Recognising Trauma Symptoms
Posted on 1st October 2018
I’m so tired and I cannot sleep,
As my fears all surface and drag me in deep.
The darkness and anguish hit me between the eyes.
All those memories I desperately try to deny.
The dark shadows follow me around every day.
Those thoughts of despair I can’t shake away.
(One verse from a poem...
Cross-Cultural Church Planting
Posted on 1st September 2018
It has been exciting to see a surge in church planting happening around the world. I believe that planting churches, or should I say, planting churches well, is probably the most effective strategy for reaching those without Christ that there has ever been. Now that you know I’m pro-church planting,...
RESPECT: A Resilience Toolkit for Mission Workers
Posted on 1st August 2018
Building resilience is the ability to bounce back after difficult events. How do we increase our ability to remain resilient when facing adversity. Mission workers are often under great pressure, there is little time to switch off, and maintaining healthy boundaries can become challenging. The nature of working within mission...
Handling Criticism
Posted on 1st July 2018
If we are any kind of leader someone is going to be unhappy with something we have or haven’t done, something we’ve said or a decision we’ve made. It can leave us feeling discouraged and angry. How do we handle it?
WHAT TO DO
The first thing to do is consider whether...
Millennials and Mission
Posted on 1st June 2018
Every day I see beautiful, passionate, world changers torn to bits by the machine that is missions, limping home disillusioned, cynical, and shipwrecked from their faith. It makes me wonder if this churning beast we’ve created has gone awry and our youth are just collateral damage, expendable because there’s always...
Getting All HET Up
Posted on 1st May 2018
What is Hostile Environment Training (HET) and when and why might you need it? That's the question posed and answered by our guest author this month, Tim Mercer.
Monday dawned and that work problem James hadn't been able to resolve on Friday remained fixed in his mind. The weather was irritably...
How to do Church Partnerships without Buying Friends
Posted on 1st April 2018
How do we build partnerships with people in developing countries without creating dependency? Jim Harries, missionary in Africa, helps us understand ...
If I said that 'all problems are self-inflicted' ... many would think that is only partly true. Yet, in another sense; say a couple decides to have a baby,...
Carbon Offsetting
Posted on 1st March 2018
As I drove with my family through a remote valley in south-western Uganda ten years ago, we turned a corner and entered a vast landscape of devastation - thousands of hectares of hillside stripped bare of indigenous forest and replanted with sterile rows of eucalyptus and conifers. In the distance...
Stress Management
Posted on 1st February 2018
"I was a week into my placement when the Accounts Officer quit, the Country Director was on leave, my Programme Manager was swamped with taking on the CD's tasks, and I was asked to complete a household nutritional survey with over 100 respondents by the end of the week, with...
A New Start
Posted on 1st January 2018
A new year - a new start. New Year's Resolutions are all very well but they tend not to last. However, we worship a God of new starts and of fresh beginnings so now might be the time to apply some fresh thinking to your ministry at the start of...
