# HELP! ---Advice on missionary communication from the field



## Pergamum (Jun 1, 2010)

Hey guys:


I am seeking input.....



*Here is my situation:*

I, as a missionary, try to be very communicative. However, as I spend more and more time away from good internet locations, it becomes harder and harder to manage this missionary communication (especially if sick, or if one's workload is heavy..or the power goes out frequently). Most of this communication is not mere play or shallow talk, but I count it as part of my calling, i.e., I have a responsibility to keep folks informed and share info as much as possible.



Here's my preferences:


I try to send out an email update every 8 weeks. 
I try to send out a mailed-out prayer letter every 3 months.
I keep a blog (TandTfamily) for family pics and try to update every month
I keep a separate blog for missionary-type stuff: Missions - a Sovereign Grace Perspective
I limit my facebook info due to privacy concerns, but I post captionless pictures
I personally email and/or phone many, many supporting pastors and have personal friendships with them that extend before/beyond my relationship with them due to a supporter/supportee status (i.e. our relationship is not financial, but we were friends and colleagues before)
I keep regular mentoring correspondence with missionary appointees and candidates who are "in the pipeline" or coming on the field or considering service, and I really like this part of my calling, as I am seeing people raised up. Several dozen are heading towards missions right now and I am in regular correspondence with and have talked with over 200 people this year alone heading towards missions. This takes much time but is very rewarding as I answer many questions for them. I have so much to do that my typing gets sloppy very often.


Here is the situation I am facing:


My email inbox (hotmail) is becoming unmanageable. Last time I went interior and returned I had 700 emails to answer, about 400 personal emails and not updates, etc.
I cannot keep up with email and/or address changes
I forget who some people are (they email once and say they are praying for me and ask me to add them to my list because they always read my updates, etc.) and then I don't hear from them again and cannot remember the name attached to the email address.
I think my email letters go into people's spam boxes
I am not sure people are reading them
I am not sure if people are being blessed by them and it is hard to get objective, direct input (I only hear from people who are strongly pleased enough to write me and comment on something I am doing or saying, or strongly concerned enough to write and ask/critique/question something I am doing or saying... so I don't get many middling opinions).
People are information-overloaded and many only want to read a one-paragraph summary and see a picture, while some homeschooling families do country studies and people-group studies and ask me for more and more information (i.e. there is a need for communication, but people are overloaded and people's desires vary widely,but there are limited ways to accommodate people individually when you try to communicate _en masse._
People don't like communication _en masse_, and private correspondence is much more impactful. But this is impossible.
Hotmail only allows one to send 100 emails at a time, etc, How do I send my prayer letter to everyone on my list in one click?
I forget which supporter is from which church (are they from that church in Oklahoma, or that other church in Texas?)
If I post online, I need to delete details due to security, and some of these details would bless supporters.
My snail-mail mailing service is cheap, but unless I purge my mail-out list every prayer letter costs my 350 usd to mail due to a growing contact list. I need to spend less.
I use Facebook a lot, but I forget who are supporters and who are just friends of friends of friends. 
I feel constrained to grant every friend request because I don't know if they are in one of my supporting churches.
I could restrict snail mailings only to church addresses, but many people want their own prayer letters and some churches don't really post missionary letters or else post them in places where congregant traffic does not flow (i.e, they don't get read
by the congregation and the pastor is overloaded with info, too).





*EMAILING:* I need one program that allows me to list all supporters, give details about them (i.e., she is the homeschooling mom Grace Church in Texas who sent my kids a b-day card), and send my email update to all of them with one click without my letter ending up in their spam box. I also need a service that allows email recipients to edit their email and/or mailing address, and also unsubscribe if they want to, without me handling every change. 

*SNAIL MAIL: * I also need an affordable way of mailing out snail mailings. My organization can get mass mailing rates for non-profit orgs but individual missionaries cannot. I would love to be able to mail out a cheap brochure or prayer letter to every one of the supporters on my snail mail list for under 200 USD. Also, I need someone to handle this so I, again, am not faced with cancelling or updating every address that changes.

*FACEBOOK:* I need a way to inform people on facebook and share info without compromising security. Security concerns are not great for tribal works, but others works require more security.




Also,


In general, how do you advise improving my methods of communicating. If you know me, how also would you advise improving the content of my communication.
What is some general advice for missionaries as they seek to communicate well.


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## Covenant Joel (Jun 1, 2010)

I certainly don't have adequate experience to really answer all of these great questions, however, as I'm thinking about it (I've done some thinking on this for myself in the future), I have a couple of ideas:

(1) I believe you can turn the "Wall" feature on Facebook off. I did this while I was overseas for security concerns. No one can post anything suspicious on there that way. Plus it might cut down on the amount of time you spend responding to people on FB.

(2) Create a "secret" group on FB for your supporters. It's by invite only (perhaps you could have a trustworthy supporter manage it for you), and is not publicly visible at all.

(3) Keep a secure website (as in, no one can get into the site without knowing the username/password) with updates, etc, that people can view anytime. I'm probably going to be taking this approach. We'll have all our update newsletters on there, including some video updates, prayer requests, how to support, etc. So in an email update, you can give the link and say that you'll be posting your past updates and keep the current ones up. You could still do the email update, but in case people want past info, etc., you don't have to go find it all and email it to them, just point them to the secure site with login info. If you want to see an example of how this can work, PM me, I have a sample in progress right now. This might cut down on mailing out things, and to host it would cost about 5 bucks a month, and 4-10 for the domain name registration. If you're interested in it, let me know, I can help you set it up.

(4) Perhaps with this idea, you could probably build in a feature where your supporters could go in, fill out a form with their info (if you want), and then even select if they want a paper newsletter every so often, or if electronic is fine. I doubt you need to send out hundreds of paper ones, though some older supporters might want that still.

Those are just some random thoughts, but thanks for your service!


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## Scottish Lass (Jun 2, 2010)

I like how you include links in your updates--that way I can get the bare bones from the update and click through for the details if/when I have the time. This already goes a long way to handling information overload on our end. Another way to pare the list on your end would be to have us respond annually to a message from you--it'd be work on your part to delete those that don't respond, but it would keep the list current.


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## Wannabee (Jun 2, 2010)

Perg,

Praise God! These are wonderful challenges.

First, I HIGHLY recommend ACT! by Sage Software. Here's a forum where you can learn more about it. ACT! by Sage - ACT! by Sage Forum - ACT! by Sage Forum
I think you'll find it'll solve many of your problems. You can set up your database (a long and tedious process, but well worth it) and give each client/contact a designated group, or multi-groups. If you then want to send out emails to one group, you just choose that group and email them en-mass. It'll keep all contact info, history, notes, etc. that you could possibly want. You can associate by church, mentors, contributors or whatever designations you want. For mailings you do the same. Form letters are easy to set up and it interacts with Office as well as FaceBook and other resources very well.
There might be better programs out there for this that I'm unaware of. But I've been tickled with this one.

For the homeschoolers and others who want to do more extensive research you might put together a packet that you can email anyone who esquires with pertinent links and just update it on occasion as needed. That way it's always ready and offers you an opportunity to keep some of these personal contacts. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help from your sending church. A LOT of what you're doing could be filtered by someone you can trust to manage it. As for incoming emails.... heh, well, got me.  I will be more sensitive to sending you personal notes now though. 


Keep up the great work brother. It's a blessing to come along side in prayer.


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## Pergamum (Jun 2, 2010)

Here is something I sent to some others. Maybe a secure website is the answer?



> Hello FIREMEN:
> 
> I am a missionary in ______, working in a very unreached area. I believe in good communication, but the infrastructure here stinks.
> ---I am also advising and recruiting many new missionaries to fill the dire needs here and I have met with much success.
> ...





Is such a website the answer, and can a website be made to do these things?


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## Covenant Joel (Jun 2, 2010)

Pergamum said:


> Is such a website the answer, and can a website be made to do these things?


 
Absolutely. I'd recommend just setting up a secure site with WordPress installed (very easy to do). Then when you have updates, simply write a new post with a link to the PDF newsletter. If you have everyone simply put in their email address to receive email updates of new posts from there, they'll be reminded to go login to your site to download the PDF. If they want to unsubscribe, they can do so, and if they want to change their email, they can do that too. It wouldn't create a database with info on people (though you could probably set up the subscription to ask them to include that information). There's probably something that could be done on the website to create such a database if you wanted it too. Maybe some IT guys on the board would know more about the database side of things. The ACT database (offline) recommended earlier is a good one, the same one that WBT uses if memory serves correctly.

You could easily put all sorts of info on the site for people to get to know you and your ministry better, and it would all be secure.

This wouldn't be expensive either: less than $10 for the domain name, $5/month for the hosting. PM if you want more details, I can show you a sample.


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## Caroline (Jun 2, 2010)

I don't really have a lot to add here, and I have had a few of the same problems with my ex-Pentecostal email list. I have at times had to make difficult decisions at the risk of hurting feelings because I do, after all, have kids and other things to do besides answer email and phone. A few of my decisions were that (1) nobody but close friends and some family on Facebook--I already deal with a lot of panicked people a lot of the time, and I need one place that is safe for me to talk. However, once you allow people on your FB list, it's really hard to unfriend them. Maybe closing the page 'due to time constraints' and reopening a private one might be the best thing. (2) I keep one email address for 'business' and one email address for friends. Many of my 'business' emailers believe they are on my list of friends, but that's for me to decide. If it's a strain to talk to them, I need to be able to prepare myself before opening up that address. (3) Sometimes I just don't answer my email. If I can't remember who Fred Bertly is or why he is mad about something that I said, then I feel it is probably best to just let that one go. 

The only suggestion for you I might have here is carefully draw lines between your friends and your supporters in the way you set this up so that you aren't under work strain all the time. Once the lines get blurred, it's hard to unblur them, and after you get a certain amount of supporters, it becomes unmanageable. I'd recommend finding ONE method of communication for supporters and sticking largely to that. They don't really need email AND facebook AND blog AND snail mail, as much as I admire you for taking all of that on. Each of those eats up time and energy. It may be good to send out email reminders, but have them mostly say, "Check out my blog!" or website or whatever. 

But those are just my thoughts. I don't get paid for my work, so I can be crankier about it and say, "If you want to talk to me, do it this way...", whereas missionaries are dependent upon support. So I know there is more of a drive to be sure that people find it easy to keep up with your work, and that can mean multiple forms of communication.

Best wishes with this and the rest of your work as well.


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## Pergamum (Jun 2, 2010)

The lines are very blurred and I cannot unblur them. Not sure I should....but you're right, it would be easier to compartmentalize my life.


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## Idelette (Jun 2, 2010)

I'm not sure what the best thing to do is, but I do know several missionaries and I'll tell you what many of them do. Most of them either maintain one blog or an email newsletter and that's it! They only send out letters to their church back home, and the church often distributes that letter to supporters. Most of the people I know prefer not to spend hours online per week updating folks back home. So, many of them send out a monthly or quarterly newsletter which includes updates and prayer requests. And they don't receive feedback from folks, or messages etc. Any requests usually go through their supporting church. The only feedback they receive is from whomever they are accountable to and that's it. Some of the people I know don't even have internet access, so they send out snail mail once per quarter. And none of the missionaries use facebook as a tool to update folks. They primarily keep that for close friends and family only. Personally, I think the best thing to do is keep it to only ONE source and not several sources, and just use that one tool to update everyone. That's the most efficient thing to do, in my opinion. As far as homeschooling families, they can use the newsletters that you send out and if they have any questions they can go through your supporting church or wait until you are back in the States for your report. Most people understand that a missionaries primary job is to work in the field and report back when there's time.


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## Wannabee (Jun 2, 2010)

> Most people understand that a missionaries primary job is to work in the field and report back when there's time.



I found Paris Reidhead's perspective quite interesting.  In a way it echoes the Brooks' quote in your signature.

YouTube - The Philosophy of Evangelism


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## Pergamum (Jun 3, 2010)

Advice for programs I have gotten:

Close Contact

Aweber

ACT

and

Benchmark.


Anyone use these programs?


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## JBaldwin (Jun 3, 2010)

One suggestion I have not seen, and I admit I skimmed over some of these emails, is one I've seen done with mailings I've received from missionaries. 

Once you decide what direction to take with consolidation, contact everyone either by email or snail mail and explain to them your situation. Include a form or card they can fill out with information needed (name, address, location, reason for wanting contact, etc.). Then tell them that you are cleaning up your lists, and if they would like to continue hearing from you, please contact you. If they don't contact you will delete their name from your master list.


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## Pergamum (Jun 3, 2010)

Yes, I tried to clean up my list by using a contact form but the contact form cards trickled in over a 4 month period and it was hard to track. 

I am thinking of just nixing paper mail totally. And, in specially requested cases, having my home church print out and mail to those few who don't have email.


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## JBaldwin (Jun 3, 2010)

Pergamum said:


> Yes, I tried to clean up my list by using a contact form but the contact form cards trickled in over a 4 month period and it was hard to track.
> 
> I am thinking of just nixing paper mail totally. And, in specially requested cases, having my home church print out and mail to those few who don't have email.



Most of my missionary friends do this. I receive a newsletter once a quater with updates on the family, the mission and prayer requests. The supporting churches print out letters as needed. For me, that is enough contact to keep up with them. One of these missionaries also keeps a facebook, but restricts usage to personal friends. That seems to work well for them.


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## Tim (Jun 3, 2010)

Pergy, what is the purpose for your communication? The reason why I ask is that sometimes we forget the reason for what we do. I don't know that this is the case with you, but sometimes it is helpful to go back to the very reason you want to do this.

I would also be concerned if your "requirement" to communicate actually takes away from your ministry in your locale. Would your supporters be willing to deal with less regular communication if they knew that you would use that saved time for face-to-face contact and ministry to your congregation/those still outside the visible church?

Is it possible for you to have a virtual deacon working for you in some capacity back in the States?

Just some questions for you that I hope are useful.


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## Pergamum (Jun 3, 2010)

I believe that local churches and missionaries often are very unconnected. Therefore, I desire closer commo.

Also, I am trying to recruit more workers. And it is happening. And good info seems to help.


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## Wannabee (Jun 3, 2010)

There is a function in outlook that requests personal info from your contacts. ACT! will integrate this into the database. I had forgotten about that feature. Also, ACT! might have the ability to request contact info... I can't remember.


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