Social media workshop in Manila

Seven years ago this week I was in Hong Kong participating in a week-long writer's workshop. This is one thing I wrote on my blog:

Even better than reading our writing, we got to pray for one another and be prayed for. I confessed my struggle to find a way forward from here. My vision of what I'd like to do with my writing, but the difficulty of getting there. I long to tell the stories of ordinary women who happen to be missionaries. It was encouraging to have someone pray that God would bring people across my path whose stories I could tell. We'll see what becomes of this passion. 

Eleven months before that I was at a magazine editing workshop in Manila. It was still a year before I started working with Japan Harvest magazine. This is where I was at (from my blog):

My future with Japan Harvest is not totally clear. Probably it will be an evolving role. Mission work is different from a paid job; boundaries and responsibilities are often less clear and often it is up to you how much you pour into something. I am excited, however - magazine editing is something I definitely have an interest in and has much room for learning and growth. I can see the current editor needs help and we'll see how much I can do.

Both events were significant preparation for what was to come. I wrote a post in March about my journey of becoming a magazine editor and managing editor leading a team.

I'm not writing other people's stories, but I am helping a lot of people get their stories out there, as an editor. Interesting indeed!

Now my journey includes another curve that I didn't anticipate. As I wrote earlier this month, I've been tasked with starting a new blog for OMF Japan. It's well on its way. I'm also now an administrator for the OMF Japan Facebook page.

And in ten days I'll be winging my ways back to Manila, this time for a three-day Social Media and Web workshop, representing OMF Japan. The invitation said:

It will be an opportunity to learn about a range of different media and communication tools, how to use them together as a part of a cohesive mobilisation strategy and measure progress.

Learning more about social media! Sounds like fun, right? A couple of Japanese friends were shocked to hear about this. I explained that it is common for a mission like OMF to use social media to spread the word about what we do. The trick, apparently, is doing it with a cohesive strategy...

I'm not OMF Japan's mobilisation coordinator, nor am I overall responsible for media and communications, but I was the available party and have my toe enough in the water. Not unusual for me: it seems like I never really fit these workshops' "perfect audience". I'm usually on the edge:

2009 (Manila) Magazine editing: I wasn't yet a magazine editor, though planning to be. It was useful preparation, though.
2010 (Hong Kong) Writing: much of it was related to writing books, which I had no intention of doing and made me unusual among the participants. However it was a useful workshop.
2016 (Bangkok) Teams: most of the teams they envisaged were church planting teams that physically worked in the same place. Not what my teams are like, but still a useful workshop to think about leadership.

So, we shall see how a social media and web workshop goes. I'm sure that it will be helpful (for me as well as for OMF Japan). And if past experiences are anything to show by, God probably has things in mind that I don't know about yet.

In the meanwhile, I'll continue to hang out on the edge and see what comes next!