Missionary Talks

Tony and Laura Macias contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I would interview Brad Rhoads again to get an update on his ministry. They were intrigued by the original interview because God had used Brad to show them that not all missionaries were church planters and that they could use their skills on the mission field. They are now raising their support preparing for full time missionary service.

Tony will be working with Bro. Brad Rhoads in MAF’s Learning Technologies. As an educator he will help the men who are learning from the Bible training tools that are created by Learning Technologies to know how best to use these tools. He will also be working with the curriculum creators to help them to understand what is needed in the field to help the students learn well.

Laura will work as an Orality Specialist. She will help train missionaries and nationals on how to teach the Bible in oral societies. These could be either non-literate people groups or people whose culture is more of an oral one—relying on verbal stories as opposed to written word to transmit information. She will be using the God Story’s program called Simply the Story as the basis for what she will be teaching.

Please visit their website to keep up to date on their mission journey.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:23 — 14.0MB)

Tanzania is a country in East Africa where Rodney Myers and his family serve as missionaries. They work with the Datooga tribe as church planters. Bro. Rodney shares a bit about the Datooga tribe and the recent publication of the Datooga Bible.

One of the things we talked at length about was linguistic training and how it can be a benefit to the missionary. This is true if a missionary is going into a tribal setting where there might not be a formal language school, but also for missionaries going to minister in a language that is not their native tongue. Bro. Rodney mentioned the linguistics program that he attended and later gave me some resources of linguistic interest.

Linguistic Resources:

• Baptist Bible Translators Institute
• L.A.M.P. (order form)
• SIL International

Be sure to visit Bro. Myers’ blog for stories of life in Tanzania.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:05 — 16.6MB)

I spoke with Justin Long about the information he provides to readers about missionary news and trends. He has a resource of links and information as well as commentary that is useful for missionaries and those who pray for mission works around the world. You can go to his site to find out how to access the resources. You can also find Justin’s information on Facebook.

Justin also mentioned specific resources where he gets some of his missions news (not all would be considered conservative religious news).

• Doug Nichols
• Tall Skinny Kiwi
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)
• World Vision
• Assist News
• Compassion International
• Ed Stetzer
• Baptist Press
• Mission Network News
• Google Reader
• Common Craft’s excellent video: RSS in Plain English

If you have questions for Justin you can write to me or leave a comment. You can also go to Justin’s site and get his contact information. I would like to have Justin back for future Chats episodes. Your questions will help direct the topic of our conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:02 — 15.2MB)

I first talked with Brad in February 2008. He talked about the computer projects that he would be working on for MAF in their Learning Technologies department. But all of that was tentative since he wasn’t actively working with MAF at the time. If you have not heard the original interview, then you may want to go back and listen to that one.

Now that Brad has been working with MAF for almost 2 years it was good to find out what has taken place with those projects and to see what he is currently working on. Brad is a computer programmer who has been called to missions and is using the skills that God has allowed him to learn in the ministry.

In the interview Brad encourages the listeners to find out what God has gifted them with and seek to serve the Lord in however they are called to serve.

The websites Brad mentioned were:

• Mission Aviation Fellowship
• Mission Aviation Fellowship Learning Technologies
• Brad’s information at MAF
• Brad’s blog where you can find his recent prayer letters

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:47 — 11.5MB)

I was introduced to Missionary Jeff Bush just a few weeks before we arrived in Argentina. Bro. Jeff has been used by the Lord to start a church that has already started another church and is looking to begin two more in the coming year.

Enjoy the conversation as Bro. Bush talks about how the Lord led him to the field and some of the details of his preparation for the ministry he is doing today. He also shares information about language school that many missionaries will need to attend as they prepare for ministry on a foreign field.

If you are considering missionary work, or just want to know more about life as a missionary, be sure to visit Bro. Jeff’s website. Along with having his prayer letters and ministry information, he has good resources to help a missionary on deputation and to avoid some common mistakes of the ministry.

He also has a website for his ministry in Argentina that is written in Spanish.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:50 — 12.3MB)

This is a continuation of the Missionary Chats 03: Culture Shock (Part 1) interview with LaMoin Cunningham. Please take time to listen to that episode to get a background of where this conversation came from.

LaMoin and I ended the last episode talking about what friends back home could do to help the missionary as he deals with culture shock, or culture fatigue. This episode continues with other ideas of what friends can do by suggesting certain types of things they can send and how to send them.

Show Links:

• Life With LaMoin
• 10 Great Mission Trip Ideas
• Journey to Everest
• Missionary Talks 43: Brad Rhoads

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:16 — 11.2MB)

I talked with LaMoin Cunningham about culture shock. In this first part of the conversation we define how culture shock can effect a missionary and how friends back home can communicate with missionaries to help them through their time of culture shock, or culture fatigue.

I interviewed LaMoin and her husband in a previous episode of Missionary Talks.

The reason I wanted to talk with LaMoin about this is she gave a lecture to missionaries last year that I was privileged to hear. In it she talked about many of the same things we cover in this conversation. Her focus then was on the missionary and what he could do to help overcome culture shock. In this conversation we tried to focus on the friends back home and explain to them how they can be a help to the missionary on the field.

You can get more information about LaMoin at her website.

Please be back next week for the conclusion of the interview.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:29 — 15.5MB)