Follow-up to yesterday's post
So, if you read yesterday's post to the end I told you that I was going to post again soon (this is soon) to give some more details to what God has done in our lives to bring a lot of the things I was talking about together.
Over the last year we have been praying consistently for wisdom concerning the decision of what comes next. While we haven't talked about it too often publicly, we knew that we were going to need to leave Poznan. There are already many missionaries here, four baptist churches, several other protestant churches, and many that could/should be taking up the leadership role with Polish nationals to advance the Gospel in this city and region. So, it had been decided by our leadership (mine and my supervisors) that it would be better for our ministry to find another city in our region to work/live in, move into a different assignment, or think about returning to the states to pursue different employment altogether.
Fast-forwarding extremely quickly through this past year, we began exploring an old topic that had been brought up by a good friend of ours that works on the media team in Prague. He's talked to me before about doing something in the area of media and advocacy but never anything concrete. Recently, though, we were able to meet and talk about what that would look like...how we might actually do something like that. And as we gabbed, Vicki and I both began to have this sense that this was the answer to the question what's next.
Again short-cutting the details, we are going to be moving to Krakow, Poland after we return from our stateside assignment (probably early-June). When we get back I'm going to begin working in a media/advocacy position for our field (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland). This is a brand spankin' new position for the Baltic Field and one that we are extremely excited about. Why?
It's going to be my job to develop creative ways to communicate the stories of our missionaries...the stories of what God is doing in their areas...to you all back home in the states. That, in and of itself, fires me up. I have a desire to marry the thoughts I was writing about yesterday (of creating things of beauty) with this idea of "story-telling" and I believe the outcome can be professional-quality media pieces that vividly connect you there with what is happening here.
Telling the story of missionaries is something that is not easily done. Often, due to a lack of time and tools to complete the job extremely well, we're just not able to focus on that aspect of our jobs. It's tough when you've got a full schedule with family and ministry to set aside time to develop "media pieces" (be that for web, print, or video) to connect with people back home. Missionaries want to...but already stretched thin, it's typically just not the highest priority.
What's awesome is that this is going to be ministry priority numero uno for me. I'm pumped at the thought of working with my friends all over the Baltic to help them tell their stories as effectively as possible. I definitely don't have all of the answers...nor am I saying that I can do this better than they can. But as I'll have the time and hopefully the resources to focus on it, I'm confident that we'll be able to work together to produce some great stuff.
There are a lot of challenges inherent to this move. Professionally-speaking, since this is a new position there is a lot of equipment and software that needs to be purchased in order to do the work. No, I'm not asking for donations (am I?)...I'm just reporting the facts. Personally-speaking, this is a big move for our family and one that is going to take a lot of effort and energy to get through. But with both of these fronts in mind we're incredibly optimistic.
As I think about what I've written both today and yesterday, I'm hopeful that you all understand exactly what I'm saying and don't read anything into it that's not there. I'm just really excited to see how God has given me this passion that will be the main thing I'll be doing in my next assignment, to help my friends as they share what God is doing in and through them where they are serving. Again, I'd never say I can do it better...just that I'm glad to know that I'll be in a place where I can focus on doing it at the best of my ability with and for all of them.
Over the last year we have been praying consistently for wisdom concerning the decision of what comes next. While we haven't talked about it too often publicly, we knew that we were going to need to leave Poznan. There are already many missionaries here, four baptist churches, several other protestant churches, and many that could/should be taking up the leadership role with Polish nationals to advance the Gospel in this city and region. So, it had been decided by our leadership (mine and my supervisors) that it would be better for our ministry to find another city in our region to work/live in, move into a different assignment, or think about returning to the states to pursue different employment altogether.
Fast-forwarding extremely quickly through this past year, we began exploring an old topic that had been brought up by a good friend of ours that works on the media team in Prague. He's talked to me before about doing something in the area of media and advocacy but never anything concrete. Recently, though, we were able to meet and talk about what that would look like...how we might actually do something like that. And as we gabbed, Vicki and I both began to have this sense that this was the answer to the question what's next.
Again short-cutting the details, we are going to be moving to Krakow, Poland after we return from our stateside assignment (probably early-June). When we get back I'm going to begin working in a media/advocacy position for our field (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland). This is a brand spankin' new position for the Baltic Field and one that we are extremely excited about. Why?
It's going to be my job to develop creative ways to communicate the stories of our missionaries...the stories of what God is doing in their areas...to you all back home in the states. That, in and of itself, fires me up. I have a desire to marry the thoughts I was writing about yesterday (of creating things of beauty) with this idea of "story-telling" and I believe the outcome can be professional-quality media pieces that vividly connect you there with what is happening here.
Telling the story of missionaries is something that is not easily done. Often, due to a lack of time and tools to complete the job extremely well, we're just not able to focus on that aspect of our jobs. It's tough when you've got a full schedule with family and ministry to set aside time to develop "media pieces" (be that for web, print, or video) to connect with people back home. Missionaries want to...but already stretched thin, it's typically just not the highest priority.
What's awesome is that this is going to be ministry priority numero uno for me. I'm pumped at the thought of working with my friends all over the Baltic to help them tell their stories as effectively as possible. I definitely don't have all of the answers...nor am I saying that I can do this better than they can. But as I'll have the time and hopefully the resources to focus on it, I'm confident that we'll be able to work together to produce some great stuff.
There are a lot of challenges inherent to this move. Professionally-speaking, since this is a new position there is a lot of equipment and software that needs to be purchased in order to do the work. No, I'm not asking for donations (am I?)...I'm just reporting the facts. Personally-speaking, this is a big move for our family and one that is going to take a lot of effort and energy to get through. But with both of these fronts in mind we're incredibly optimistic.
As I think about what I've written both today and yesterday, I'm hopeful that you all understand exactly what I'm saying and don't read anything into it that's not there. I'm just really excited to see how God has given me this passion that will be the main thing I'll be doing in my next assignment, to help my friends as they share what God is doing in and through them where they are serving. Again, I'd never say I can do it better...just that I'm glad to know that I'll be in a place where I can focus on doing it at the best of my ability with and for all of them.
posted by Michael Shattuck at
2:13 AM
2 Comments:
That sounds great! I've thought for a long time that it sure would help to have somebody who knows how to do such things to be a central point to help missionaries all over. I can't wait to see what starts coming out of those groups!
sounds like a good fit for you--we'll continue to be excited as more details arrive for you.
brian
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