Occasionally, it is good to pause and remember the why behind what we do every day. The mundaneness and pace of life can eat away at our sense of purpose and meaning and prevent us from taking the long view in life and ministry. Why do we do what we do?
In SEND U, our why (our mission statement) is to equip and develop SEND missionaries and leaders in order to accomplish the overall mission of SEND International: to mobilize God’s people and engage the unreached in order to establish reproducing churches. Whatever part of the SEND team we are on, our ultimate goal is the same: making God known among the least reached peoples of the world.
One of SEND U's values is to balance the urgency of our task with the importance of personal development. We recognize there are many things calling for your time on a daily basis. Many of these things are urgent and perhaps your own personal development does not always fall into this category. How do we make time for the important along with the urgent? Part of the purpose behind the Annual Ministry Plan and Individual Growth Plan is to create space for the important things. Being intentional and proactive are things each person can do to take charge of their own development.
For our part, we continue to endeavor to make our training not just relevant, but also accessible. To that end, SEND U has signed a partnership with Crosswired, an online platform that offers self-paced, independent modules in various learning paths. These modules take one to two hours to complete and can be done whenever it suits your schedule. You can even work on it for a half hour today, and tomorrow the course will continue where you left off.
SEND U has created learning paths with some of these Crosswired modules. You can take all the courses in a path, or just choose one. Below we highlight some recommended courses, as well as how to log in and begin using these resources.
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How do I get started?
In order to access these self-paced independent modules and participate in the learning paths, you need to complete the following process:
- Go to sendu.crosswired.com
- Click on green button “Join."
- Click “Proceed."
- Click on "Create Account" and fill in your details
- Enter your first name, screen name, email address, time zone, date of birth & password,
- Choose a screen name that will make it easy for SEND U staff to identify you (e.g. kguenther or ken.g). This screen name will be the only way that SEND U will be able to identify who you are.
- Click “Join Crosswired” (red button).
- Check your email for a verification email (please check your junk and spam folders). Complete verification by clicking link on the email.
- This opens a new tab in your browser with a verification code. Click “Verify” again.
- Click “Continue” on the Thank you Page.
- Click “OK” on the pop-up to verify your information.
- Fill out the form with your address and phone number (your credit card billing address).
- Complete payment information ($35 by credit card or coupon).
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Recommended Courses
As with any learning platform, some courses are better than others. While SEND U is working on creating our own content, there are still several courses created by others that we recommend . Below are some of the suggested learning paths with brief descriptions:
- Being the Presence of Jesus Learning Path - "How Do I Make Friends: Facemaking" -- This course will help you develop skills for making friends in a new culture.
- Developing Mature Disciples Learning Path - "Cross-Cultural Discipleship Principles" -- This course has some good insights into disciple making practices and would be excellent to go through with a team.
- Leading People in Ministry Learning Path - "Board Dynamics" -- This course was written by SEND's own Gary Ridley and unpacks the roles of boards (councils) and member's roles.
- Working on Teams Learning Path - "My Team Isn't What I Thought It Would Be" - This module was developed by Ken Guenther and looks at why we are disappointed with mission teams and what we can do to improve our teaming experience.
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The Center for Intercultural Training is offering two courses on culture, both running April 11-18.
Here is a description of their updated course "Cultural Adjustment a.k.a. Culture Shock." Are you past the fun and now into the challenges of living and ministering in a new culture? There are some good principles that you can put into practices as you seek to weather culture shock and adapt well to the place where God has sent you. Survival is not the goal, but rather allowing God to grow you in a way that prepares you to understand and love others around you.
They are also running "Learning Culture Through Purposeful Observation" which is described as following:
Are you ready to seriously engage in your new culture? Do you see a myriad of opportunities to “look and learn” around you, but don’t know where to start? Are you looking for a refresher on some of the culture training your received before leaving for your field of service? Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation can help!
You can register here for both courses.
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Introducing our SEND U Europe Regional Representative
 Andy Spradley has been church-planting with his wife Nadine in Macedonia since 1995. Andy joined SEND U last year as the Europe Rep. They have three daughters, the youngest one about to leave for college. They enjoy bike riding, swimming/snorkeling and visiting interesting places in Europe. Andy is a true lifelong learner and has used home service years to further his education, completing an M.A. in Bible Exposition and a TESOL certificate.
In addition to church planting, Andy recently had a unique ministry opportunity to do two years of refugee work among Syrians, Iraqis and many other people groups streaming through Macedonia. Andy can be reached at spradfam@gmail.com. |
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Keep learning,
Ken
Ken Guenther
SEND U Director based in Kiev, Ukraine
&
Beth
Beth Eckstein
SEND U Assistant Director based in Taichung, Taiwan
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The latest 5 posts to the SEND U blog:
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