Video Mission Trip for RGLA

In January 2012, we (RGLA) will have the privilege of hosting 4-6 video producers in various locations where we work. These video producers will shoot and edit videos for our promotional and story-telling use -- all in the span of a two-week trip.

The Moving Latin America Pictures trip can only happen if God provides the right producers for the job, though. Please share the link to the trip description with your prayer partners, friends, family, and churches who may be interested in taking part (or who, in turn, may pass it along to someone they know).

You can also view a short blurb on the RGLA News & Stories site -- easy to share on Facebook or through email.

Download the Moving Latin America Pictures Information Packet to attach to emails or hand out to potential candidates or churches.

Even if the video producers do not come to your personal ministry location, keep in mind that this mission trip can benefit your future support-raising efforts as we create videos that promote the work of God in Latin America through ReachGlobal. You are a part of the larger story!

We also ask you to pray for God's provision of the right producers for the trip and for the planning and preparations that must occur pre-trip.

Meet Taylor Knopf -- Communications Intern for LA

It's exciting to report that we now have a second set of hands working on communications projects in Latin America. Taylor Knopf arrived on March 2 to serve as the Communications Intern. Please read Taylor's introduction and contact her to welcome her to the LA team!

Taylor & Melissa in Costa Rica

Hola! My name is Taylor Knopf. I recently joined the ReachGlobal Latin America team as a Communications Intern. I will be living in San José, Costa Rica, for the next 5 months serving with Melissa in the area of communications. It is exhilarating to use my passion for writing to share what God is accomplishing in Latin America!

I am a university student, and, so far, I have spent three semesters at Miami University in Ohio studying journalism. Recently, I was accepted into my first choice college in Michigan, though. So, this fall, I will transfer to Hillsdale College as a sociology major in the journalism program to finish my degree.

My experience with ReachGlobal has been interesting. God’s hand was very apparent in the whole pre-field process. In June 2010, I planned to go to Budapest, Hungary, in March 2011 for a communications internship with EFCA. Some unfortunate complications arose, and the trip was cancelled in late December. I admit that I felt very disappointed then. It may have been shocking to me, but it wasn’t to God. He says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, [...] plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The Lord closed the doors in Budapest, but He quickly opened new doors in Latin America!

Arriving in San José just one week ago, I already love the city. My Spanish needs a lot of work, though. I am limited to very basic words and phrases at the moment. Therefore, I will be attending a one month language intensive in May and moving in with a Tico (Costa Rican) family!

I am really looking forward to what God has in store these next few months. It is so exciting to see Him work!

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.

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.]

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? 

We Want More Traffic!

We're not talking more rush hour traffic in downtown San José, Minneapolis, or name-your-city... we're talking ReachGlobal Latin America website traffic.

YOU -- the RGLA staff -- can help us increase our visability and site traffic, by posting the links to new content and new stories on your Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts.

Ready to get started on Facebook? It's easy.

1. Log in to your Facebook account and head to your profile page.

2. Choose the option at the top of your wall to share a link (or enlace if your page is in Spanish like mine!)

3. Copy and paste this entire URL into the box (it's a new story that was posted to the website just today): http://www.efca.org/reachglobal/where-we-serve/latin-america/get-involved/latin-america-opportunities/peru/upriver-reach

4. Click the blue button on the right to attach it.

5. Add an optional teaser to the box that appears, such as:

Imagine having five people praying over you in three languages, confronting the spiritual oppression that threatens your well-being. Read this story by a short-term member about his experience sharing God's peace in Nueva Italia, Peru.

6. Click the blue button on the right to share it on your wall.

Now all of your friends can check out the latest story.

But wait! There is another, very easy way to repost another friend's post on Facebook -- no copying of links required. Just click on the word "Share" (or "Compartir" if yours looks like the example) under the link (above Gordon's name in this example) and repost on your own wall.

Please support the region in this effort to build interest in God's work here in Latin America. Going forward, I will regularly send out emails with links to new stories that we would love you to repost.

Contact me (melissa.putney@efca.org) with any questions. Thank you for your help!!

Add the RSS Feed for the RGLA Staff Broadcast

RSS feeds


First things first, if this is new to you… RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a way for publishers of blogs, news, etc. to make their web content available for subscription. For example, when you add an RSS feed for a blog to your email, you are subscribing to that blog, and from that point forward, you will receive an email anytime new content is published. This saves you the time and effort of regularly checking the blog on the web, and it ensures you don’t miss any important information that is published!

 

To add an RSS feed in Outlook:

As RG staff members, we all use Microsoft Outlook, and there is a simple way to add an RSS to your Outlook account.

1. Visit the webpage you would like to subscribe to – for our example, you can use this blog (RGLA Staff Broadcast).
2. If the webpage offers RSS, you will see a button with an orange box that says "Posts" -- on this blog, this is located on the right-hand side of the page, part-way down the sidebar. Click on this button. In some situations, the site may have a dropdown list of subscription methods – in that case, you will look for the orange button that says “Atom” – usually it is at the bottom of the list.
3. Click on Atom. A new page will open up – for our example, it will look like this. Copy the URL at the top of this page – example: http://rglastaffbroadcast.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
4. Return to Microsoft Outlook.
5. Go to the Tools menu at the top of the main page. Click on Account Settings.
6. Go to the RSS Feeds tab in the box. Click New.
7. In the New RSS Feed dialog box, type or press CTRL+V to paste the URL of the RSS Feed.
8. Click Add and then OK.

 

You should now be receiving the RGLA Staff Broadcasts in your email.

 

Note: The posts will not come into your Inbox! They will appear in their own folder (labeled RGLA Staff Broadcast) under the folder RSS Feeds.

 

Now you are ready to add the RSS for other blogs you follow – such as TJ Addington’s Leading from the Sandbox -- to your email, too.

 

If you have any questions or issues, please contact Melissa Putney or Brian Duggan with questions. Thanks!

Introducing our new Communications Coordinator

I’d like to introduce our newest staff member, Melissa Putney.  Melissa will be serving in the role of Communications Coordinator for Latin America and is a much needed addition to our RG staff. 

The role of Communications Coordinator involves several aspects:

·        Liaise between the National Office and Latin America

·        Help improve our overall communications in all formats (web, newsletters, printed materials, PowerPoints, etc.) for both external and internal communications

·        Provide training and act as a resource to our RG staff in their communications

·        Develop a Latin America communications strategy and plan

Although she will be available to help with your communications questions and provide recommendations, Melissa is not the originator of content.  That still needs to come from you, our RG staff who are experiencing God’s work in your area in unique ways.  Thus Melissa would appreciate your help in several ways:

·        Please add her to your regular prayer updates distribution and while you’re there, please make sure I am on the list as well.  I read these and pray for each of you.

·        Send her stories and God-sightings that she can edit and publish

·        Let her know how you are communicating outside prayer letters, such as your blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. 

·        Consider helping Melissa with skills you may have such as editing, writing, web updating, photography, videography

Short Bio: After graduating from Clemson University in 2006, Melissa moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and entered the corporate world – initially participating in a rotational leadership development program at Vanguard and later working as a corporate recruiter for Red Ventures (a sales & marketing firm based in the Charlotte area). While in Charlotte, she also became involved at Church at Charlotte, a local EFCA church, volunteering as a youth leader with the junior and senior high youth groups.

While working in Charlotte, she felt the Lord calling her to full-time ministry or mission work and began exploring the options and listening for God’s leading. It was through connections at Church at Charlotte that she discovered the opportunity to serve Christ in Latin America with ReachGlobal. God affirmed this decision, and after raising support for her two-year ministry assignment, Melissa moved to Costa Rica in early March to serve as the Communications Coordinator for Latin America.

Fine print: Melissa has joined RG for a two-year fixed term and is living in Costa Rica.  She will report directly to me.  Her KRAs will be based on the area KRAs and her role will develop as our communications abilities improve.  Although Melissa’s work will be primarily in English, she will attend one semester of Spanish starting in May.  She may be contacting you for information on your current communications approaches and to solicit stories from you.  Please understand that Melissa is not an administrative assistant and will not be able to help you in those types of areas. 

So please welcome Melissa to the RG LA team!