Expenses - what was the policy on that again?

Sometimes digging up the mission policy manual and finding a specific item can be a bit much.  So to hit the highlights on expenses Wayne Anderson has provided the following "cheat-sheet".  Perhaps that is a poor choice of words when it comes to expenses.  Thanks Wayne!

v       Approved taxable compensation (should NOT run through pcard, verify a PCF sent to payroll

•       Adoption costs – up to $5,000 per child
•       Approved travel for bereavement or sick leave – policy specifically says staff are to pay for the tickets personally and be reimbursed through payroll
•           Relocation funds
•           MK education including home school curriculum
•           College child visits to field – 2 per year
•      Travel to help child enter college – one time
•           MK at boarding school – travel 3 times per year
•           Deacon fund grants/benevolence
•           Dependent travel for home assignments upon DBM approval
•           Foreign income taxes
•           Rent for field housing, also mandatory expenses required by rental contract
•           Renovation costs when missionary vacates field housing if required by rental contract

       Personal costs that are not allowed

• Pet expenses
• Payment of mortgage for field housing owned by staff when on home assignment
• Note: if staff is renting the field housing, it is allowable to pay rent to retain the housing while on HA and expense to IMA
•  Hotels and meals for any personal stops when traveling home for home assignment
• Utilities for housing
•  Mileage for commuting
• Travel for a spouse or child who do not have a specific ministry assignment
•  Moving due to personal preference (ministry expense if RG or landlord require it)
•  Extracurricular MK education costs e.g. music lessons, field trips, sports.
•  Child care
•  Base rate for primary telephone

v            Other

•       Ministry expenses are defined as those which are directly related to the goals and objectives in a missionary’s job description.
•            Pcard is default tool for reimbursable expenses – not personal credit cards
•            All personal advances (for MAP or unusual travel) must be processed by National Office
•          All giving for ministry projects or IMAs should be processed through National Office
•          Honorarium checks to missionaries should be made payable to EFCA (if possible), sent to National Office for deposit
•          Noncash gifts must be approved by Donor Services

Meet Mark Wold -- Global Training Team Interview Series (Part 4 of 4)

Name: Mark Wold

Where do you currently live? Indio, California

What is your history with RG? I was an EFC pastor for 35 years, focusing on pastoring unhealthy churches to help them and their leaders get healthy. Then, they all started growing and impacting the world.

What is your current position? ReachGlobal Director of Church Health and Development

What does that mean? What do you do? I am seeking to help RG personnel provide training for national leaders overseas to build healthy churches and leaders in their networks.

What is the most exciting aspect of your role? When RG personnel or national leaders choose equippers that I can train so that they can effectively train the others in their networks. That is our ideal.

Have you ever been to Latin America or lived here? I've never lived in LA. I have only been to Costa Rica for the last RGLA conference, done a tour of the Caribbean Islands and Puerto Vallarta, and last spring I went as part of a RG training team to help the churches in Venezuela. It was so effective that they invited us back to do more than we were able to do in one day each.

What excites you about doing ministry in LA? I see the Lord doing significant things despite many obstacles in LA. I also see the need for training pastors and leaders to be very high as the number of unhealthy churches seems very high.

My daughter-in-law is from Peru, and we had quite a few people in our church from LA, so our interest and concern for reaching its many cultures is very high.

How can you be a resource to our LA missionaries? Each of us [on the Global Training Team] not only has a lot of expertise in (and beyond) our primary training areas to bring to the field, but we also bring proven effectiveness in cross-cultural training wherever we've been.

I can provide training to help churches and leaders discern biblical and cultural health and growth tools to help them develop their people and ministries. I will also soon be developing a website offering a ton of teaching materials for national and RG personnel to use -- something that many have asked for and become excited about.

One of our priorities is that the nationals are the leaders, not us, so we adapt and adjust materials to fit the needs and requests they make.

How can we partner with you to enhance our ministry? Let us know about areas where we can bring or secure training, and you can be the bridge to enable those doors to open.

LA has been a surprisingly difficult setting for us to get involved with, but once it happens, it will grow and bring significant help, so please make this a short-term priority for your team. It will bring long-term results.

How can people contact you? Email me at mark.wold@efca.org or call me at 760-406-3506 or Skype at mrkwld.

Meet John & Cheryl Fornelli -- Global Training Team Interview Series (Part 3 of 4)

Name: Rev. John & Cheryl Fornelli

Where do you currently live? Aurora, IL

What is your history with ReachGlobal? Started with RG in 2009 after being with UIM as hispanic church planters from approximately 2000-2005.

What is your current position? Narrative Evangelism and Discipleship on the Global Training Team

What does that mean? What do you do? We give seminars on orality to national leaders in various countries, training leaders to use chronological biblical narratives for evangelism and discipleship.

John is also seeking to serve for longer periods of time on church planting teams as an evangelist.

What is the most exciting aspect of your role? Multi-cultural, multi-level acceptance and the quick develop, empower and release of leaders. Cheryl especially enjoys training leaders using biblical narratives, and John especially enjoys talking to people about Jesus.

Have you ever been to Latin America or lived here? We lived in Costa Rica for 10 months while studying Spanish, and we've done short-term trips to many LA countries.

What excites you about doing ministry in LA? The teachable, humble people and the opportunity to see or hear of people coming to Christ.

How can you be a resource to our LA missionaries? We are fluent in Spanish, and we can train people how to minister to those who can't, won't or don't have access to the Word of God. 

Our workshops are multi-generational, fun, flexible, interactive and practical.

How can we partner with you to enhance our ministry? Connect us to ministry trainers who will train others.

How can people contact you? John.Fornelli@efca.org or Cheryl.Fornelli@efca.org or call us 630-768-6351 / 630-977-9588.

Visit our website: http://www.jcfornelli.com/.

Meet Gene Wilson -- Global Training Team Interview Series (Part 2 of 4)

Name: Gene Wilson

Where do you currently live? Plantation, FL

What is your history with ReachGlobal?

• Church planting, Quebec (1981-99)
• Latin America Church Planting Coach (2000-2009)
• Church Planting Director (2009-present)

What is your current position? Church Planting Director

What does that mean? What do you do? My vision: A transformational church planting movement among every people where we serve.

My mission: Develop systems and key people to multiply healthy churches.

Major goal: 100 Acts 19 places from which 2,000 church planters are developed, empowered and released.

What is the most exciting aspect of your role? Coming alongside church planting leaders and empowering them.

Have you ever been to Latin America or lived here? I've never lived there, but I've traveled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean (including Miami!).

What excites you about doing ministry in LA? They are embracing church planting and missions more and more, and that brings us together. They naturally integrate words and deeds, physical and psycho-social needs, local and global mission.

How can you be a resource to our LA missionaries? I am coaching Mike [Gunderson] and will join him in teaching/training occasionally. I try to keep up some of my relationships with national leaders and encourage them.

How can we partner with you to enhance our ministry? Just let me know if there is some way that I can help through consulting on new initiatives, teaching or helping you make connections.

How can people contact you? Gene.Wilson@efca.org or 954-915-8085

Anything else? We miss the Latin America leadership team and many of the missionaries. If you are involved in church planting, we would love to receive your email updates.

There are lots of resources available at http://www.globalchurchplanting.net/ that you can check out!

Meet Al & Edie Lewis -- Global Training Team Interview Series (Part 1 of 4)

Welcome to the beginning of a new short blog series introducing the members of the ReachGlobal Global Training Team. An amazing resource for training and equipping national leaders, this team travels all over the world -- and would love to come alongside our team in Latin America in any way they can.

Meet Al & Edie Lewis today, and watch for future installments introducing Mark Wold, Gene Wilson, and John and Cheryl Fornelli. Discover how they can partner with you in LA to multiply healthy churches.

Name: Al and Edie Lewis

Where do you currently live? Fort Dodge, IA

What is your history with RG? We joined RG two years ago after serving as a pastor in the EFCA for 23 years.

What is your current position? Director of Pastoral Training

What does that mean? What do you do? I [Al] provide biblical and theological training for pastors around the world who cannot otherwise get training. Edie teaches, counsels, mentors and trains pastors’ wives and other women leaders.

What is the most exciting aspect of your role? I am excited about starting training networks that allow us to train national trainers who, in turn, train national pastors.
I am especially excited about pastors learning to study and teach the Word accurately.

Have you ever been to Latin America or lived here? If so, where? I have made several missions trips to Mexico while pastoring and have been to Venezuela with RG.

What excites you about doing ministry in LA? I am excited about LA pastors becoming skilled in Bible study and teaching and preaching, especially those who cannot get training presently.

How can you be a resource to our LA missionaries? I can teach or train on a wide range of biblical or theological topics, and I can train staff or nationals to set up training networks.

How can we partner together to enhance our ministry? We want to be at your service to be used however you think is best. We are willing to travel and pay our own way to help you equip your pastors in the best possible way. I have limited ability to communicate in Spanish but not enough to teach or preach.

Examples of pastoral training courses:

• Biblical or systematic theology
• A framework for a biblical worldview
• Practical bible study methods
• Teaching and preaching skills
• Biblical counseling
• A biblical view of marriage and family
• Individual books of the bible
• Other courses as needed

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.

Blessed To Be So Wonderfully Cared For…

by: Diane Droogsma

Several years ago, my husband Jeff and I were approached by a former missionary couple who had left the field after serving in missions overseas for five years.

Jeff and Diane serving in Brazil

Their reason for leaving the field: burn-out. And they had a strong desire to minister to and serve other missionary couples, teaching what God had taught them through their difficulties of leaving a ministry that they loved and had served in so passionately.

After the chaos of moving back to the States, once some semblance of calm returned to their lives, they reflected on those five years on the field and God taught them wonderful truths from His Word. Through their debriefing classes, they gleaned knowledge that they wished they had learned before arriving on the field.

This couple’s desire was to create a State-side support group to encourage and walk alongside Jeff and me, offering confidential prayer coverage and a safe haven in which we could share. From their experience on the field, this was something they had longed for, but it had not been made available to them.We gladly accepted this precious offer and the group was named the “Senders Group.” It has been a huge blessing to us as we serve overseas and also during our home assignments. They encourage and pray for us during monthly Skype calls where we can confidentially share how things are going on the field, including family difficulties, cultural difficulties and ministry details.

As well, they are “on call” to take prayer requests at a moment’s notice and pray for the things we have shared in our monthly call. If we are going into a dangerous area, they cover us with prayer. They remember our birthdays and anniversary by sending cards and gifts. They provide for our needs while we are in the States on home assignment, such as housing, a car, cell phones, prayer, fellowship, etc. The group consists of people that have a heart to be more closely involved in our lives, family and ministry.

As missionaries, we are continually asked by supporters what we need. So many people generously offer to send things we miss like peanut butter, chocolate chips, Ziplock bags or M&Ms. I think you’ll agree with me, however, that what we really NEED is more prayer support. As we seek to further His kingdom, the enemy prowls like a roaring lion, trying to destroy all that we do in the name of Jesus Christ! Let’s not forget to utilize the body of Christ to join us in the battle!

The next time someone offers to send you something in the mail, suggest instead that they start a Sender’s Group. Give them a chance to get MORE involved in your ministry. You’ll be blessed by MORE prayer support, MORE encouragement, and you’ll feel MORE connected to the body of Christ! And you’ll be giving others the opportunity to be blessed through blessing you!

Recruiting New Missionaries -- YOU Can Help!

When we think about our needs as missionaries, we often think about financial needs, prayer needs, material needs, etc. But what about our personnel needs?

Just recently, RG LA missionary Joyce Werntz stepped full-time into the role of recruiting new missionaries for ReachGlobal Latin America -- a role that not only serves the missionary candidate but serves our region as a whole.

Joyce is working hard, traveling to missions conferences, colleges and universities, and churches around the U.S. to identify potential candidates -- passionate, talented Christ-followers with a heart for missional service. She has the opportunity to share the RG LA needs with people who are often ready to respond to God's call -- if only they knew how they might be used.

You can help Joyce in her recruiting efforts in two ways:

1. Consider the opportunities for others to serve alongside you and your team in your country or city -- short term team opportunities, internships, or full-time missionary roles -- and tell Joyce all about it!
2. Keep your ears and eyes open for potential candidates -- and send candidates straight to Joyce.

By providing detailed needs to Joyce, you help her to match missionary candidates with their ministry sweet spot. Two of the top questions Joyce hears as she's recruiting:

• "What can I do as a missionary?"
• "How can God use me (my talents/my profession/my skills) on the field?"

And by sending candidates her way, you allow her to build relationships and guide and encourage them through the application process.

Joyce is excited about recruiting for Latin America. Get excited, too, and help her help you!

Meet Your RG LA Pastors-to-Missionaries

A long-standing part of the ReachGlobal Latin America family -- faithfully serving as missionaries in Venezuela from 1971-2000 and as ENHANCE team members since 2001 -- George and Donna Warren probably aren't strangers to most of the RG LA staff. However, do you know how they serve you in their current role as Pastors-to-Missionaries (PTMs) for Latin America?

What do PTMs do?
As part of the ENHANCE team, PTMs come alongside missionaries to provide support, strengthen, and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. While they do work for ReachGlobal, they are are careful to maintain confidentiality in their interactions with LA staff.

The nitty-gritty of their role includes:

• Visiting with missionaries on the field
• Attending debriefing sessions for missionaries returning on home assignment to the States
• Crisis debriefing
• Assisting in the candidate process -- occasionally attending REV and PT Live
• Working towards conflict resolution
• Advocating for missionary care in churches
• Walking alongside missionaries going through difficult times
• Ensuring necessary counseling occurs when needed
• Providing tools for self-care and healthy teams (such as a the Healthy Teams Toolbox)
• Encouraging missionaries to take needed rest

What is missionary health all about?
According to George, it all comes down to the heart -- having a transparent walk with the Lord. Reading the Bible and obeying God's Word. And walking the journey with others -- having a handful of people with whom you can talk in confidence and pray in earnest.


Why might you contact George & Donna (your Latin America PTMs), for example?

• For help with emotional or mental issues or stressful situations in your ministry or personal life
• For support throughout a ministry change or ministry decision
• For post-traumatic stress counseling
• For counsel in family issues and decisions -- from children returning to the States for college to caring for aging parents
• For conflict resolution
• For a field visit from George and Donna!

While travel to the field has been difficult in the past, George and Donna love to spend time with you (the RG LA staff) in the field -- and they are more equipped to do so at this point. They have received an invitation to visit with staff in Costa Rica in November, and they welcome and encourage invitations to visit other LA locations, too.

How should you contact them?

• Email -- George.Warren@efca.org and Donna.Warren@efca.org
• Skype -- gewarrenps139
• Phone -- (714) 256-4668

For George and Donna, PTM is not a job. It's being part of a family and a ministry. They desire to be there and available for their RG LA family whenever and wherever needed.

If a crisis arises...

By Omar Rodriguez

... ... ... ... ...

At least 42 dead, 115,000 homeless in Brazil flooding

By the CNN Wire Staff, June 22, 2010 2:52 p.m. EDT

... ... ... ... ...

As Crisis Manager for Latin America, several times during the day, I check news sources to see what’s generally going on in the world. The above headline from CNN greeted me just a few minutes ago – as it did people in the National Office, our supporting churches and family. Two questions immediately come to mind. First, are our missionaries affected in some way? Second, is the EFCA doing anything to help?


If the headline seems urgent or severe enough, someone in leadership might shortly start receiving notes from some interested party with the above questions. While it is impossible to stay on top of every crisis situation, we do need to be aware that due to global communications, crisis events are broadcasted quickly and interest is generated surprisingly fast.


For those of you on the field, what CNN may consider a crisis may not at all rank as such in your perception. But, if you are sending off emergency prayer requests to your supporters regarding an emergency situation or people are writing to you about what’s going on, it’s probably a good trigger that you should inform myself or your team leader.


Crisis events are not limited to personal emergencies but also include incidents where ReachGlobal might be affected or might have the opportunity to respond to serve. At the very least, we want to be proactive about generating concerted prayer for those who are affected. If at all possible, we also want to take the opportunities placed before us to reach out to our fellow believers and those without Christ who may need help. Proactive communication to your team leader or to me will greatly help us to respond to selected emergencies in a coordinated and timely manner.


If you are unable to contact your immediate supervisor, please contact me at Omar.Rodriguez@efca.org or you can call me at my cell phone at 714-930-6451 (24/7). If necessary, call collect.

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!

Are you taking advantage of EQUIP?

Part of ensuring ongoing success in ministry is ensuring that we keep ourselves (our skills, knowledge, and training) relevant. EFCA EQUIP offers online self-guided and facilitated courses to help in that development – and they are free-of-charge to ReachGlobal missionaries!

One upcoming course to consider taking is the Healthy Missions Partnership course. One of ReachGlobal’s guiding principles is to be “partnership driven,” so understanding how to establish, build and maintain healthy partnerships is key for all ReachGlobal staff. The course will be interactive and a great opportunity to learn from the experiences of missionaries, pastors and partner organizations from around the world.

Visit the EQUIP website to read more about the course and to sign up today. The next 4-week course (+ 1-week introduction for new EQUIP users) is scheduled for June 30-August 3. The course should be offered again in the fall as well (dates TBD).

In Latin America, we encourage every RG staff member currently involved in some level of partnership to participate in the course. As we continue to develop a structure or model for defining and building partnerships, we expect this training to be immediately beneficial and relevant for our area.

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!