In a single post today, we’re going to go back to August 2015 as well as look into the future. Ready? Let’s start off with what I’ll call the “a few years down the road” portion….
Thanks Abeka Academy!
Tag Archives: Youth Missions
Blog Help for AIMers
I’m volunteering!
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So… you have visioned, prayed, applied and been accepted to serve as an AIMer. Now what?
Now you start the check list (…the dozen or so checklists, if you’re anything like me), you know the one… the “I-have-so-many-things-to-do-and-I-don’t-know-where-to-start” checklist.
See… I knew you had it too. Continue reading
Fundraising ideas
Over time, my own STM involvement has required that I do my share of fundraising, and I’m by no means a specialist. It takes ideas and today… idea generation often begins with a Google search.
I want to save you a step and share some of the resources that I’ve come across and particularly like:
(note: Books & blogs come from various doctrinal confessions with great best-practices in the area of fundraising.)
Blogs:
Both sites below have premium product or content for sale, but the links provided take you to free content (articles or blog-posts).
– Support Raising Solutions
– People Raising
– Financial Partnership Development
Books:
Find the titles listed right at their Amazon store:
– The God Ask (Steve Shadrach)
– People Raising (William P. Dillon – *haven’t read this one*)
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General Concepts:
As a rule… Communication is key with any relationship building exercise related to raising financial partners.
- Marketing: Whether you think in these terms or not… you must become a marketer. What are you marketing?
- Yourself
- Your call to missions
- The country to which your called
- The work that God is calling you to do there
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- Principles of Marketing: Trends in marketing need to be reflected in the way you present your yourself and your STM opportunity. Currently for example…
- You’re building a brand…. something that becomes immediately identifiable with you and your God-appointed mission.
- You need to be present in various Social Media platforms. Go where your potential supporters are. You don’t have to be a ninja on every platform… but you should be present in several.
- Communication needs to be image-rich. The days of text-only reports, newsletters or blog posts are gone.
- Increasingly, even image-rich communication is taking a back-seat to video formatted communication. (If you can do video, great. If you can’t, don’t sweat it … at least be image-rich. I’m just a novice in this area myself.)
- Don’t kill yourself trying to learn all of these things at once… but if you can either (a) learn them bit-by-bit or (b) get help from someone who knows this stuff… your fundraising will be further ahead.
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- Keep a Personal Element: Mass communication is by far, much easier and it’s unthinkable to handwrite every request-for-support letter that you intend to mail out, however keeping a bit of a personal element in there somewhere will help your fundraising efforts.
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Stop to think… how much time do you spend reading the email that’s been cc’d to 1,000 people? Right, not that much. Now… what about the emails that have your name and your name only in the “to” box? Right again… there’s a much better chance you’ll read it through.
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Find some way to keep it personal.
. - Quality Speaks: Whatever you do in terms of marketing materials, whether online or in printed form, you need to make things look good! Pastors and church-members get many appeals for financial support, so yours must stand out.
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Details?
In a series of upcoming posts, I’ll share how I applied the ideas above into our own fundraising efforts leading up to France and since we’ve been here.
BUT… if you’ve been accepted by a sending organization and already have a time frame for your STM trip, start now!
– start reading
– start preparing
– start building resources
– start pulling together a communication strategy
Time goes quickly and the more you do now, the less stress & scrambling you’ll experience at the last minute.
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I encourage you…
STM involvement is an incredible opportunity. If God has called you and men have affirmed you (sending organization), you are well positioned to live an extraordinary life. If you have questions, leave them either in the comments section below or email me via the “E-Mail” button.
God bless your preparations!
A New Year in France
A Quiet New Year
Since we’d done a fair bit of visiting over the past week, we opted for a quiet New Year’s Eve as a family watching Mary Poppins (since we forgot to bring “the Sound of Music” with us).
We spent New Year’s Day preparing a nice meal that we would share with friends from the community… complete with foie gras, leek soup, duck and Italian panettone, topped off with a game of turkey foot over coffee. Lovely way to begin the new year & Liz outdid herself as the hostess with the mostest.
Renewed Vision & outreach
Tomorrow at church we’ll be kicking off the new year with a fresh call to grow in the Lord and reach out beyond our walls to those around us.
We’ve purchased calendars for each of our church members with a daily Bible verses to help each one discover some of the major themes of scripture. In addition though, we’ve also given everyone a second, gift-wrapped calendar that they can in turn give to a friend that they’ve been praying for. The goal… to bring others closer to Christ. Please keep this particular outreach in prayer this week.
Looking Ahead…
Many of you know that our missionaries return to France in March – six months ahead of schedule thanks to #IAmGlobal. That being said, we’d like to continue on here for a while, working with them after their return.
Need: While on furlough, their budget covered several of our expenses which, when they return, will become our responsibility, increasing the amount of required monthly financial support.
I’ve put together the following 3-min video to outline “our Beginnings, our First Year and beyond.” It will generally reside elsewhere on the site, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak at it first.
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Subscribe to the monthly newsletter
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To say thanks…
In the video I mentioned a special newsletter and article as my thanks for subscribing to the newsletter; spreading & building awareness. Here’s a quick overview:
Building Engaged Youth, Building Missionaries
…through Short Term Missions
I credit my current involvement in ministry to extensive Short Term Missions (STM) involvement beginning in youth. Missions truly changed my life. In this 6-page eBooklet, I detail:
– My STM experiences & their impact
– STM expectations & outcomes
– Positive outcome influencers
– UPCI STM opportunities
If you want to see young people impact the world and be impacted by Short Term Missions, this booklet will give you an overview of what’s possible.
Top 15 in 2015
This 4-page eBooklet is simply a quick overview of the Top 15 moments of Ministry involvement and Family Life during our first eleven months as AIMers (or volunteer missionaries) here in France.
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Both are .PDF documents, optimized for reading on your iPad, tablet or computer, but could be printed as well.
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How can I get them?
Both of these eBooklets are my way of thanking subscribers to our Newsletter. If you’d like to receive them, simply click here to subscribe and you’ll immediately receive download links via email. (Newsletters are published bi-monthly or monthly at the most – so don’t worry, I won’t flood your inbox.)
A special appeal…
In the month of March, our expenses will more than double. Below is a minimum breakdown of what we’ll need in new monthly financial partners:
If you or your church are not currently supporting us financially, would you consider doing so this month? Click Here for instructions on partnering with us.
Thank you for stopping by today. God bless you richly and help both of us to become more and more like him. Happy New Year!
Youth Convention
Stop the Presses…
… before I do or say one more thing, I have to stop and say…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
…to my number one baker and “French Painter”… Timo.
Since arriving in France he has become an incredible drummer, taken great interest in baking, cooking and making authentic Italian pizza crust from scratch (he rocks). People love being around him and he’s making more friends than he probably realizes. He’s a JOY and we are so proud of this AIMKid!
Today is the actual day but we celebrated with friends earlier in the week because dad teaches at the Bible School today. Incidentally, he is holding a home-made backboard for the basketball net that we picked up in the summer. Our next door neighbour made it for him… how cool is that!?
Youth Convention
Last weekend we were in Melun for the national youth convention (YC). It actually doubles, somewhat, as a European YC since there were people there from Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Estonia, the UK and all over France.
Rev. Chadwick King (Santa Rosa, CA) was the guest speaker and was tremendous. In the top picture you’ll see that I was translating for Bro. King. What an honour to help in the area of translation.
Not only did our kids enjoy being around other youth, but we had a couple of young people with us who were there for the first time. They too enjoyed it much and are already excited to come back next year. Praying at the altar, they were so hungry for the presence of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost: I’ve said it before God is doing a great work in our Sunday School kids! Thank you Jesus.
Little touch of Holland
We’d been looking forward to meeting fellow AIMers Baron & Jen Carson of Bosier City, Louisiana and it happened at YC (see pic above). They assist at the church in Dordrecht Holland and what a pleasure to serve on AIM with such great folks as them.
If you have an interest in, or burden for, Holland… check out their site: HopeforHolland.com, and consider partnering with them.
Monday Monday…
After a busy YC weekend, followed by a 3.5hr drive back home Sunday night, Monday was a low-key day at home for the most part. Only at around supper time did the whole family venture out together to watch the sunset from the old smoke-stacks at la Manufacture downtown, normally a great vantage point. With winter time now in effect and the sun moving quickly, we actually arrived just after it had set, but still enjoyed getting out in the fresh air together.
We weren’t alone up there however, there happened to be another family… a mom & her two boys who spoke English. We struck up a conversation with them which lasted nearly an hour and a half. They too were an ex-pat family who’d moved to Châtellerault from Melbourne Australia. They’d been here for roughly a year and a half and were homeschooling their kids until just recently when they’d enrolled them in school. In short… there were tons of parallels between our two families (right down to having left behind a flock of backyard chickens!!).
We may have thought we were going down there for a sunset, but I think it was definitely a God-moment and the real purpose of our jaunt down there was for that meet-up. Thank you Lord!
#ParisShootings
Photo Credit: CNN
I didn’t want to lead off with this, because Timo & all the good things that God is doing take priority.
Nonetheless, many of you reading this will have already heard about the shootings in Paris last night. As I write this 129 people died in shootings at a famous nightclub, a restaurant and, incredibly the national soccer stadium where France was playing an exhibition game against Germany with the president in attendance. As a result the city of Paris will largely be “closed for business” today: any place where crowds can gather. It’s likely not a coincidence, but France resumed passport control at the borders yesterday in the lead-up to the global environmental conference to begin in a few weeks.
Know this: Although I’m in the Paris region for Bible School, I’m some 50km from downtown so quite sheltered. Thank you for those that have emailed, tweeted or inboxed through Facebook.
Do this: #PrayForParis #PrayForFrance … there is perhaps no day when it is more appropriate to place a call out for prayer for this country. Once again, the nation has been hit at its heart and will be seeking solace. We know the peace-giver.
Everything that happens has SOME-thing to do with the Kingdom of God…pray that God helps us recognize and seize each opportunity in the coming days & weeks.
Pray for France
A Wedding & the 1st Century
As many of you were reading the post last week, we were headed about an hour and a half south to our second wedding since arriving in France.
Wedding Bells
Sylvain and I met during the 2001-2002 school year when I was teaching French at the University of New Brunswick and he spent a year there as an exchange student from France and was my Teaching Assistant. Our friendship remained and shortly after our arrival in January, we received their wedding invitation in the mail.
We arrived the day before and Sylvain and I went zip-lining with several of his friends (what a blast!) while Liz & the kids stayed back at his parents’ house where the kids made good use of the pool!
Following the civil ceremony, we spent 2.5 hours on a river boat, cruising the Charente River; catching up with a few folks we knew and getting to know others as well. The meal went until about midnight but we didn’t get home until after 3:00am due to torrential rains. There was time for a “night-nap” before getting up for church.
1st Century
The photo above Sylvain & Camille shows the kids (along with their Travel Buddies) at the ruins of a Gallo-Roman Arena in Sylvain’s hometown of Saintes. In Roman times the city was known as Mediolanum Santonum and it was then, during the 1st century, that they built the arena, the ruins of which are visible behind the kids. Pretty neat to think that it was being built as the New Testament was being written!
Fond Farewell
Almost immediately following Sunday morning service, Andy (our Bible School student) and I drove Miranda to the airport where she caught a plane home the following morning.
We’re thankful for a young person willing and able to spend a couple of weeks familiarizing themselves with and contributing to the work of God here in France!
Bible School
After dropping Miranda at the airport hotel, we headed to Melun (an hour away) for an intensive week of Bible School where classes began at 7:30am and we typically left the building around 9:00 pm.
I taught for 2 hours each day on the Epistles but was also involved in grading students’ oral theses (they pick from over 100 questions out of a hat and must teach a short Bible Study on it. Very impressive).
On Tuesday, classes had to be cut short due to a funeral for a young person from the Melun church who died unexpectedly, making it a tough day overall. That evening was the normal midweek service in which 3 of the IBF students brought short messages to the congregation.
You can also see the IBF instructors for the week including fellow AIMers and fellow New Brunswickers, Rev. Kevin & Crystal Wallace who are furlough replacements for Bro. & Sis. Nowacki. I’m very much enjoying the chance to work with and get to know this couple. Their ministry to the church in Melun, following the unexpected death of that young person, has been “hand in glove”… The Lord always knows!
Coffee & “Crash”
Last night was a “drive home & crash in bed by 9:30pm” kind of night. Very glad for a low-key Saturday morning with coffee brewing.
As you drink your coffee and read about our goings on, thank you for letting what you read, inform your prayers. Through Christ we can do all things but without him we can do nothing (Philippians. 4.13 & John 15.5).
God bless you today as you go about your day!
Week 2 as Family of 6…
As many of you were reading last week’s post, we were meandering past tables upon tables of books ‘neath the ruins of a baronnial castle built in the 12th century… you guessed it. We were back in Angles-sur-l’Anglin for their annual…
Foire-aux-livres
For a small town, Angles-sur-l’Anglin has a lot going on! This is where Liz & I went for our anniversary and then again for fireworks (it’s only about 25min away). Today, though, we went for their book fair.
Streets throughout the entire village were filled with stands, tables & displays. Most were selling books (lots of antique books) but others were selling vintage prints, postcards or maps.
I think each of us came away with a little something. My find was an old copy of the “Jerusalem Bible” in three volumes.
In the picture of the kids… you may or may not be able to clearly see what they’re holding, but they each have a “travel buddy.” Travel buddies are fuzzy critters that love to travel with MKs and serve as a tangible reminder that someone, somewhere is praying specifically for them. Not only did our kids receive travel buddies from our church’s Sunday School department, before leaving, but they also received a set from Missionary to Ghana, Colleen Carter.
Thank you for your regular prayers for the kids!
Back to Bordeaux
The following day, Sunday, we headed down to the city of Bordeaux following the morning service. Our goal was simple… a bit of fellowship with one of our nearest pastor-neighbours and his family / youth. (Note: while among the two closest churches, they’re roughly 2.5hrs away.)
Along with Pastor & Sis. Madjling, and their eldest daughter Marina, we enjoyed an incredible meal at the Entrecôte Restaurant. Everyone eats the same salad and main course (steak & fries)… you choose only the way you’d like it cooked. Afterwards, you have a choice of dessert.
The kids, meanwhile, headed off to something a little less time consuming and found a KFC where they could get something quickly and then walk downtown to get an ice cream. It was awesome for our kids to get together with a few others. It doesn’t happen all that often so it’s precious when it does.
Thanks Bro. & Sis. Madjling for your friendship & hospitality!
Future AIMer??
The kids continued to enjoy the company of Miranda Carter this week. Not only did they have fun jamming together after services but on Tuesday night we all walked down toward the church past many bushes heavy with ripe blackberries. We came home with two big containers full as well as a third container filled with plums. (One of our favourite things to do with blackberries is to make home-made blackberry ice cream. Alas, the ice cream maker stayed in Canada)
It was particularly nice for Sophie to have another girl around. We are thankful that she decided to come spend these two weeks with us and look forward to having her back on AIM status next year, if the Lord doesn’t come back first.
Wedding Bells
Today we are so happy to join with our friends Sylvain & Camille as they get married. Sylvain spent a year as a student marker for me while I taught French at the University of New Brunswick. Our friendship has continued to grow since 2002 and it’s very special to spend this day with them.
Prayer Support
Pray for…
- … Miranda as she prepares to fly home Monday morning – safety and direction.
- … Me as I head to Melun Sunday afternoon for a week’s worth of teaching in the Bible School.
- … Liz & the kids who will hold the fort here in Châtellerault.
Thank you for your love & support… you are special to us!
Visit from Home
The population of Châtellerault grew by “1” this week… and her name is Miranda Carter! She came to us from back home in Saint John, New Brunswick… where her dad is our pastor.
Father-Daughter road trip
Miranda flew into Paris on Tuesday but since our car isn’t big enough for 6 people, Liz stayed home with the boys. Since the flight wouldn’t arrive until late afternoon, Soph & I took advantage of the opportunity to spend time together in one of the greatest cities in the world.
First stop… “Forever 21” a clothing shop she knew of on Rue de Rivoli… where she eventually scored a few deals. One of the biggest treats that we walked out with though, was the company of two friends – Angela (from Melun) and Melanie (from Bordeaux) – who just “happened” to be in the same store. (What do you suppose the chances are of just randomly running into someone you know in a city like Paris?)
We went for a Starbucks together before continuing our father-daughter date… during which we got some Lemon Shakers fresh lemonade (a must-try!) and a quick stop by the Eiffel Tower before heading…
…to the Airport!
After a series of delays, Miranda touched down shortly after 5pm. What a trooper… travelling with only a carry-on sized suitcase & backpack (for a 2wk stay!)… THIS is a seasoned traveller! She learned well when she took part in the trip to France last summer.
We headed back downtown for a bite to eat and managed to get a quick bite to eat. It turned out to be McDonalds, but to redeem the “non-Frenchness” of it, we took it to the Tuilleries Gardens to eat… (see photo above).
Paris… by car!
One of the things that was pretty cool (besides spending the day with Soph) was that I actually drove right into downtown Paris & out to the airport. Here are a couple of pics of rue de Rivoli: on the left side, you can see the Louvre museum.
Normally I wouldn’t attempt to drive downtown, but during the month of August, most parisians are away on vacation so the streets are pretty empty (as you can see).
Friends
Wednesday night was Miranda’s first service & afterward she & Soph fiddled with different songs on the piano.
It was a great Bible Study followed by a really great time of prayer. Afterwards, folks were just content to stick around and chat for a while. It was nice to see the 3-4 different pockets of interaction happening. Thank you Lord!
Remainder of the week
- Thursday was “Hedge Day“… where we trimmed the hedge at the Brochu’s house. It’s a good 1/2-day job but the kids aren’t always enthused about having to bag up the trimmings for disposal. I get it… I do, but working together it went quickly.
- 4 mornings this week I’ve been involved in English Tutoring for the young man who rented our first house here, after we moved out. He starts a new job soon and, although his English is strong, wanted to bone up on it. That will go next week as well. Praying that this time together will benefit the Kingdom of God.
Thank you…
… for your continued support. Let what you read here inform your prayers for us and for France.
Au Revoir #AYCFrance
When was the last time that you had to say good-bye to a group of people with whom you’d experienced great things, over a short time and you knew that you came away from it all the better?
That was us this past Monday… but joy before tears!
France & Luxembourg with AYC
According to “theFreeDictionary.com” the acronym AYC could stand for:
(1) At Your Convenience
(2) the Association of Yukon Communities
(3) the Austin Yacht Club or
(4) Are you confused?
In our week, however… it has referred to Apostolic Youth Corps…
and they’ve lived up to their name!
Ministry
The #AYCFrance team arrived last Saturday and barely did the wheels of their Delta flight touch the ground but that they were off to the races!
Day one started off with orientation at the Headquarter’s church in Melun, getting settled in to the hotel and then heading into downtown Paris for a river cruise on the Seine followed by dinner Chez Clément on the Champs Elysées… I was VERY impressed with this restaurant – fine cuisine but not at all overly formal!
The next day, Sunday, was spent back with the Nowacki’s church family where the AYCers ministered in song, testimony and through the preached word.
Pictured along with Liz & I are veteran missionaries John & Anne Nowacki, AYC chaperones Josh & Rachel Carson and Luke & Amy Levine. By this point the team had only been together for two full days (give or take a little jetlag). Can’t even begin to say what a great team these chaperones make… just incredible!
Luxembourg
Over the next few days, the group did 3 more services in as many days, visiting Romilly-sur-Seine, Longwy and Arras, in northern France.
Along the way from Longwy to Arras, however, they had a neat opportunity to visit the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg where we handed out – in roughly 1 hour – nearly 2,000 business card invitations for church services being held weekly by AIMers Jeremy and Khrista Favors.
There was a “God-moment” when Bro. Levine met a man from Brazil in whose town he (Bro. Levine) had preached several years ago. Although they’d never met personally, the man shared that he’d been looking for some time, for a church that preached about the Holy Ghost as it was his desire to have this experience. He immediately put the man in touch with Pastor Favors who did a short Bible study with him there on the sidewalk and voilà… God opens a door for someone who is hungry.
AIMers to Luxembourg
Here you can see the Favors along with Liz & I. It’s one thing to do what Liz & I are doing…. jump into a community where there is already an established work in place (with a building, a core, etc.). It’s something very different, however, to go into a completely new community and be the one to lay the foundation for a brand new church.
I admire this couple!
Prayer
Some of the team members, as they were handing out invitations, met Pierre a cab-driver who, when asked if there was anything in particular the team could pray for, said this…
“There’s never really been a real-led revival in Luxembourg and every day I pray that God would raise up an army of believers who would bring God to this country. Pray that God uses me, in my taxi, to be a witness for Him… for only what’s done for Christ will last.”
We prayed.
Sowing & Reaping
Within only two hours of us leaving Luxembourg, Pastor Favors texted us to let us know that he’d already had several calls from people wanting to come to church. Praise the Lord!
Normandy
Several in the group really wanted to visit Normandy so we did our best and managed to fit it into an already jam-packed schedule.
We visited the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, run by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Pretty incredible and very sobering to see several thousand white crosses overlooking the English Channel… either crosses or stars of David… most identified, some “known only unto God.”
Following that we dipped down to the city of Arromanches, where a Mulberry Port (artificial port) had been built to offload some 9,000 tons of weapons and supplies each day, with some days seeing as many as 18,000 tons.
Today
Today we’re accompanying the team to Disneyland Paris before spending another day tomorrow in services across greater Paris. Before we head to Disney however, I’ll be teaching a 1-hour course at the Bible School (this is going to be a very long day!).
Prayers
Today we could use your prayers for strength. It has been an awesome week, but one during which we’ve gotten little rest.
Thank you for praying for us… as you pray, you are part of the work here and our victories are YOUR victories too!
AIM Long 