News You Can Use

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the radio. AMFM is the Association of Marriage and Family Ministries. AMFM strives to be a bridge between providers of marriage and family resources and those who use the resources: ministry leaders, pastors, mentors, those in the local church. A visit to the AMFM website (www.amfmonline.com) reveals the many timely issues that are addressed such as marriage, parenting, couples in leadership, healthy relationship skills for young adults, sexual wholeness, and healing from abuse. A few quick clicks will lead you to a list of U.S. regional and national conferences as well as the free Marriage and Family Resource Guide e-zine.

(Submitted by Janice Brauer, Counseling Office Associate, Wheaton)

AGC is now offering professional life coaching for missionaries all over the globe, regardless of nation or organization. All of their coaches are professionally trained and have cross-cultural experience. Coaching topics include anything that relates to missions life such as cross-cultural adjustment, vision/ministry clarification, marriage, team, leadership as well as partnership development. They coach parents of missionaries, mission pastors and anyone considering becoming a missionary. They even have coaches for MK’s who are facing transitional adjustments! Costs are shared between the person being coached and a sponsor (church, agency or financial partner). For more information go to http://www.advanceglobalcoaching.com

Are you interested in learning more about the culture of Europe? Europeana has packed a collection of over 4.6 million digital items, from over 100 institutions in Europe, including the Louvre, the European Archive, the National Archives of Finland, and the Slovak National Gallery, onto a website that you can access for free. The material is searchable by creator, date, type or subject, as well as the provider institution. There are images, texts, videos, and audio files. If you register (free) you can bookmark your favorites, and save searches, as well as comment using an onsite blog.  Each file is also linked to the contributing institution, so you can investigate further.  A search for Gauguin, for instance, found 1,430 images.  Happy surfing!

As we come to the end of 2009, you are probably preparing for your annual Day of Prayer and Vision and developing your Personal Growth Plan for next year. If you would like some help with planning your day, or with how to capture what you learn, or with how to translate your thoughts into a Growth Plan for next year, the Centre for Lifelong Learning would be glad to help. We have some materials available online at www.lifelearner.org, but if you would like more specific or personal coaching, you can write to lifelearner@teamworld.org, and someone from the Centre will respond within two working days. The Centre team is also eager to help connect you with others who may have similar questions or learning goals, or who may be looking to learn together with others who are working in similar ministry projects.

National Geographic has a website that is every bit as beautiful as their magazine: full of stunning photography, thoroughly researched articles, interactive  material, and additional images that don’t appear in print. The December issue features the Uygurs and their struggle for identity as a minority culture inside western China. The site includes a considerable amount of content from the current issue of the magazine, as well as past issues. With extensive sections on Daily News, Games, Maps, Video, and more, you’ll find it hard to stop exploring the site!

If you discovered fifteen minutes of free, uninterrupted time in your day, what would you do with it? This month’s issue of Kyria (a digizine, or online digital magazine) seeks to help today’s Christian woman with some thoughtful responses to how we invest our time. You can visit their web home, www.Kyria.com, browse this month’s issue, and find out how you can subscribe. You can even sign up for a free e-mail devotional thought to be sent you each day, and download a number of free articles. (There are plenty more articles that you will have to pay for. It is a magazine, after all.) Kyria is published by Christianity Today.

At REAP 2009, Kimberly Rathbun introduced a blog (Don’t know what a blog is? Click HERE to find out) for TEAM women to communicate with each other. If you would like to join, or just “lurk” (that is, read without commenting), write to Kimberly Rathbun, and she will send you the URL and instructions on how to begin.

By missionary women, from missionary women, for missionary women – that describes Women of the Harvest, a ministry with myriad online resources encouraging women to persevere in cross-cultural service. Visit www.womenoftheharvest.com to enjoy the encouraging articles in the online magazine, download in-depth Bible studies, and explore the inspirational and practical articles archived by topic. Women of the Harvest also hosts three annual retreats: two overseas and one in the U.S. Click on the “Retreats” tab for information. A new aspect of this ministry is “Hope of the Harvest,” a business training and micro-loan program missionary women can use as they work with women around the world.

Every year, Calvin College hosts a symposium on worship, which comes highly recommended by Nancy Nethercott (Japan). Nancy will be attending for the second time in January 2010, and she says it is well worth the time and effort to be there. Talk to Nancy about the great deals they offer to missionaries, and worship leaders from outside the US. The symposium is held on the Calvin College campus the last week in January every year, for “a time of fellowship, worship, and learning, seeking to deepen and integrate all aspects of worship, develop their gifts, encourage each other, and renew their commitment to the full ministry of the church.” You can check out their website for themes, speakers, and seminars, and you can register online.

Are you one of the 4000 who were invited to the Congress on World Evangelization to be held in Cape Town South Africa, 16-25 October, 2010? NO? Well, there are still at least two ways you can get in on the conversation about the issues.  Right now, you can begin to follow (AND ACTUALLY JOIN IN ON!) the global conversation about the issues they will be discussing in Cape Town. Each month, a leading thinker posts a brief document on an important topic, and several others respond. You can read their perspectives, and then you can post your own response.  The format is a “blog,” so everyone’s responses are available to read, and you can follow the fascinating conversation.  This month, the focus is on Muslim Background Believers. Phil Parshall, John Travis, David Clayton and others respond to Joseph Cummings’ question “Can one be a Muslim and a follower of Jesus?  Let your voice be heard on this relevant topic!

In addition to the global conversation in advance of the Congress, the Lausanne Committee is arranging for remote downlinks around the world where interested individuals can gather to participate in streaming downlinks of the various sessions.  These sites will also provide advance copies of key documents in the months leading up to the congress, and specialized tools for interacting with the Cape Town Congress and other GlobaLink sites. If you would like to host such a site, or find one near you, go to the WEA Cape Town 2010 website and find out more.