Newsletters

This weekend I've been working hard to print addresses on newscards, stamp them, and write personal notes to those more directly involved in supporting our work here. Some lucky people will even get drawings, scribblings, and paintings done by our 2 children (who are producing massive quantities of artwork at this point of time.

Part of our work here involves trying to communicate the most effectively with those on our ministry team. When I first arrived in France in 1988, I did lots of postcards and personal notes, as well as had a letter service do newsletters 3x a year. Those were in the pre-email days and telephoning was expensive.

When I first got e-mail access and a computer modem in December 1994, I had no idea how big e-mail would get. At that point, I was the first one with my organization in France with e-mail. Our monthly e-mail news is our primary means of communication with our support team.

Sending letters via the post office is much more expensive than sending e-mails. However, we know that not everyone has access to e-mail, nor if everyone reads their e-mail. Therefore, periodic paper communications send through the mail still a key communications tool. Hencefore all the work on this current mailing.

Just because one writes faithfully is no guarantie of being fully supported. However, I hypothesize that in most cases, those who communicate more regularly are prayed for and receive financial support gifts more often than those who communicate less, or not at all. Of course, the quality of the newsletter (the stylistic look and the quality of the writing) are also important.