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Training Tracks

January 2020

What are you "resolving" to do?

Welcome to 2020! This year has so much potential - any year that has the ability to be the slogan for "20/20 Vision" is bound to be something great. As an Enneagram 7, I (Beth) am always eager for new! exciting! future! possibilities. I draw energy from planning and thinking about what could be and envisioning new possibilities. Even if you don't like change, I am sure you can relate to the energy you get from setting a goal and imagining you have already achieved it. But the messy middle and the in-between goal and reality is where we live most of our lives and where most people give up.

Exhibit A: New Year's Resolutions. I'm sure you've seen the stats - nearly 80% of New Year's Resolutions fail by February 15th. There is a myriad of reasons for this failure - not setting the right goal, not making it specific, making it too difficult, lack of support, lack of willpower - the list goes on and on. As a coach, this is when I most often see clients. They have ideas and plans but cannot figure out how to make it happen. 

One of my favorite client stories is about someone who came to me to lose weight. We coached around everything and tried multiple methods - food journaling, no sugar, Weight Watchers, apps, exercise - nothing worked. After weeks of this, I was feeling like a failure as a coach. Why couldn't I help her? So at our next session, I asked "Sarah* do you want to lose weight?" She looked at me for a long time and then started to laugh and laugh, "No, I actually don't. Or at least I don't want to lose it enough to do this other stuff."

Resolve. That is what was missing. She had set her goals based on a "should" - she felt like she should lose weight. Living life around a should is a lot different than living life around resolve. Resolve is defined as "deciding firmly on a course of action." Most people only pay attention to the "deciding firmly" but the key is in the "course of action." How will you make this goal a reality? What concrete steps can you take today, this week, this month to see your resolutions come to pass? 

One of our stated visions in SEND U is for every SEND missionary to be "proactive in creating habits of lifelong, intentional learning." As you enter 2020, we hope you are resolving to grow in the areas God is moving you to in your own lives.

Who Spurs the Missionary on to Love & Good Deeds?

Ken has recently written an excellent blog post on the topic of how we can help one another continue to grow and learn in community. Perhaps a "learning community" is your next course of action for your growth this year.

Muslim Consultation Summary

From December 10-14, 25 of us gathered from around the SEND world for a consultation for those in Muslim ministry. The schedule was full with times of prayer, excellent teaching, networking opportunities, and practical tools for contextualizing the gospel to those in Muslim work. It was invigorating to see people discuss principles of disciple-making movements and be trained in areas like transformational dialogue that can be used in any cross-cultural situation. We received expert teaching from a successful practitioner of DMM strategy as well as our own Director of Strategic Engagement, Craig G. Craig gave excellent insights into the differences between liberal (modern), conservative (traditionalist), revivalist (fundamentalist) and secular Islam, and the different approaches needed for each type. 

Your Individual Growth Plan is a great way to plan for growth. Visit the wiki to see examples of other IGPs and to find suggested learning resources.
SEND U Wiki
Keep Learning!
Ken
Ken Guenther
SEND U Director, based in Kyiv, Ukraine

&
Beth
Beth Eckstein
SEND U Assistant Director, Based in Taichung, Taiwan
Looking for some online learning? Grow2Serve offers not only SEND created courses such as Animism and Folk Religion and Team Leader as Supervisor; you can also find courses that address raising TCKs, language learning, and ethnography.
Grow2Serve
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