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.

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.