Missionary Blog Watch

I'm going to stay at someone's house during a mission conference.  Since I may not have a vehicle, I was wondering how close this person's house was to the school where the events will take place.  As I was typing the email to ask, all of a sudden a message popped up on my screen:  Prepare for a long walk!

No, it had nothing to do with my question.  It was the latest entry from Keith at under the acacias.  It's about culture, the meaning of words, and travel.  Go and read Prepare for a long walk.

Another great entry that has to do with words and culture comes from Mission Safari.  It's from last week (so old) but it's still on my mind.  It's called The Power of a Word.  For more culture in Africa, read Life and Death - a glimpse of a funeral from Adventures with God, and thoughts about the literate and non-literate in the post Class - Day #2 AND Timothy from Rockin' Randall.

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Videobloggers
October 4, 2005 08:16

More people are joining the ranks of the videobloggers.  New services online are making it easier and easier to include small videos on your site, though the technology is still pretty new.

Most recently joining the ranks is Malaysia Greetings.  They use the service JussPress.  Here's one of their videos.

Of course, this is the specialty of Mexico Movies.  Dennis and Janell set up a separate blog just for movies, and vlog using the ideas written at freevlog.org.

Comings Communiqué uses the service at audioblog.com, to create both audio blogs and video blogs like this one.  Here's a recent vlog from Finding direction, also using audioblog.com.

Do you know of other missionaries who are using audio or video?  Leave a comment!

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Who am I? Missionary blog tip #1
October 6, 2005 10:56

If you've found your website here at Missionary-Blogs.com, you may have had a sudden realization that some very unexpected people could be reading your blog.  Some very unexpected people may really connect with what you're doing.  Who knows?  Maybe someday some very unexpected people will follow you in ministry!

It's obvious that many blogs were set up with the expectation that only a few friends would be reading.  But this shouldn't be the way of things for a missionary blogger.  This is why it's so important to explain who you are and what you're doing.  Just telling people your astrological sign doesn't cut it.

My suggestion?  Have a quick summary somewhere, and then have somewhere people can go for more information.  When you're writing, remember that anyone anywhere in the world may be reading.  Will they understand?  Can the information be quickly scanned, or is it overwhelming?

A few quick examples:

HUBERnews has a good profile page with a way to contact them, how to donate and some personal interests.

The Rothchild's blog is built into an excellent website with lots of easy to access info

Papa Chick's Thoughts has a link to another website with easy to find info

under the acacias has a easy to find menu with great info

Voice in the Desert simply links to other posts with information, another great idea.

The Waldocks in India links to related sites, including a simple site with more info about them.

The Kingsley Clan does it all - links to related sites, a clear profile, and links to posts that read like a missionary FAQ.

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Things God does
October 12, 2005 12:39

Why do we read missionary blogs?  There are lots of reasons.  They can be educational, entertaining, inspiring.  I don't know about you, but I think the best reason to read is to hear about what great things God is doing!  Lives healed and changed, practical needs met, new things learned...the list goes on and on.

Here are a few encouraging stories that I've read lately:

School Supplies

Note from Jeanie

Believer's Baptism

What a difference a year makes

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By popular demand...
October 12, 2005 19:54

No, the irony didn't escape me that I was recommending an "About us" page, and I didn't have one myself.  That has been remedied.  Now you can do new things like - find out my name, recommend a missionary blog, go on a missionary blog hunt, or tell me how you're doing today.  Slowly the landscape here is changing.

Thanks for being understanding - this blog is a work in progress!  And thanks to those of you who have already linked here.  In the early days, the only person that found this site had typed "Christian dating service" into the search engine.  They were bound to be disappointed (unless they were looking to marry a missionary blogger, of course.  Not a bad choice!).  So when you recommend the site, in context, it's a big help!

Now, traffic is about 3x what it was last month, and I'm sure they're closer to finding what they're looking for.  I have my eye on over 60 blogs now - considering when I started I had trouble finding missionary blogs, that's pretty good.  But in 6 months or a year we'll look back at this post and laugh that I had only found 60.

Praise the Lord for all that He has done and will do around the world!

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Two world and the connection between them...
October 17, 2005 08:07

This morning I enjoyed reading Two Different Worlds, a recent post in Reflections on Life in Benin.  (Wait a minute, wasn't that blog called Reflections with Rockin' Randall?  I guess the name has been changed...)

The post is pretty long, but it does paint a good picture of the life of a missionary - what it's like to live life in two worlds, sometimes longing for one and sometimes longing for another.  I can relate to Randy's apparent reluctance to mention a cold.  But let's face it, they can be nasty, even if they're "common".  I realize it's hard to be rockin' when your head is throbbin'.

On a related topic (you'll see how if you read Randy's entry), the internet sure has made a difference in our connections to those different worlds.  Even though, let's face it - the technology still tends to be unreliable to varying degrees, depending on where in the world you are.  Then again, we fight with our computers anywhere in the world.  How many can relate to the phone-game in Kenya, or the Ode to Frode in France?

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Better blogs - what the experts say
October 17, 2005 08:50

Jakob Nielsen is famous for researching and recommending ways to make websites better.  In internet terms, he's been around forever, and he's and expert that is taken very seriously by the internet experts out there.

That's why I was very pleased to see that my first blogger tip is first on his list too, in the article he published just today,"Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes".  The number one mistake is, you guessed it, no author biographies.

So if you want to be a better blogger, check out Jakob's recent article.  You don't have to follow his advice to the letter to be a good blogger, but take it seriously.  He knows what he's talking about.

And, of course, stay tuned to this station for more tips that are especially important for missionary bloggers.

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New missionary blogger
October 17, 2005 12:01

I suppose I should be mentioning new missionary blogs once in a while.  It's always especially fun to find a blog that is quite new.  Thanks to a new friend I met at a missions conference this past weekend, I've read a bit of a new blog from a girl who is going to work at the Málaga Media Center in Spain.

Her name is Kirsten, and she also has the simple yet elegant website, missionarygirl.org.  She's been blogging just since last month, as far as I can tell, and is also, I believe, our first Xanga missionary blogger.

So swing by littlemissionarygirl - leave a comment, or sign her guestbook, and welcome a new missionary blogger.

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New bloggers in Japan and Mexico
October 20, 2005 10:28

Welcome to two more bloggers on opposite sides of the world.  First, the Cassidy family in Japan.  The Cassidys serve both the Japanese and the US military in Yokosuka, Kanagawa-ken, Japan.  Paul Cassidy also has the distinction of being the very first missionary blogger to contact me with a new blog.  Thanks, Paul!

Visit the Cassidys at their MSN space here, or see the blog for a part of their ministry, the Lighthouse.

Secondly, a missionary family that I have actually met in the flesh, the Smiths!  Bryan and Lori and their family started a blog just yesterday.  Missionaries in Querétaro, Mexico, the Smiths have actually been online for quite a while, but are in the process of "restarting" their site.

Visit the Smith's blog, The Smith Connection, or find more information about them at their mission site.

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Available news feeds
October 26, 2005 21:32

I'm stopping by to explain those little orange buttons on my site.  Actually, not really to explain them in depth - that may come later.  But to explain why there are two of them.

At the main page of Missionary Blog Watch is one of those little orange buttons that says XML.  This is the feed for this blog, which you can use in a newsreader.  However, there's also a button on the home page.  The feed on our home page is a collected feed of all of my favourite missionary blogs (there are almost 70 now, I think).  However, Missionary Blog Watch is not one of those blogs.

In other words, if you want to subscribe to this blog on your newsreader, you must use the XML feed on this page.  If you want to see the latest missionary blogs, you must use the feed on this page.  Clear as mud?

Those of you who tuned out because you don't know what a feed is, please tune back in for a moment.  All of you may have noticed that the feed at the bottom of the home page has been rather off again on again.  It is on again at the moment, and it will be on again as long as I can keep it on again.  I'll be experimenting with ways to make it better, but all going well things will get better and not worse, and the XML feed will stay the same.

What I'm working on now is a way to get the headlines formatted properly, updated faster, and listed with the title of the missionary's blog so that you can easily identify your favourite blogs.  You should already see an improvement in the updating.  So I'll fight with the technical stuff, and you can just enjoy!

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Recent glimpses of cross-cultural life
October 28, 2005 19:08

I love stories that give us a little glimpse into life in another culture.  Sometimes it just gives us a picture of a world we're not familiar with.  Other times we get a better understanding of struggles that missionaries have to face.  Here are three great examples:

Grace - from Kids' Doc in Jos.  The doctor tries to help 2 year old Grace, and her family.

Our Trip to Noakhali - a glimpse of Bangladesh in Kevin's Web Log.

SKY IS FALLING - I can relate to this one from Reflections on Life in Benin.

Finally, I don't yet have a "photo of the week" award, but if I did it might go to Kingsley Clan for this picture of Matt and Eoin.

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Short paragraphs - Missionary blog tip #2
October 31, 2005 16:12

I suppose the title says it all, but let me add a few more whys and hows.

For better or for worse, when people read on the internet, they tend to scan.  For better or for worse, many people are also poor readers, and so do better with short sentences and paragraphs.

So here are some guidlines.  Some people have said that 2-3 sentences per paragraph should be the max, but sometimes that can be hard.  Another common bit of wisdom is to keep the width of your paragraph, on the page, greater than its height.

You can also make a blog entry easier to read by using:

Seperate lines and bullets, like these

Bold or italicized text

Titles

Font colours

Some very simple HTML can make this happen - it will take you about 5 minutes to learn, and it will make your blog look a lot more interesting.  Don't over do it, or it will just make the blog look chaotic.  If everything is emphasized, it cancels out the effect!

See some examples of the above in blogs such as Kurt and Sally Kovach, Dr. Klaw and E.T., and Missionary's Day.

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