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.

By Peter Armstrong

We finalized the name for the new internet resource center for aspiring missionaries. Can I have a drum roll please? The name of the website will be… PreparingToGo.com.

Although we tentatively used that domain name to refer to the project for awhile, we did not know if it would go over well with the intended audience. On our quest to make a final name selection, we brainstormed 200+ alternate names, eliminated all but five, and made a survey. Fifty aspiring missionaries gave us their input. The result? PreparingToGo.com emerged as the leader. We think it is a good name to work with—a solid name that relates well to the content of the website, has few negatives, and is easy to remember and spell.

A good name only goes so far though. Ultimately the content on the website supersedes the name. We are happy to report progress on the content the front!

In May, an intern from JBU edited down the footage from several missionary interviews and our pilot run of an organization headquarter tour. In July, we set up the ability to post the videos on PreparingToGo.com. That brings us to beta version 0.6 for the website! Hurray for progress! You can watch these first samples at http://PreparingToGo.com/videos/ . Or watch them via our YouTube channel. If you have a YouTube account please subscribe to the channel and add us as a friend.

Although we have made progress, we also encountered a few setbacks. Unable to figure out a satisfactory method to get around closed country issues for the mission field reports we envisioned, we decided to put production of these video clips on hold indefinitely. Also, our week long mission trip to produce a series of mission agency headquarter tours fell through. Between staff training, travel, and office remodeling projects, summer is not a good time to schedule these tours for the mission agencies. In fact, it may be pretty near impossible to coordinate producing a series of tours in a one week time frame. Lining up the schedules of multiple organizations is tricky! We’re not abandoning the idea though. We will just have to work out a different way of accomplishing the goal.

The next few pieces of the website we are working on are a directory of mission organizations, a logo for the website, and producing more video clips. Content. Content. Content!

News: Website name finalized. After gathering input through a brief survey, a name has been chosen! M-DAT staff have been working in earnest on a resource to help aspiring missionaries get to the field. That website, PreparingToGo.com, is now in very early stages. Core components of PreparingToGo.com will eventually include video interviews and tours, a readiness assessment, and a searchable database of sending organizations.

Prayer: Wii golf tournament. We’re planning a Wii Golf Tournament as a fundraiser this Fall. None of us here at M-DAT actually golf, and using the popular Wii video game console complements the technology aspect of the ministry. Pray that preparation will go smoothly and the event will be successful.

Praise: Inquiry increase. Two months ago we made a few small adjustment to the process for inquiring about mission opportunities posted on ShortTermMissions.com. The result surprised us: A significantly higher than expected increase in inquiries being sent to our partner organizations. More inquiries = more successful connections. More successful connections = increased involvement in mission!

News: 1 million searches. In April the 1 millionth mission trip search was performed on ShortTermMissions.com!

by Peter Armstrong, M-DAT Executive Director

I always thought steady cams were cool. Now, I know they are! Last week Paul and I made one out of a mono pod, a 2.5 pound weight, and a weed trimmer handle. We rigged up the contraption in preparation for a trip I take at the end of April. I fly to Atlanta to do a test video shoot at Operation Mobilization. If all goes well, it will be the first organization headquarters tour for the website we are developing for aspiring missionaries — a very exciting milestone.

For good reasons, selecting a mission organization to go with from the hundreds out there can be a daunting task. We believe these headquarter tours will take the edge off of that experience. Viewers will catch the vision of the organization, hear what God is doing through them, meet key staff, learn about the mission candidate process, and hear why people who serve with the organization decided to join up.

How we will cram all of this into a three to five minute video clip is a mystery. That is why we are looking for gifted video editors to volunteer their skills. Six have already stepped forward. We need at least six more so we can spread out the work and publish new video clips more frequently. If you have video editing skills you would like to apply to the Great Commission please contact us.

My trip to Atlanta will get us ready for a rather unique mission trip we are assembling a team for — a week-long mission headquarter blitz in July. Each day we will visit a mission agency and shoot the raw video for the tour. We will also conduct interviews with missionaries who are home from the field. We will inquire about key moments in their journey to the mission field and get their responses to questions commonly asked by aspiring missionaries. At night we will review our footage and start editing. In the morning we will move onto another mission agency. I anticipate this will be a challenging and fruitful week. If you are a cameraman or video editor and want to get in on the action we want to hear from you.