Thursday, September 29, 2005
NEED EXTENSION
September 29, 2005
I need a 24-hour extension on the deadline for the 5-page text summary.
There have been far more interruptions and distractions than I expected when I set that goal. For example thumb drive that has the rough drafts just died. I can find the recent versions but that was not planned.
It is good for me to use short-term deadlines on specific projects that fit into the most important stage of the Big Picture.
While I could not invest much time on writing and editing recently it became clear that having such a communication item in hard and soft copy will be very needed next week and for the future.
Pray for me to have anointed concentration for the text on Friday afternoon and then the visual aids on Saturday.
Although I did not make progress on the text presentation God led me to many PDF files that will go on the first quarterly CD. Chasing down links to links to links is like treasure hunting. Then at unexpected times one or a batch of gems are found.
What has taken me many hours of research to locate will be accessed quickly by parents, teachers, pastors, intercessors and others.
John 11:23 PM
TEXT SUMMARY
September 29. 2005
I LOVE to design systems. That has become abundantly evident in the presentations I have already made. These mind map posters that I use to illustrate my concept are very effective. But that is shared amidst the interaction of verbal dialog.
I genuinely believe that those I have met wish me well. They get many glimpses at how what I am offering could benefit those in the DFW area who are serving the evacuees as well as those individuals and churches in the affected areas.
The advantage of face-to-face meetings is that they all say WOW you have PASSION about this. But I whirl over many points according to their interests, questions and body language. Note that most of the meetings have run about one hour.
I have been asking those I have met to introduce me to major donors. What I am coming to recognize is that I need to provide them with a simple summary text version of what I told them in person. Then they can review it and pass that along to their contact base as the Holy Spirit leads them.
Also this forces me to put dozens of ideas in a clear and orderly sequence.
The web site tells the story in a larger and more detailed format. What I need is just text, like a long magazine article. I will include hyperlinks to places on the web to illustrate my points.
I enjoy using all kinds of media so I tend to forget that text alone is an effective way to communicate. Before PowerPoint and the Internet text is about all we had. Text is an adequate base line. I recall that I have given out copies of my newsletter to those that were interested. They gained a good understanding in those four pages.
Here I am writing more than one page memo to request prayers to distill a huge volume of material into just five pages. As I was praying this morning, that seemed like the right size for this next step. This needs to be narrative like a story with bullet point paragraphs as needed. I have already written many more than five pages on the various parts. I just need to pull this together in a nice neat packet.
I ask for you prayers for this project. I hope to get out the first draft of the text summary by midnight tonight Thursday September 29th
I have been invited to a meeting of pastors from the DFW area on October 6th. They are starting to think about the long-term ways to serve the evacuees. They have been understandably focused on the short-term needs of the thousands who suddenly arrived. All during those same weeks I have been considering the long term. This five-page summary will help them to better think, pray, talk, plan and work together.
Also please pray for Saturday. Then I will be focused on completing the mind map flow charts related to serving the evacuees, host families and rebuilders. Those are partly done now. They need to be finished and then put on the web plus on a CD.
Along the way the Table of Contents for the first quarterly CD will emerge. After all this detailed outline is just the skeleton of all the other items.
John 10:13 AM
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
9 and 15 POINTS
September 27, 2005
POINTS
God granted grace and there was wonderful progress from zero motion to some movement. I went on 3 appointments last week. And this week I have already gone on 3 appointments. There are 2 more are scheduled for this week.
Remember the simple system
1 point for setting the appointment
2 points for making the presentation
3 points for asking for the donation
4 points for receiving the money.
I have not asked for money YET. Mostly these meeting were for practice and networking contacts. God used those people to point me to others. I am getting much closer to those who can easily afford to give 1 to 10 thousand dollars.
Last week it was 9 points
This week it will be 15 points unless God adds more.
FOCUS
Most of these appointments were with people at the seminary where I work. The key staff people know where I am headed. It was important that they were in the loop as I went to various churches and major donors. ALL of them were encouraging and prayed for me.
What the Lord Jesus has taught me during these presentations is that I need to have a simple written description of the informational and educational CD. This will be addressed primarily to the evacuees, host families and those returning to rebuild. After just a few hours of research I began to collect a sample of the kinds of materials that will be offered. I have put the links on the web site and will describe them to you later in this briefing.
What I am seeking currently is the company that I will work with to create this CD. I have located a few prospective vendors. They will give me a quote that I will take to the donors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I have already invested many hours into what could become the detailed outline of Table of Contents for the CD.
The prospective vendor will need to see this to give me a quote. Also this kind of initial organization is what I enjoy. Later I will be delighted to work with others to make improvements. This stage of the work is essential both to the preparation of the product and the usefulness for the end user.
SUMMARY
I have already described the CD verbally to a couple of dozen people. The same explanations and illustrations were used repeatedly. I need to write down what I said and put other related materials into a one-page proposal. There is an initial draft of it here http://ourresponse.org/About.html
VOLUNTEER
You can go to the Volunteering page http://ourresponse.org/Volunteer.html to read the possible volunteer opportunities available today. You can pray that God will provide the right people right on time.
COUNSELING
On the Counseling page http://ourresponse.org/Counseling.html you can read some of the online articles that I gathered in a short time. You can learn about the guidelines for parents and teachers of children who experienced trauma.
PRAYER
The weakest part of this web site today is the Prayer page. http://ourresponse.org/Prayer.html Yet I love to present general guidelines for prayer. God has not inspired me in this way YET. Ask of wisdom and insight here. Also if you come across online prayer guidelines for the evacuees and the rebuilding then kindly send me the link using the Feedback page http://ourresponse.org/Feedback.html or reply to this email.
John 11:58 PM
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