Mission newsletter… Saturation point?
I sent out my “mission” newsletter on Thursday. It’s an email that goes only to people who’ve requested it, which tells about stuff here with the church and how we are trying to reach out to the community.
115 people are on the email list. I ended up getting 8 responses right away, all of them bounce-backs from comcast.net. (Enmity with the Swiss server “bluewin.ch”, I guess.) Since then, I’ve received 5 personal responses.
One thing we foreign church workers can do is learn to communicate better with our sponsors, supporters and those far away who pray for us back. It’s one of the reasons for this blog: To keep in contact with people as they pray for the Lausanne work and our family.
But people are flooded with emails. (10 Africans have asked if they could give me 15% of a gazillion dollars, and that’s just this week!) I receive mission reports from Cambodia, Lyons, Mauritius Island, Marseilles, Geneva and Strasbourg. I read them all, and respond to them all (except for Geneva). I know, I don’t have a life.
Any suggestions? Should I not worry about it and keep on sending the email newsletter? Is there a way to make it more interactive?
I will respond to your comments…
115 people are on the email list. I ended up getting 8 responses right away, all of them bounce-backs from comcast.net. (Enmity with the Swiss server “bluewin.ch”, I guess.) Since then, I’ve received 5 personal responses.
One thing we foreign church workers can do is learn to communicate better with our sponsors, supporters and those far away who pray for us back. It’s one of the reasons for this blog: To keep in contact with people as they pray for the Lausanne work and our family.
But people are flooded with emails. (10 Africans have asked if they could give me 15% of a gazillion dollars, and that’s just this week!) I receive mission reports from Cambodia, Lyons, Mauritius Island, Marseilles, Geneva and Strasbourg. I read them all, and respond to them all (except for Geneva). I know, I don’t have a life.
Any suggestions? Should I not worry about it and keep on sending the email newsletter? Is there a way to make it more interactive?
I will respond to your comments…
April 24th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I’d go with the don’t worry about it and keep on. I believe that’s similar advice you’ve given me in the past, huh?, although on a different subject.
Not having read the newsletter (feel free to send it to me; I’d love to read it), I can’t comment on how to make the process better, but I’m betting you do a bang-up job!
I’ll put you on the mailing list. But don’t feel that you need to reply… Brady
April 24th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
You could post your newsletter on your blog and send out a short note by email with a link to read your letter.
I’ve thought of doing that, but wonder if it will cut down on the number of people who actually read the letter. Plus, I don’t really want all the names and such posted to the web. What do you think? Brady
April 24th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I think the church here in Fresno put the recent newsletter in their bulletin, if thats the case, then I got to read it. In fact I got in my hand right here. I got to go to class, but I wil comment on it later if you want feedback.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:36 am
I always like to hear from the missionaries and reading about how God is working around the world. The newspapers are not going to report this information, so someone needs too. In a way it reminds me of the letters in the NT, where Christians write to one another about what God has done. I say keep doing it. If you worry about too many emails, then keep your reports monthly or quarterly. While feedback is always great, just because you are not getting it, does not always mean people are not reading it.
Sometimes the bi-weekly reports become monthly or even quarterly (like last time). And it’s true, you can’t worry about people writing back. Folks are busy. I just want them to be informed and to know they are appreciated. Brady
April 25th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
What ever method you decide on, I would love to get a report about your work. Could you possibly send some Swiss Chocalate as a bribe?
No bribes from here, buddy. But I could try to make one of those scratch and sniff emails… Brady
April 25th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Communication is a two-way street. I don’t think individual churches excel at facilitating communication with missionaries they help sponsor.
On your end, I urge you to keep doing what you’re doing. I’ve read your reports regularly for years, usually in the bulletin.
On our end, there are a couple of things happening soon. One I can’t talk about yet. But the other, and the more important one, is a Sunday devoted to mission work. While this in itself is not unusual, what WILL be different (I hope) is an urging for US to keep in touch with YOU (and Marcos and Martin et. al.). I’ve urged Gary to mention your blog to the congregation. And I’m hoping the elders continue to remind us individually to include you in everything happening here.
Well, you talk to the people you’re around. And people’s lives are so very, very busy. All this came up because it’d been a while since I’d written and thought that people would wonder what’s up. I’m glad there will be missions Sunday. College church has always been very generous to us. Someday we need to talk about the relationship between long-term and short-term missions. Brady
April 25th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I sniff in anticipation.
I can just see you scratchin’ at the screen… Brady