A task completed

This is one element of our news/
prayer letter sent out today.

This morning I finally sent out our news/prayer letter. This is something I've been doing 11 times a year for the last 15 or so years (it's actually a requirement of our job as missionaries). 

It isn't generally a big deal, but in recent months I've encountered more and more problems. Not the writing itself, but the sending. Particularly people inexplicably "falling off" our list and then in the last couple of months, being unable to send the email with its attachment to 200+ people in the one email. It had turned into a shamozzle.

So I did some research and discovered that Mailchimp would suit our budget and purposes and hopefully eliminate the above mentioned problems.

But that meant cross-checking two lists of email addresses: our Excel file of supporters and our list of contacts on our email program. I also had to figure out Mailchimp, export the names and addresses, and actually write the newsletter. That's taken about ten days to complete (amidst the other things that we've had to do in that time).

Finally this morning, I held my breath and hit Send. I've had a few people email us back saying it worked fine, which is a relief. It's the ones I don't hear from that I'm concerned about, particularly those who are less tech-savvy as well as older folk. Any change can be a challenge for these people and this is a change from receiving a basic email with an attachment, to an email with a link that takes you (hopefully) to our letter in a browser. 

In any case, I'm glad it's done. It was a big project that's been on my mind for a few months now, but only now have I been able to get it completed. 

By the way, if you'd like to check the letter out, I can send you it to you. Drop me a line using the email address in the right-hand column above.