Missions is part of the life-blood of the Church. It’s been a huge emphasis at Long Hollow for as long as I can remember, and it seems like we’re adding more projects and trips every year. In the old days, folks would leave for a trip, be out of touch for weeks, and then return with great stories of life change. Wouldn’t it be great to stay more connected with these trips as they happen?
By leveraging some common new technology, you can turn your trip into a ministry opportunity for many more people than actually boarded the plane. Folks back home can pray for issues live as they’re reported from the field, and provide encouragement in the form of feedback to blog posts, photos, tweets, etc. All of these great social technologies allow more people to experience the journey along side of you.
We’ve done this on a small scale before, but I’m about to test a few solutions live on a trip using only my iPhone. While you’re reading this post today, my wife and I will be well on our way to help lead a Kids Bible Camp in France (we’ll return in mid-July). Since we’ll have access to WiFi in many of the areas we’re travelling, I’m going to try to keep the flow of information coming using my trusty handheld device.
I’ll be doing this through a WordPress blog, a special Twitter Account and a Flickr Photo Stream. All three of these communications avenues can be accessed through the blog, essentially creating a one-stop shop for all of the latest news and prayer requests directly from the field. I’m hoping that these 3 tools mixed together will be the prefect combination to keep everybody informed.
As for the Apps I’m using to keep everything updated, I downloaded WordPress (free), Mobile Fotos ($2.99), and Tweetie ($2.99). The beauty of this setup is that I can give multiple folks on the same trip access to our various accounts, making each of us content generators. As we take pictures, tweet and write posts, all of that great content will be automatically funneled to the blog.
I realize that this isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but I’m anxious to see how effective these tools will be out in the wild. If you’re interested, I would love for you to follow along with our trip at the blog here. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated!
Are you aware of any other technology that’s better suited for a mission team? Let us know in the comments below!
Great idea to use technology in the mission process. I had an experience on Flickr, about two months ago a Flickr bud of mine was going on her first missions trip, she emailed all her Flickr friends with regular updates on how the trip was progressing, we the receiver of the emails in turn prayed for the trip at whatever time we wanted. After the mission trip was over we had a chance to view her photo stream which had many photos documenting the trip. That was a great experience because, more than often many church member cannot attend these trips and often the missionaries do not have a direct contact back home. I think tweetdeck and facebook would be great apps to implement in such a process .. Great article!! :o)
[...] after returing from a mission trip earlier this Summer, our staff felt like God was leading us to start a new initiative to the [...]