped into the role of Communications Coordinator for Latin America, she spoke with most of you as well as many supporting churches in the United States in an effort to better understand our communications needs. It was quickly apparent that we need to communicate RG work in LA better with you, our “on the ground” staff. Melissa and I have been strategizing about the best way to accomplish that, and we hope you’ve already seen some improvement. 

This year we plan to communicate with you more frequently, sharing area news and God-sightings. We will use this RGLA Staff Broadcast blog as the primary means of communication. It is important that you follow the updates. [Please visit the blog to set up an RSS feed. For more information on RSS feed and instructions on setting it up, go here.]

Childlike Faith: A Prayer Letter Repost

The following is an excerpt from the latest Happ family newsletter. What is your special story or memory from this past Christmas?

The Sunday before Christmas, [4-year-old] Jordan made a birthday card for Jesus in her Sunday school class. On Christmas Eve, when we explained that we would be lighting the Advent candles and singing to celebrate Jesus’ birth, she ran to get her card. Then she did something that was so sweet that we just have to share it with you.

She held the card high above her head, “so Jesus can see it,” and then pressed it to her chest, “so He can come into my heart.” It was so simple and so precious! There was no doubt in her little mind that Jesus exists, no doubt that He would see her, no doubt that He’d hear and respond. Of course He’d accept her; He loves her!

That is the kind of childlike faith that Jesus urges us as His followers to have. He wants us to trust Him implicitly, to follow Him without wavering, to believe that He really does love unconditionally, and to love as He loves.


A faith like Jordan’s is beautiful and wonderful, but even childlike faith must be nurtured. It must be educated and matured, for we are not to remain as children. If we were, Paul would not have admonished the Corinthians for being unable to handle the “solid food” of his spiritual teaching.

There are millions of believers in Latin America whose faith could be classified as “childlike.” We rejoice at this statistic, but we also know that it means there is a lot of work to do to nurture and mature the faith of those believers.

The mission of LATN/ProMETA is the same as Paul’s charge to Timothy, to “entrust [his teachings] to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2b), and well it should be! We’ve witnessed firsthand the abuses that take place within the church when the people and their leaders are not instructed in the Truth.

By making it our goal to provide sound theological training to the leaders of leaders in the Spanish speaking world, we are multiplying our effect across the globe. As our students share what they’ve learned with other leaders, their congregations, their seminary students, and their families, they are nurturing the childlike faith of those around them. The Church is growing in the knowledge and wisdom of the Lord, and we believe He is pleased!

Ready, set, repost!

Please read to the bottom where we have only one thing we’re asking you to do!

Let’s face it… most of us don’t go to websites frequently to see what may be new. While ReachGlobal and the EFCA websites are updated regularly, they don’t reach the broad audience that may be interested in what is happening. 

These days, people are looking less at traditional news and more at news websites, blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter feeds to see what’s happening in the world. 

Currently, Melissa Putney (area Communications Coordinator) and I receive most of the RG LA staff newsletters/prayer letters, and we have a unique opportunity to get a feel for what is being communicated back to our North American contacts. While many of these newsletters provide terrific information, we see two key areas that can help all of us improve the effectiveness of our communications as a region: breadth and reach.

Breadth refers to the scope of impact that we communicate as a result of our work in Latin America.  While each of us has individual areas of ministry, we are all also part of a broader mission in Latin America (and God’s broader story overall). It is important for our target audience to know that their support not only impacts your personal area of ministry, but that you are also part of a larger group committed to and accomplishing the work that is expanding the Kingdom across Latin America.

Reach refers to expanding the circle of people who will see and hear about our ministries. Reality tells us that a (sometimes large) percentage of our supporters never read our newsletter updates.

                                                     

But what if we could expand the number of people who have a chance to read the latest news beyond our current distribution lists? Instead of reaching a percentage of 200-400 people, what if we could reach that same percentage of 2,000-4,000 people? How might this impact our ministry? Increased support? Additional prayer? More people hearing and answering the call to missions? 

The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about the impact we could have in Latin America by increasing the visibility of our ministry and reaching a broader audience.

                                                                                                                       

How can we do that? Reposting articles/news stories online.

In December, Melissa began an experiment in increasing the reach of our LA news by asking us to use Facebook (and other social media) to repost well-written articles. The results were astounding. 

Without promoting it broadly, reposting has greatly increased online traffic for the RG LA website on EFCA.org. In fact, in December we broke our record for the most site visitors in the history of the RG LA site twice.

What is reposting? It is putting a hyperlink to the latest news article on your blog, Facebook wall, website, or Twitter feed. Often, it’s only a matter of clicking a button to “Share” the link. It’s simple and only takes a moment, but it multiplies the effect of our communications.

For example, between Melissa and my family alone there are probably two to three thousand people who see our blogs and Facebook statuses. Add the whole RG Latin America staff and just imagine how many people will see our stories/news!

Why does this help the division? It increases interest in the work that RG is doing in Latin America and reinforces that God is at work through the organization. It helps to remind people that Latin America is still very much a field of service and a region of need.

Although it’s too soon to tell, we hope that by sharing personal stories of the work God is doing, more people will be moved to join us in our efforts – not just financially but also as laborers for the field.

Why does this help you? Many of your blog readers and Facebook friends probably don’t currently support you. While the story you repost may not be your own, it is a link (literally and figuratively) to what is happening in your organization and your region of the world. It will likely peak people’s interest in what YOU do and may give you a platform to share more about your own work.

It also confirms that God is at work through your organization. For those who already support you, they can see that they aren’t doing it in vacuum.

One of the best ways to reach people, touch their hearts, and move them to action is through specific stories of individuals. In our case, we want to focus on individuals who are affected by the transformational power of the gospel. This gives glory to God and (again, we hope) moves people to action in Latin America – praying, giving, going.

One thing we would like you to do:  When you see a note from Melissa asking you to repost a link, PLEASE do it. She is ready to help you with any questions you may have about how and where to repost. 

Meanwhile, as we do repost, hundreds, perhaps thousands more people have a chance to be impacted by stories of what God is doing in Latin America. Will the next big impact story be yours? 

Monthly Personnel Health Survey

You may be saying, "Oh great, one more thing to do each month..." but have no fear. This new survey is a piece of cake -- and designed to ensure that your health and the health of your fellow missionaries is in top shape. 

If you didn't read it in the Big Yellow Envelope on December 27, read a bit about the new survey below (content borrowed from the BYE). And let's make sure Latin America has 100% follow through each month!


In ReachGlobal systems developed over the last six years, there are a few key disciplines which we've asked everyone to practice in order to encourage the health side of the Sandbox. The monthly check-in with your leader (face-to-face or voice-to-voice), the practice of a Personal Retreat Day each month and developing and using KRA's for your life and ministry constitute the core organizational disciplines to encourage health for our staff and the teams they serve on around the world. Beginning with an email you will receive on December 31, we will for the first time measure for these core disciplines throughout ReachGlobal every month.

The cycle is very simple:

1. On the last day of the month, the survey (customized for your division/department and that month) is sent to you via secure efca.org email.

2. You have five days to complete the survey for the prior month (though the survey takes less than a minute to complete, we know people travel, have emergencies, email Sabbaths etc., so we allow five days)

3. Ken Warwick and Rene Brehm then have three days to compile the data and send it to Tim Addington and Division/Department leaders for analysis and action.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 each month.

If you have any questions regarding this monthly survey, please contact your team leader.