Saturday, February 26, 2005
First Newsletter
2-26-05
The temporary absence of the laptop that was used to get PowerPoint with audio on the web site has led me to focus on the print newsletter.
NEXT STEP
The call for a one page summary for my Sunday school class got the ball rolling. Then I recognized that the next step in that direction is a four page missionary kind of newsletter.
God brought to my attention that there are DOZENS of people that I have known over the years that I have lost contact with but I can find their addresses. And there are many who care about me and I have some contact with but they do not know about the new web site for Four Bridges Ministry.
Plus when I get back into the habit of making face-to-face presentations the people I meet want to have a simple summary of the ministry in print. It is reassuring to touch something like paper or a CD even though more data in waiting in cyberspace. The fund raising seminars say to add those you have met to the newsletter subscription. That keeps your ministry alive in their thinking and they are more likely to give when they are informed.
I have been so oriented to the latest communication technologies that I forgot about the value of a good old print newsletter. Well maybe I just blocked it out. I have send out only a few support letters over the years. Each time I faced the same hurtles I face today. I need to keep it very simple. I need to find those addresses again and put them into a central database. The printing, addressing and folding can take longer than expected.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Another reason I have postponed publishing a newsletter is my challenge of keeping it simple. Right now the vision and game plan for the ministry are very complex. If I was a busy American reading this document I may tend to get confused and overwhelmed. It was my plan to have the consultants work with me in choosing the few elements to emphasize at first. Then which ones we would add in what order unto the fullness of the ministry after several years. I guess I could say that in print.
Another big challenge for me is to wisely choose fewest words for the print newsletter. I need to both tell the story briefly and motivate the readers to go to the web site. Today I could easily fill 12 pages of text but I need to keep it to 4 pages. Plus there needs to be white space. I have told many international students over the years that the first newsletter needs to serve as an introductory unit. Then the following ones are updates. When you meet a new supporter you can give them both the first one and the latest one.
Lord willing this will be a quarterly publication.
MONEY
Friday was payday. Yet between today and next payday several hundred dollars will need to come in also for ends to meet.
Rent is coming due next week as well as the payment for 6 months hosging of my web sites.
God has somehow provided funds right on time each month for many years. The last time that my paycheck covered all my bills was 1998. God has caused manna to arrive from different sources repeatedly.
The first print newsletter will enroll many more prayers and motivate people to give in the short term. It will break the ice unto the future quarterly newsletters. These will be sued by God to enroll monthly donors. That will take the pressure off the monthly rent challenge.
John 10:53 AM
Friday, February 25, 2005
Power Point lessons and links
2-25-05
By the grace of God I taught the forth Power Point class today.
I greatly enjoyed the experience of preparing and presenting such a fun program.
Each time my students were a mix of beginner and intermediate. During my limited time it was challenging to serve both kinds of learners. This just points again to the value of DVDs as educational tools. Thus a person can go directly to the part they need and not need to endure material that is over their head or a boring repetition.
The nature of this program and others is that after gaining a certain skill and knowledge level then there is a demand for the next few lessons. A DVD or web site can accommodate the timing of this. By contrast we offer the classes two times a year. And I often hear of those who wanted to take the class but had a schedule conflict.
This set of experiences was another confirmation from God about the importance of leading the emerging ministry to produce interactive educational DVDs. Power Point will be one of the titles. I am sometimes asked by friends and church member to teach them. They cannot afford to pay me decent wage to tutor them. But they could access the materials on a web site for a small fee or buy an interactive DVD.
One of my best students today mentioned how he and many other seminary students have been unable to tap into the many features of Bible Works. I told him we have a DVD of the brown bag that a representative of the company gave last month. He bought a copy for only two dollars. That one hour overview will unlock dozens of tools that will lead to the great riches in God’s word.
This just reinforced that the need is large for DVDs on such software and especially End Note. The End Note classes are almost always full. Yet there is zero educational aids on the market by the producer of the product or a third party.
Please pray fervently that God will provide the start up capital easily and soon. After the web platform is in place then many more intercessors, advisors and donors will be enrolled. That expanded base will led to the production of such educational DVDs
Here is a blog where I have pasted the handouts for the class plus dozens of links to the many related online aids.
http://powerpointhub.blogspot.com/
I welcome your comments, suggestions and questions related to this new blog.
Again this is just a prototype of what will be a part of the web platform of Four Bridges Ministry.
John 10:48 PM
TUESDAY BRIEFING from John S. Oliver on February 22, 2005
BLESSINGS
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May you deny your self and follow Jesus daily.
May you choose life in Christ.May you live for an audience of One.
Amen?
COMPLETED
Here is the link to the new blog to help me FOCUS http://1234deliverables.blogspot.com/ .
CURRENT
· Follow the 1 2 3 4 guidelines
· Emphasis to get the one-page print summary of Four Bridges ready before this Sunday
UPCOMING
· Line up the ducks and get back on the road making presentations.
· Use the point system to easily measure progress
OTHER UPDATES
· 7 Sentence Saturday Summary http://7sentencesaturdaysummary.blogspot.com/
DONATE · http://ears2hear.homestead.com/Donate.html
RESOURCES Setting Captives Free www.settingcaptivesfree.com also has FREE 60 day courses that lead to freedom from all kinds of sexual impurity, homosexuality, bad eating habits, drinking & drugs, and smoking. They have special courses for spouses and teens.
Here is one of many multimedia presentations http://www.andiesisle.com/imagine.html See home page to link to many more http://www.andiesisle.com
Tool for adult Bible teachers http://www.mybiblestudy.com/mbs/app
Here is an archive of previous Tuesday Briefings and updates between Tuesdays http://tuesdaybriefings.blogspot.com/
If you wish to unsubscribe then just let me know by reply email.
John 2:19 AM
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
FOCUS using 1 2 3 4
2-22-05
THANKS again for taking the time to read my writings and praying for me.
I wish that I did not need to trouble you and others with these emails. I wish I could just make a simple plan, stick with the plan and report the progress monthly.
I am learning that God wants me to involve intercessors, advisors and donors along the way. I am not allowed to just go do it solo. Otherwise I could boast. All the glory would not go to God and I would not be interdependent on member of the body of Christ. You would not have opportunities to exercise your faith in prayer. You would not rejoice as much at the victories unless you had known the difficulties to get to the finish line.
It is my hope that within 1 to 3 months there will be effective ways to segment this email list between intercessors, advisors and donors. Plus each one will have access to short medium and long version of the information. Your prayers and patience will help bring that to pass.
I am sorry that this email is so long. There is much to be said at this point. I hope that this will pave the way to shorter updates that are more often and easier to measure.
THINKING OUT LOUD
In a way I am thinking out loud in print here. I knew parts but not all that I would write you today. In order to connect the parts I needed new parts. That is how I design systems. It is like being given 80 percent of the pieces for a jig saw puzzle. After most of those are assembled then there is a need to create the missing pieces. That is one of the ways God guides me as a co-creator in various projects. He gives most and I fill in the blanks. I never get all the pieces.
Writing this took a large chunk of time. Along the way I felt uneasy in putting so much time into writing. But at this season it is necessary for me to get on the same page with the intercessors. The next few weeks are critical to gain needed focus and momentum.
It took me several hours to write this and it will take you several minutes to read it. But with the answered prayers a new way of periodic updates will be birthed. I will get out of this rut and onward toward the important goals.
There have been various distractions, interruptions, set backs and delays during the last year. The core of the ministry has remained the same because it is rooted in the call of God on my life. However it has gotten wider and deeper. That makes it more wonderful ten years from now but more challenging to launch today. I used to resist that part of the Jabez prayer about extending the boundaries.
I stay busy day and night. But I avoid some of the most important tasks.
I tend to spend plenty of time on researching, planning, organizing and writing. Those activities are important but they do not pay the bills.
I have an abundance of knowledge about fund raising but I do not use it. So the cash flow pinch has continued.
It has proven very helpful to migrate my notes into One Note. This program provides the flexibility and many layers of organization that I had lacked. Most of my raw notes are there now. I could invest dozens of hours just making improvements. But there are other higher priorities. And I will continually improve One Note during the coming months.
I have tended to get excited about various creative projects and invest many hours into them. Each was important. Earlier I needed to complete some of these to serve as examples and prototypes. I have list of dozens more that could keep me busy for another decade. But two hundred nifty prototypes will not magically attract the big money needed to launch the ministry.
SAME OLD ISSUE
This points back to the same old issue. My biggest fear is doing face-to-face fund raising with those who have the means to write a check for thousands of dollars. I have been to seminars of those who have raised millions of dollars for hospitals, universities, museums, medical research and other major nonprofits. Repeatedly they said this is the most direct route to the big money needed for capital improvements. Then there are various other ways to sell products, memberships or ask for the monthly donations that keep the regular operations costs covered after the major infrastructure costs are covered..
So we are back to keep it simple in order to make a short sweet and simple presentation. Toward the end of last year I started to get into the habit of making individual presentations. People have allowed me to share with them for 30 to 60 minutes. During that time I used the graphics that God guided me to create last year. Every time they were delighted when I gave them a CD that had the graphic I had shown them and more material for them to review.
The crazy thing is that WHILE I am making the presentation I totally ENJOY sharing the vision for the ministry. God leads me to tap into my passions and they get energized too. But I FEEL that I am not yet ready to make an excellent presentation. So I keep making improvements. The fear of rejection leads to excessive preparations.
The answer is to get into motion again. Thus far I have taught PowerPoint 3 times. Each time there were improvements. I will teach the forth and last time this Friday. That will be much better than the first time. And I will post on a blog all the wonderful things that can help the previous students and others.
I am reminded what my mother told me about her struggles to get me and my brother to take a bath. It was always hard to get us into the tub. But after we were there my brother and I had a great time. Then it was tough to get us out!
UPDATE THE MATERIALS
So the best way to meet the goal of raising 40K for the Strong Start Capital Campaign is to update the materials and get back on the road. Three big changes have happened since I was making presentation is early December. 1) the tsunami caused massive damage and there is a need for long term relief and rebuilding, 2) I encountered Imaptica that will allow me to make PowerPoint slide shows with audio then put them on the web or DVD for fund raising plus teaching 3) I had a major slip into Internet pornography and am in the process of recovery.
The tidal waves provided plenty of graphic images for a few weeks. The media spotlights have gone back to where they were. But people know that the needs still exist and will for many years. The fields are ripe unto harvest and the workers are few in those devastated areas. It would be easy to speak to any audience over the web or at a church show how the Four Bridges model applies to this complex missions case. I care about all other mission fields but this is the one that caught global attention, it is easy to say that those people need our help today and the memories are still fairly fresh.
Thanks to many answered prayers last week a major technical problem was solved. After various attempts I was finally able to line up the hardware and softwares to record narration on PowerPoint. The Imptica program converted that to Java and compressed it to one tenth the size. I was able to get the borrowed laptop to connect over DSL from my home. I have uploaded the file to my web host of many years … Homestead. That is 98 percent of the solution. BUT I have not yet worked out a way for you and other who come to the site to play the short video clips. I will call tech support on WED.
After this final problem is solved that will allow me to make a short promo or update PowerPoint slide show and publish it on the web the same day. That will make fund raising much easier and faster. I will put a variety of my teaching on the web too. I will invite others to share their teachings. This will be the start of the online lay institute. Those examples will inspire wealthy donors to give generous contributions.
I am grateful for the many prayers of my friends about recovery from my addiction to Internet porn. I have completed the 4th day of the free 60 day online Bible study. www.settingcaptivesfree.com WOW it has already done great things in my soul. Along the way I have come across many Christian and secular resources. Various studies indicate that nearly half the men that are church members have been into porn in the last 90 days. This is a very private sin. There is great shame associated with it. The enemy uses this to isolate men even more and heap on the guilt.
My primary focus needs to be fund raising. But the secondary focus can be to create a beta web site that provides the solutions to this complex porn problem. There are scores of resources on the web and in the bookstore today. But they are scattered. I busy person does not have the time or energy to dig around. I can use my research and organizing skills to bring these under one cyberspace roof. The audiences include 1) those who are caught in the snare of the enemy and wants to become free, 2) the wives, mothers, girlfriends and sisters of these men because their prayers and love can lead to healing 3) parents that want to teach their boys how to avoid this terrible pit, 4) the pastors, counselors and therapists that can use an ever growing resource center to have the right book, tape, website, filter, support group, etc. to recommend. This new site could be ready to share in 30 to 60 days. My concern is that I may put too much time into this an avoid facing my fears of rejection related to fund raising.
There are important items that have been on my To Do list for months. But I have kept neglecting them. Some examples include using a questionnaire that draws out all the essential answers needed both for management and marketing. I have used this questionnaire several times long ago. It was very helpful I need to do it again in the light of the current conditions. This will greatly assist in keeping it simple over the web.
I have lists of the names of prospective donors in several locations on my computer. I need to gather these into one place. Then I need to pray over them and assign priorities like A, B and C. That task has gotten very stale on the To DO list.
THANKFULLY God has brought plenty of intercessors and advisors into my life. There are people who want to help but I have not developed a SIMPLE way to enroll their assistance. I have several projects on the drawing board that need to be put into practice.
So at the end of the day it boils down to a matter of more effective time management for me. My creative imagination can think up more than enough work to keep a dozen people busy full time. But there is just one John. So how do I wisely distribute my time?
Long ago I asked earnestly for wisdom from God about this matter. He gave me simple guidelines that have helped before to organize. And now I need to implement them. 10 percent for management, 20 percent for marketing, 30 percent for Administration and 40 percent for Production. That adds up to 100 percent it is a nice ideal.
I have begun to order my projects and tasks in One Note according to this. I actually have begun to map out 100 hours using these guidelines. It looks good from an administrative perspective. There is balance and order. I have even begun to log the times that I invest into each area. I break this down into 15 minute intervals. This only counts when there has been time on task. This shows me that I usually work in intervals of 45 to 90 minutes at a time.
So here is the next step. By midnight tonight I will create a new blog. The purpose of this new blog is to define the next 10 hours of work to be done for the ministry. 1 hour management, 2 hours marketing, 3 hours administrative and 4 hours production. That way the huge 100 hours is sliced into a chunk that can be done in less than a week. It will force me to maintain balance. I will gradually whittle away at the items I have been avoiding. The intercessors can pray and see quick results. I can enroll the advisors to assist with problems encountered along the way. And the donors will see the pace and direction. This will give them more confidence that their money is being used wisely.
Like the Tuesday Briefing and 7 Sentence Saturday Summary I have found that I work well using a template with a blog. I will not clutter you inbox with more unsolicited messages. I can have a link to this blog from the Tuesday Briefing and have a way to opt in to such updates.
SO kindly pray that this will come together before midnight.
John 1:24 PM
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