On Saturday November 21^st, players will tee off from all over the United States to play nine holes of golf on a Nintendo Wii™ and help the next generation get involved in missions. In addition to three main event locations (Siloam Springs, AR; Orlando, FL; Grand Island, NE), people will play along from their living rooms. We invite Propel readers to be a part of this unique event.

Will you help M-DAT’s ministry by forming a “home team?” Organize a team of friends, co-workers, or members of your church group to play at your home (or someone else’s home if you don’t have a Wii™). Another option is to make it a mother/daughter or father/son activity.

(more…)

Prayer: M-DAT Participating in Urbana 09 — Our team is getting ready to head to St. Louis at the end of December for Urbana 09—the largest student missions conference in the United States. If you are attending, look for us in the exhibit hall. Paul Nielsen has designed a new display (very exciting!) and is now working on designing the resource cards we will be handing out. Please remember him in prayer and also begin to pray that God would put us in contact with students we can encourage in their missions involvement, as well as some who will have a vision for using the internet as a tool for helping mobilize their generation and join our staff.

Prayer: Wii™ Golf Tournament Nov. 21st — M-DAT’s Wii™ Golf Tournament is just around the corner. Please pray for good participation and smooth working of the technology during the event.

Praise: Web Design Progress — We are happy to have visible progress on the AskaMissionary.com redesign and the design work for PreparingToGo.com. The logo design for both websites is complete! Take a look. They are posted on the media board here: http://www.causes.com/mdat.

News: M-DAT Leads Social Media Workshop at FSTML — Peter Armstrong, M-DAT’s executive director, twice led a workshop titled “Using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Effectively in Short-Term Missions” at the Fellowship of Short-term Mission Leaders conference. The workshop was done via video conference. The workshop was well attended and we received positive feedback on the content presented.

by Peter Armstrong

I am excited to share that AskAMissionary.com is now included in M-DAT’s family of mission websites. AskAMissionary started out 10 years ago as an eNewsletter to help people get their questions about mission service answered. As questions and answers poured in, a website was launched to make them more accessible. The site now boasts 400-plus answers from experienced Christian missionaries to hundreds of questions about being a missionary for one year or longer. The email version of the service continues and has grown to 2,000 subscribers. God brought all of this about through an ordinary person who offered up a portion of his free time to encourage people in missions involvement!

Early this year M-DAT entered into an agreement with John McVay to take on the lead role in operating the service. The agreement is a one-year trial period, intended as a stepping stone toward a permanent partnership. We are happy to have John continue his involvement with the project and he is excited to see his “hobby” taken to the next level.

Our team is pleased to have the opportunity to help raise the profile of this good, solid content. Over the coming months we will overhaul AskAMissionary.com, making it a bit more user friendly, updating the look and improving the visibility of the site in major search engines. We will also integrate the Q&A content into PreparingToGo.com, which is currently in beta. No immediate changes are planned for the newsletter.
Please take a look at the site. You can post a question or contribute an answer. While you are at it, don’t forget to subscribe to the AskAMissionary eNewsletter to get the latest questions and answers!

John McVay is administrator of In His Image International and coordinator of the Tulsa Missions Mobilizers Network, as well as developer of The Journey Deepens retreats.

For the last eight years, God has allowed M-DAT’s website ShortTermMissions.com to help tens of thousands of believers plug into mission trips. While we celebrate the success of ShortTermMissions.com, we are acutely aware that mission trips are just one part of the overall effort to carry out Jesus’ command to make disciples throughout the entire world.

The process of becoming a missionary is often times both difficult and lengthy. Echoing the sentiment of many others on the path to mission service, one person shared with us, “A lot of times I feel like there are not enough resources out there and I don’t know what to do next!”

Work is underway on a resource that will make a difference. (more…)

Praise: The response to our first annual Wii Golf Tournament exceeded our expectations, from both sponsors and participants. We’ve heard that people who didn’t attend this year are already planning to come in 2009. We’re trying to figure out how to get more gaming stations into the community building to accommodate the interest!

Prayer: Work on PreparingToGo.com, continues at a steady pace. The next steps in the process include purchasing a video editing computer, completing a logo and completing calls to gather information about 30 long-term sending agencies. Work on a more interactive version of the next steps assessment tool is ahead of schedule.

Prayer: M-DAT is in the final stages of solidifying an agreement with John McVay, creator of AskAMissionary.com, to add the website and its wealth of content for aspiring missionaries to M-DAT’s growing suite of mission resources. The agreement is for a one year trial period that could begin as early as December 31st. Pray for wisdom and God’s direction as we move ahead with this opportunity.