Friday Morning

The week has gone by quickly! We are on the last day of our time here. So, after 2 days, what have we learned?

We have discussed a lot, but the first thing I will mention is what we have not discussed in the meetings and that is what goes on in the hallways! I have gotten to know some great people who are, quite frankly, some of the brightest, most innovative people I have met to date. I am not talking about just within Crusade. I am saying "Period." We have talked about projects people are working on, programs that are rolling out and "pie in the sky" wishlists.

On the more formal side of things, we have talked about priorities for us, as leaders within our Areas of Affairs (Western Europe for me), training (which we talked about briefly in our last prayer letter and some technology things that will be rolling our for anything from measurements and metrics to donation processing for individual missionaries. Got all that?

In the coming week (or later today), I will put out some more specific information. One of the main points of emphasis though is that we are not talking about technology, specifically. We are talking about how technology in general can be used to fulfill the great commission and Crusades mission statement of that and how we can help use information to further that end.

A good example of this came out during our training discussion. If an African ministry is going to setup a training program to train its people on using Excel, why would they do that? Excel does not directly spread the Gospel, so why would a missionary need to know Excel?

Here is why:
Using Excel, leaders could create a budget
With a budget, they can improve planning
From planning comes more effective ministry
From effective ministry, the African teams can Build Movements

I look forward to being apart of Building Movements Everywhere!! That is ministry!