Trying to figure out what God wants me to do: a personal spiritual journey!
For several years, I have been on a spiritual and personal journey seeking to understand how God would like me to use my skills and experience for His Kingdom.
- It occurred to me that I could do a story about MY personal experience while working on this story:
- This story begins earlier during the past decade when my wife Laura and I attended a regional conference of The Finishers Project. At that time, I realized the opportunity which God was offering to "finish well" so I started to explore opportunities to serve with a missions agency.
Home | Finishers ProjectFinishers Project provides Christian adults with information, challenge and pathways for discovering and processing opportunities in missions — short-term or as a next career. Finishers Project helps you connect with mission organizations to find assignments in missions — in the US or abroad. Complete a Service Profile to receive a list of mission organizations with opportunities matching your skills, experience, and ministry preferences. Finishers Project is a matching service; it is not a sending agency. [More ...] The Finishers Project is a movement to provide opportunities for people to join God in His passion for His glory among the nations. That...- 2009 was a difficult year! Twice, I had discussions with two different missions agencies about a possible role in helping them to craft and implement an Internet strategy that might transform them into role models for the way in which the Internet might revolutionize how we motivate believers to go, to give, and to pray for world missions. It wasn't God's will for me to fill such a role with either of these two agencies so I ended the year very frustrated because it just didn't seem as if I would ever be able to serve God in this way!I mustered enough motivation to do a social media aggregation during Urbana 2009 because it just didn't seem that InterVarsity had any idea about how to leverage social media to spread the word about what God was doing among those he had called to attend Urbana!
- During the conference, I noticed that Wycliffe Bible Translators was among the few missions agencies which had any substantial "social media footprint" during Urbana.2009 ended...
Facebook | Wycliffe Bible Translators USAWelcome to a Facebook Page about Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. Join Facebook to start connecting with Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.- During Urbana, I especially noticed Ruth Hubbard, a Senior Vice-President at Wycliffe, using social media. In January, I called Ruth to tell her about my desire to serve in a mission organization as I explained earlier. I was already acquainted with Ruth because she was also a member at my church in Indianapolis at the time.Ruth said she would "ask around" in Wycliffe.
- In the meantime, I started a new semester at IUPUI and wrote a paper about my experiments with social media and Web 2.0 services in my classes.
What Can Social Media Aggregation Contribute To Teaching & Learning
This paper describes the role that aggregation of social media can contribute to teaching and to learning. With respect to teaching, assessment is enhanced because the aggregate stream of social media activity produces an artifact that exhibits what and how students are learning and discovering. With respect to learning, engagement is enhanced because the aggregate stream of social media activity encourages students to interact with each other by cooperating and by commenting on others’ learning and discovery. Especially promising is the prospect for the course (and subsequent learning) to “continue” even after the semester ends and even for assessment data to be collected longitudinally.- In March, I got a call from Joe Snyder, Vice President of Information Technology at Wycliffe, and a couple of weeks later during my spring break, I was in his office discussing the possibility of joining Wycliffe.As a result of the visit, Laura and I returned home to Indianapolis to begin applying to join Wycliffe as members in hopes of being approved by late May so that we could join Wycliffe's training class for new members in mid-July.Concurrently, in April, Laura and I attended the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville.
Together for the GospelPreaching from 2 Timothy 4:1-5, CJ Mahaney exhorts ordinary pastors to be faithful to their message, faithful to their ministry, [...] Browse all videos from 2006 to 2010 Podcast: Play in new window | Download The Church is the Gospel Made Visible (Session I) The Defense and Confirmation of the Gospel – What I Have Learned in 50 years (Session II) Listen > How Does it Happen? Trajectories Toward an Adjusted Gospel (Session III) Listen > Fine-Sounding Arguments: How Wrongly “Engaging the Culture” Adjusts the Gospel (Session IV) Listen > The Theology of Sleep! (Mark 4) (Session...- At Together for the Gospel, Laura and I heard Dr. R. C. Sproul for the FIRST TIME IN OUR LIVES!
The Defense and Confirmation of the Gospel – What I Have Learned in 50 years (Session II) : Together for the GospelRC Sproul distills a lifetime’s worth of theological reflection into the warning, “Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.”- At Together for the Gospel is also where we learned about Dr. Sproul's teaching ministry: Ligonier Ministries.
- When we learned that St. Andrew's Chapel where Dr. Sproul preaches is located in Sanford not far from Orlando, it became apparent to us that we could attend his church!
- Map of 5525 Wayside Dr Sanford, Florida by MapQuestMap search of 5525 Wayside Dr Sanford, Florida provided by MapQuest. The consumer's choice for online maps and directions.
- Therefore, when we came to Florida to hunt for a house, we resolved to live halfway between Sanford and Lake Nona, the area of Orlando where Wycliffe is located.During the trip, we also attended Ligonier's National Conference.
Tough Questions Christians Face: 2010 National Conference Conference by Various Teachers from Ligonier MinistriesChrist has redeemed us to be a light that directs others to Him. Fulfilling this call requires us to be able to deal with the most difficult questions asked about the Christian faith. If we ...- I was especially interested in the special session on social media.
- Message 1, The Brave New World of New Media from Tough Questions Christians Face: 2010 National Conference Conference by Various Teachers from Ligonier MinistriesChrist has redeemed us to be a light that directs others to Him. Fulfilling this call requires us to be able to deal with the most difficult questions asked about the Christian faith. If we ...
