A little girl came up to me after church on Sunday; she had to interview a missionary for Awana. She asked where I'm going, so I said Minneapolis. She asked what I'm doing there. I hesitated.
How do I explain to an 8 year old what I do on staff? I explained that I will help other missionaries tell people about Jesus. That seemed to satisfy her.
On the way home I contemplated my answer. My reply differs depending on the person or audience I'm talking to. Last year I spoke to an Awana group at a friends' church. I went into much more detail with those kids than I did on Sunday. I remember watching at their little eyes glazed over and I found them slowly nodding along when I looked at them, just like I do when someone tries to explain something I don't understand.
I want people to "get" what I do. I love explaining how my role is a puzzle piece that fit into the larger picture, but I also don't want to lose people while I cast vision. The details are important to me, but the purpose is what most people are interested in. What a good reminder to stay focused each day on the mission instead of getting tied up in the logistics and lost in the details.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
I love it when someone knows how I feel.
"The pain of lifelong singleness, Ethan Watters wrote, isn't so much coveting a relationship, but grieving lost dreams. And I fear he is right. We feel that if we’re alone that we will never experience the pleasures, security and fulfillment of marriage, while our friends around us celebrate anniversaries and raise families. But maybe that’s the problem, it’s our dream, and we have pushed God out."
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Facebook Facts & Figures.
Facebook was born the month I turned 18. This was also the first time I had my own cell phone, which I figured would change the way I lived my life.
It did. But six years later, I now find myself forgetting how old I am, and forgetting about life before the popular social networking site.
How did I share my photos with friends? How did I let everyone know I was having a party on Friday night? How did I express my frustrations, opinions and memories?
I just saw a post from a Facebook friend of mine entitled "With over 400 million active users, Facebook is bigger than the U.S." Granted, over 70% of users live outside the U.S., but still! They define active users as those who've logged in at least once in the last 30 days.
30% of people in South Dakota are on Facebook; 10% of New Mexico residents and a whopping 125% of residents from Washington D.C. (They do point out that people from Washington D.C. also live in other states).
# More than 400 million active users
# 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
# More than 35 million users update their status each day
# More than 60 million status updates posted each day
# More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
# More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
# More than 3.5 million events created each month
# More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
# More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
# More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
# Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
# Average user has 130 friends on the site
# Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
# Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
# Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
# Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
# Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
# Average user is invited to 3 events per month
# Average user is a member of 13 groups
# There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
# People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
# There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
It did. But six years later, I now find myself forgetting how old I am, and forgetting about life before the popular social networking site.
How did I share my photos with friends? How did I let everyone know I was having a party on Friday night? How did I express my frustrations, opinions and memories?
I just saw a post from a Facebook friend of mine entitled "With over 400 million active users, Facebook is bigger than the U.S." Granted, over 70% of users live outside the U.S., but still! They define active users as those who've logged in at least once in the last 30 days.
30% of people in South Dakota are on Facebook; 10% of New Mexico residents and a whopping 125% of residents from Washington D.C. (They do point out that people from Washington D.C. also live in other states).
# More than 400 million active users
# 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
# More than 35 million users update their status each day
# More than 60 million status updates posted each day
# More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
# More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
# More than 3.5 million events created each month
# More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
# More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
# More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
# Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
# Average user has 130 friends on the site
# Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
# Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
# Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
# Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
# Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
# Average user is invited to 3 events per month
# Average user is a member of 13 groups
# There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
# People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
# There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
Monday, April 19, 2010
Communication Failures.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how I communicate with others. Relevant Mag just posted an article this week on communication failures so I thought I'd check it out for some helpful hints.
What I got was a boatload of conviction. Some examples:
The Procrastinator: You say you will get back to a caller, eventually. You put it on your list of things to do, and it gets lost.
The Restaurant Manager: Your communication mimics something of a big chain-restaurant manager. You say a lot of things that put up the appearance that you care; but really, you don’t.
The TV Preacher: Every time anyone says something sad to you, you reply with, “It will all work out in the end” or “There are plenty of fish in the sea” or “I know what will help: go help someone who is worse off; you will feel better.”
The Listener: You constantly listen so much that when most people have a conversation with you, they feel better. This often has to do with the fact that you are able to keep your mouth closed and your eyes attentive. Although many listeners are genuine, some are listening because they don’t have much to say and don’t end up sharing anything about themselves. They are very close in spirit to the Shallow One or the The Closer.
The Closer: You are constantly thinking about how to quickly end the conversation. You might have enjoyed an excellent career in customer service. You make people feel like you are rushing through.
Check out the entire article here.
What I got was a boatload of conviction. Some examples:
The Procrastinator: You say you will get back to a caller, eventually. You put it on your list of things to do, and it gets lost.
The Restaurant Manager: Your communication mimics something of a big chain-restaurant manager. You say a lot of things that put up the appearance that you care; but really, you don’t.
The TV Preacher: Every time anyone says something sad to you, you reply with, “It will all work out in the end” or “There are plenty of fish in the sea” or “I know what will help: go help someone who is worse off; you will feel better.”
The Listener: You constantly listen so much that when most people have a conversation with you, they feel better. This often has to do with the fact that you are able to keep your mouth closed and your eyes attentive. Although many listeners are genuine, some are listening because they don’t have much to say and don’t end up sharing anything about themselves. They are very close in spirit to the Shallow One or the The Closer.
The Closer: You are constantly thinking about how to quickly end the conversation. You might have enjoyed an excellent career in customer service. You make people feel like you are rushing through.
Check out the entire article here.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Google It.
Have you ever 'googled' Jesus, or God, Or Does God Exist? If you did, one of the first websites to show up would be Everystudent.com, an online forum for spiritual seekers to research and ask questions about God, life issues, religion, and much more.
In January I received an e-mail from a woman from Puerto Rico who had a question about living out her faith day to day. Since then we've been corresponding via e-mail to discuss religion, faith and life after death, among other important topics.
This week we've dialogued a bit about differences between world religions. A friend of hers converted from Christianity to Islam a few years ago and she's reconnected with her. They have had some interesting in-depth conversation about their beliefs. It's an encouragement to me that this woman who is just starting to make her faith her own is not shying away from talking about difficult topics. At the end of the e-mail she writes:
"The more I learn... I see I should focus less on the rules of religion and more on being a disciple of Christ. We should all be disciples of Christ."
In January I received an e-mail from a woman from Puerto Rico who had a question about living out her faith day to day. Since then we've been corresponding via e-mail to discuss religion, faith and life after death, among other important topics.
This week we've dialogued a bit about differences between world religions. A friend of hers converted from Christianity to Islam a few years ago and she's reconnected with her. They have had some interesting in-depth conversation about their beliefs. It's an encouragement to me that this woman who is just starting to make her faith her own is not shying away from talking about difficult topics. At the end of the e-mail she writes:
"The more I learn... I see I should focus less on the rules of religion and more on being a disciple of Christ. We should all be disciples of Christ."
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Leverage.
My mind is swimming. How do 225 missionaries reach 1,000,000 college students in 2 time zones and 5 states?
I just spent two days with the Upper Midwest Regional Operations Team, where our purpose was two-fold: celebrate what God's done the last year, and evaluate what we did and will do in the coming year in the Upper Midwest.
I knew this would be a great time.. but being with the team really opened my eyes to what it means to use my operational skills to glorify Him and help others reach others. There's so much more that happens behind the scenes than I ever imagined--and I have an Ops mindset. I'm blown away at the goal: reach all the college students in the Upper Midwest Region (1 MILLION!) with 225 staff. I'm excited to see how operations can be used to increase our capacity to reach more students.
I just spent two days with the Upper Midwest Regional Operations Team, where our purpose was two-fold: celebrate what God's done the last year, and evaluate what we did and will do in the coming year in the Upper Midwest.
I knew this would be a great time.. but being with the team really opened my eyes to what it means to use my operational skills to glorify Him and help others reach others. There's so much more that happens behind the scenes than I ever imagined--and I have an Ops mindset. I'm blown away at the goal: reach all the college students in the Upper Midwest Region (1 MILLION!) with 225 staff. I'm excited to see how operations can be used to increase our capacity to reach more students.