Request for advice from a new missionary, how to communicate?

I recently got an email asking for communication advice on how to communicate as a missionary. Though I shared some ideas (I did missionary communications for years for two Christian organizations), this is an area that both I and Rusty, the missionary who asked, would greatly appreciate your comments--either for him as a missionary, what to write, but also what you as a supporter of missionaries have found useful.

Enter your responses in the COMMENT area below this article and THANK YOU in advance!

Email to Yvon Prehn

My family and I are now serving as missionaries in Budapest, HU. We find ourselves trying to communicate even more than we did as youth ministers.

I wondered if you might have, or know where we could find, some information that deals specifically with missions updates and letters. there are so many ways to communicate now beyond a typical/traditional monthly newsletter. I'm wondering what is most effective, though i suppose we are all wondering that.

I look forward to your response, thanks.

From Rusty

My response:

Great question! I have a couple of ideas on this and I am going to post it as a question on my site and ask for comments. Initially here are some ideas that I have:

Background, it would probably be helpful to let you know why I'm sharing: In the past, I worked for both Compassion Intl. and Young Life and a big part of my job for both was to write fund-raising, missionary updates etc. From what I was told, my materials were very successful in raising support. With the assumption that people vote with their pocket books (as well they should--wise stewardship in giving to worth causes), it seems that my methods were successful.

Advice, suggestions on missionary communications
Preliminary work: Distinguish the various audiences you need to communicate to. This is very important because you probably won't communicate in the same way to supporters back home as you will to the people you are trying to reach. If you try to create communications that will appeal to everyone, you'll most likely not communicate deeply to anyone. More work yes, but worth it.

#1: Content
The core of my content was always to tell stories of how God was at work and then to invite folks to join in.I 'll try to find some of the past pieces and post them if I can. .....as I am writing....this is important, I'll try to do that later and get back to you on this. (as of posting this article, still have to find past pieces, will post when I do)

But initially--focus on story telling.

Tell it clearly, without editorial comments--allow God to touch hearts, don't interject your feelings. Tell stories simply and clearly and allow the Holy Spirit to touch hearts.

#2: Tools and channels
This is an area that is really changing. The really important thing here is to find out what channels your various audience members use.

They may be very different for different audiences. For example, I would imagine that your support audience in the U.S. uses both postal mail and email and expects updates to come in from those channels.

For your target audience, again, clarify--is it youth or all ages you are trying to reach now? Much of the global audience is primarily mobile phone based. This makes a difference obviously. With that in mind, some practical suggestions:

--Make sure your website for ministry is mobile-phone friendly. One of the things I really like about WordPress as well as being free is that the simple layouts automatically convert to a mobile format without you having to do extra formatting or programming.

--This might seem like an odd recommendation, but the BEST book I've read on social media is a totally secular one (nothing bad in it), titled Social Boom by Jeffery Gitomer. The key, core message he has is that you need to put out what he calls "value messages" material that helps and serves your audience and they will find you. I think his advice is so wise. I teach in an adult ministry at church and am preparing to do a series on Kings and Prophets in Israel (and I want to emphasize outreach, still figuring out how to do that....) anyway, this morning was rereading the story of Rehoboam, who did not follow the advice of the wise elders to serve the people, but used his position of authority to oppress them--they rebelled and we know the rest of the story.

Think about how you can use social media (if your audience uses it and I imagine they do) to help, serve, encourage--not just to talk about yourself. Since I've started to do that (still baby steps), but really working on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, followers have increased and I've had comments that things did help people.

That's all I have for now....this is such a good question, as I said, I will pass it on and get more.

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