Private Electronic Journals

I just put my son on a flight to Spain. He can't wait to visit the country he called home during 8 years of his life. He'll be spending 6 months there on a study abroad program with Calvin College. A few days ago we were encouraging him to keep a journal about his adventures. Since he is not a paper and pencil kind of guy, I suggested he use a blog as a journal.

Keeping an electronic journal has many advantages:
1. Most people are connected to their computers most of the day. Journaling is a natural extension of that everyday habit. And we know that journaling is a habit that must be developed.
2. Most blogging sites allow you to create a private, non-shared, blog. You don't have to worry about sharing your thoughts, fears, and joys with your mission supporters. Knowing that your entry can't be read by others allows you to be transparent in your writings. Transparency is, after all, one of the best benefits of journal keeping.
3. Your journal entries, though private, can be a source of future public blogs after you have a chance to digest and edit your thoughts. A particular observation thought you find particularly profound can be easily copied and transferred to a "for-public-consumption" blog. Your private blog becomes a filing cabinet for your public page.
4. You can use "labels" or keywords on your journal entries to quickly find past entries that relate to similar topics. You can often gain great comfort by re-reading your past entry about "poverty" (for example!) and reflect  on how far you have come (or haven't come) since then.
5. You don't run out of pages and have to buy another notebook! (But you can easily change the design when you tire of the one you have.)
6. Photos can easily by added to your journal entries. (And no yellowing corners from that Scotch tape!) In addition, web page links (and many other applications) can be easily included in your entries. Idea: why not include a Google map link showing your recent road trip? The ideas are virtually endless.

I will post more on the specifics of how to do some of these things is a later post. Can you think of other benefits of electronic journaling? Why not leave a comment below.

Blessings as you communicate!

Interconnecting Tools

Do you stay in touch with your friends using any of these tools: A blog, Facebook, email, Twitter, or Constant Contact? You can maximize your effectiveness and communication efficiency by letting them talk with each other.Consider this scenario: you write an email and send it to your regular mailing list. One address on your list is a special email to your blog page which automatically creates a post out of your email. At the same time, if your blog is programmed with a special add-on, your blog page will automatically create an update on your Facebook page. 1-2-3, Triple Play!

How to do it:
Create a blog post automatically from your email. In Blogger.com: under the "Settings" tab of the dashboard, under "Posting Options", you can specify an email address which will take any email you send to it and post it to your blog. The subject line of your email becomes the blog post. The body of the email becomes the content of the blog. In Blogger, this can be fully automatic, or you can be extra careful (and less efficient) and have the email content post as a draft in your blog, ready for your approval. You choose. It is a very convenient feature of most blogging sites. It even works with any photos contained in your email.

Create a Facebook status update automatically out of a blog posting. On Facebook, you can link your registered blog with your Facebook account using an application called NetworkedBlogs (Link). You start in Facebook and this site: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/. Click on "Register a Blog" and add the URL of your blog. Give the Blog a name and identify the language. It is free. When you complete the process,  your blog posts will be included on your Facebook page.

Pen and Ink

The world is changing.

Profound statement, I know.

When I wrote my first missionary newsletter in 1992, I wrote it in longhand-- you know, pen and ink, remember that stuff?-- on a half sheet of paper. I copied it on an office copier during my lunch hour, then I wrote out the 15 or so addresses by hand on lick and seal envelopes. Yum! Today I use a keyboard, printer, internet, post office websites, Facebook, Twitter, Constant Contact, and more to keep in touch with 250 friends.

The world has changed, especially in terms of staying in touch with our supporters.

The need has not changed, but the options for keeping in touch has grown to include an incredible array of tools.

It is possible to take advantage of those tools, increasing the effectiveness of your mission communication! You won't need to take courses, or buy a new computer, or drown in techno-talk.
This blog is here to help you! Welcome to SN4M- "Social Networking for Missionaries".
Subscribe then tell your friends. Let's learn from each other.