January 2014

We just finished an MK retreat in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was an amazing retreat! We had approximately 100 MKs at the retreat, while their parents were in their own meetings. The focus of this retreat was the Holy Spirit. Our goal was for MKs to see how the Holy Spirit could use them to have an impact on the continent of Africa. It is always amazing to see how God moves at these retreats. When you consider that 80% of MKs do not have a youth pastor or children’s pastor, you begin to realize the value of having a retreat every couple of years. They are so critical to the overall spiritual health of the MK community.

In a couple days, we will be in Thailand, leading a retreat for all our families living in Northern Asia. We covet your prayers as we invest in these families. One of the main reasons families leave missions is because of challenges raising kids overseas. We delight in helping missionaries overcome these challenges! As you can imagine, the challenges of growing up in Northern Asia are huge.

Dargan and I have been leading the MK program for ten years. It has been an amazing journey!  Our biggest challenge right now is maintaining our missions budget. We are still supported through our missions account in AGWM. We rely on support of our friends, family, and churches. Thanks for your continued support! If you believe in missionary families, and would like to support us – as we support the missions body, you can do so at https://giving.ag.org/

In our Christmas card, we sent out our travel schedule for 2014. As we are at the retreats, would you remember to pray for our missionaries and their families represented at those retreat? This is what is currently on the calendar for 2014:

January:

Unreached People Groups MK retreat in Nairobi, Kenya

All-Africa MK Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa

Northern Asia MK Retreat, Cha Am, Thailand

February:

AG College visits, meeting with MKs in our AG universities

March:

Candidate Orientation, interviewing new missionary families

Brussels, Belgium, Christian Center

April:

All-Latin America and the Caribbean MK Retreat, San Jose Costa Rica

Missionary Kids Caregiver Conference, 35 missions agencies MK ministers. Chad is the keynote speaker on the topic of MK discipleship.

June:

MK retreat for families in Russia and Eastern block countries, Athens, Greece

Missionary Training in Springfield, MO. Preparing new MKs for missions life

Missionary Renewal in Springfield, MO. MKs coming home for a year of itineration

July:

Middle East, North Africa, Central Eurasia MK Retreat, Izmir, Turkey

September:

AG College visits, meeting with MKs in our AG universities

Nairobi, Kenya, speaking at an MK school

Cairo, Egypt, visiting Live-Dead MKs.

October:

AG College visits, meeting with MKs in our AG universities

November:

Thanksgiving Retreat for MK college students

December:

Nairobi, Kenya, Live-Dead Retreat

As missionaries, Dargan and I rely on the support of people to continue to minister to the MK of AGWM. We went to Belgium as missionaries in 1999, with a fully raised budget. When we returned from our first full term, we were asked to move back to the States and take over the MK program. With the schedule of AGWM, we were unable to complete an itineration prior to taking over ISMK. Currently, we only have about 60% of our budget raised. Over the course of 14 years (since our last itineration), we have lost some support, and gained some other supporters. The net result is a zero loss, and zero gain. However, budgets have changed quite a bit since our first term. As the MK Ministry Director, I am already on the road about half the year. It is very challenging to try and raise a budget in the midst of running the MK program and spending any time with my family. We need to raise $2,000 in monthly support. EVERY missionary family benefits from the MK program. Your support will impact every family, no matter where they serve.

This summer we also had a full month of training new MKs and helping veteran MKs with their transition back to the USA. Approximately 100 new MKs were trained and prepared to transition with their parents to a new country and life. One of the greatest joys is seeing young American kids catch their parents vision for missions, and be able to declare “God has not only called mom and dad, but God called our entire family to be missionaries!” This training process for MKs is critical to the overall effectiveness of a missionary transitioning to a foreign country. If the kids understand the call of God, and are able to personalize it, the parents are able to focus more on the areas to which God has called them.

This summer, ISMK did something unique during the annual Missionary Renewal. About 130 MKs left the CBC campus for a week-long “MK Camp” held at the Royal Rangers campground in southwest Missouri, Eagle Rock. Jr high and Sr. high MKs left mom and dad for a week of their own camp. Specifically focused on them.

This summer we made two major changes to the youth program during Missionary Renewal: first we combined the junior high with the senior high, then we sent them to Camp Eagle Rock for the entire time. Camp Eagle Rock is owned by the GCAG, managed by the Royal Ranger department. It is located approximately 2 hours Southwest of Springfield, or about an hour west of Branson. From an administrative standpoint, taking the MKs to Eagle Rock was quite a bit more logistics. There was a lot more work in arranging that entire program. However, as this camp-style event is repeated, the logistics will become easier.

Since the major overhaul to the schedule of MR, the youth program has struggled the most. One of the greatest things about MR has traditionally been the relationships that the MKs form with each other. With the changes to the schedule, the MKs were really struggling making the same depth of connection that they had in the past. Many of the staff lamented that specific challenge. The other main challenge with the schedule change was the effect it had on our evening services. We were losing the overall spiritual depth that MR has known in the past. The changes that we made to the program this year were an effort to change those specific challenges: time with God, and time with one another.

Overall, the camp was highly successful. Our two main objectives were definitely accomplished, as demonstrated in the response we received from parents and MKs following the camp. I was able to attend a couple of the services, and I was overwhelmed with joy as I saw these things taking place. Things that we, in the MK office, had dreamed about and had planned and hoped would happen! The MKs were definitely connecting with one another and with the staff at a much deeper level. The MKs had more time to build life-long relationships. They also had plenty of free time.

The greatest benefit to the retreat style youth program was the service/meeting times. Every MK was present for every session. MKs were not reliant on parents to drop them off and pick them up. The prayer times were meaningful, not rushed, and exactly what our MKs need more of.

iDiscipleship Update

iDiscipleship Update, September 2013

We have gone into a new development stage of iDiscipleship. We are working with a company to create a totally new platform. The previous platform was good for a small group, and worked okay for ISMK, but it was definitely not going to be a long-term solution. It required a lot of individual maintenance, and there were not enough social features to keep the users involved regularly. The growth and maintenance was too much to try and do it in-house. 

Discipleship is the primary goal. The foundation is built on doing discipleship together, not just an individual reading plan, or random discussions. iDiscipleship helps leaders create Bible reading plans that are centered around group discussions, with accountability, and leadership are at the core of iDiscipleship. Extra Biblical reading is also being built into the structure, so groups can go through those books as well. A secondary goal is to get people doing discipleship with others, on a global scale.

The new site is currently being developed. It will be launched officially on October 11^th. The company developing the site has a conference call with me every other Thursday afternoon. Every Friday, they have a staff meeting to determine the deliverables for the following week, and to review their accomplished goals of that week. Each Friday afternoon, I track the progress of the developers for that week. I have access to all their notes, updates and accomplishments. I am also able to update anything on their tracking site, and post issues or changes necessary. See Appendix A and B for screen shots of the tracking site.

It is being built with the ability, right at the beginning, to handle 10,000 users. Each group that signs up is able to create its’ own discipleship direction, including reading plans, small groups, videos and pdf’s. Our goal is to give ministry directors the ability to totally control the direction of their users discipleship. Here are some of the features (but not all) of iDiscipleship:

11.    Easy navigation

22.    Small Group “real-time” chat functions (see appendix C)

33.    Choice of small groups for every user (see appendix D)

44.    Customizable small groups

55.    Customizable reading plans, any dates, any amounts, created by any leader. Join with people anywhere in the world, studying any specific topic/discussion.

66.    Study extra-biblical books, with live chat and discussions

77.    Accountaibility. Track your Bible reading, and have your small groups keep one another accountable to stay on track.

88.    iaskjoey section – video theologian, answering questions

99.    Virtual youth pastor – for friends without a youth ministry (or joining alone)

110. Missionaries can lead small groups in studies of missions and ministry

111. Uploadable video function

112. Uploadable pdf function

113. Leaders can create small groups (See appendix E)

114. Can create short-term discussion groups around topics, events, locations, and passions.

115. Can have a totally independent group. Just want to have your own groups, without anyone else? No problem. Create your own reading plans, small groups, with any criteria you would like.

116. Create a FAMILY-SAFE tool for families to share discipleship tools for children. Have in-home Sunday School tools for missionary kids.

We have not had much promotion, yet, but already have quite a bit of interest. Last season, before the new site, we had 400 teenagers registered.