Unexpected

Today I have "something I prepared earlier". I don't think I shared much here about what happened with my job in February, because that month was also somewhat dominated by taking our son to Australia. But I had some significant other stuff happening too.

So, I'm going to tell you a little now. One of my two main jobs is currently social media manager for OMF Japan. OMF is a world-wide organisation and at the moment the international communications team (based in the UK) is running monthly prayer foci (is that grammatically correct?). As in, each month they have a prayer focus that they post about throughout the month on social media. In February it was Japan, so obviously, though they had the lead on that, we had a big part to play. It was exciting to be working in a larger team on this and also to be using material that other people have had the time to create. It was also exciting to be able to re-use stories that I've worked on both on the OMF Japan blog and with Japan Harvest magazine. But on top of travelling and helping our son, it was also a pretty frantic month.

That's just background to say that this year I've been trying to dove-tail our OMF Japan social media with the international monthly focus, where appropriate (last month they had China, so that didn't work). This month, however, is "The Journey to Long-Term Missions", which we can totally work with. We've got blog posts coming up on those themes and I'll be working to create Facebook and Instagram posts that match the theme too.

The other day, to my surprise, I found that that the international team is using a series that originated on this blog. I wrote it as a series of answers for a friend I haven't seen since primary school. She was at Bible college and had an assignment to ask a missionary some hard questions. So I blogged my answers. That was 2012. Then last year I rewrote the posts to kick-start getting content up on our OMF Japan blog and new website (the first post of the series is here). Now, they are being shared this month on the OMF International social media channels. Their Facebook page is followed by more than 7,500 people and their Instagram page is followed by nearly 1,500 people. So that is a very much wider audience than this blog has!

It's always exciting to see things that I've written before being used again, and to reach a different and wider audience, especially if I've not had to write something new, or even edit the old! My husband faithfully prays every week that my writing and editing will be of help to others, something like this is a tangible answer to that prayer.

If you're interested in finding out more about OMF International's campaign this month about The Journey to Long-Term Missions, there is a succinct prayer guide here.

Celebration of things achieved

Before I move on to the next things on my to-do list, I want to celebrate the things achieved.

Cover of the new magazine issue.

In the midst of the last week of travel and workshopping (and illness), two projects that have taken considerable amounts of my time have gone to the printer:

• The latest issue of Japan Harvest
• A greeting card for the use of our Japan Members for mobilisation of prayer

It's easy to peck away at the keyboard here day after day and forget that things I'm working are actually moving forward. The magazine issue I've been working on since May. The greeting card came out of the realisation that the prayer calendar I usually produce for the field was going to be cost-prohibitive this year, something that I discovered back in March. It is easy to just say, "They're done" and move on to the next project, but actually THEY'RE DONE! After months of work, they are actually completed.

Other things that I've also produced have been published online in the last week:

• Three blog posts for OMF Japan: 
• Lessons from a Korean prayer team
• Don't mention the war
• The value of short-term workers
• And I've been getting more active on social media too, with re-posting relevant things on OMF Japan's page. One of my fellow workshop attendees muttered, "What used to be just for fun has become work." It's true. I'm doing Facebook for work now! That changes the things a little. Although, I guess, in a way I've been doing social media for work for a long time, this blog being a big part of that.

And of course now I'm already working on future projects:

• The next issue of Japan Harvest has been in the works for more than six weeks now, but thankfully I've only got one issue on my plate, instead of two for a few months now.
• More blog posts continue to come in for the OMF blog
• Another printing project for OMF Japan is on the horizon, I just need to kick-start it

I find it easy to think that I'm not doing much, but it's a lie. Perhaps I'm not doing what I do as fast as I'd like to, but I am not fluffing around doing nothing. What I need to find is a better rhythm. I'm not doing much in the way of exercise just now and it isn't helping my stamina nor, probably, my mental state at all.

Celebrating the end of another publishing project

Side-by-side with last year's calendar to show the changes.
It required some tight writing, with only two sentences
per month.

This is a project I've spent quite a bit of time on over the year. I produce this for our field every year, but our sales were declining. So I did a survey, put everything out on the table to be considered, and ended up doing a re-design of the product I was already producing. What do you think? I'm pretty impressed. It looks even better in my hand that it did on the screen.

As producer of the calendar I was able to even slip some of my own photos into it. This one is from our camping trip in July.

It is a product designed, not for general sales, but for use by our missionaries as gifts to supporters. We printed 2,200 English copies and 1,000 German copies. I really hope that is is a great blessing to all who receive them.

Published a couple more times

UPDATE: the link on number two was broken, fixed now.

While I've been busy with other things this month, a couple of short articles I "wrote earlier" were published. It's a funny thing, writing. People talk to you about something you've written as if you've just written it, but chances are it was something you wrote six months ago, or even, as I note below, more than two years ago. Same with editing. I'm about 1 ½ issues ahead of everyone else. What my audience is reading now, I was reading well before Christmas last year.

Anyway, here are the two things that I know about that were published:

1. I was featured in an online magazine this month. Connection, the online magazine of Thrive, a community of Global Women. I've had a few other things published by them and they asked if they could include me in their "Global Woman Highlight" this issue. If you want to hop across to have a look, this is the link. 

2. A meditation I wrote more than two years ago was finally published last week in The Upper Room magazine, in the paper edition as well as online.

Plus:

3. This article about teaching Third Culture Kids was written by my husband, but edited and submitted by me.

Gone to reprint

In Australia it was great to have actual props to hold up when we were visiting churches and say, "I was involved in this." 

This booklet was one that I showed around to many people. I was the project manager, but it was a field project. Many missionaries Japan with OMF contributed their skills: writing, proofreading, editing, designing, and advising.

Now I get news that it has sold-out worldwide. It's gone to its first reprint. First print was 4,000, second round is 2,000.

We've had such positive feedback on this. It's a great little tool to help people understand and pray for Japan and our ministry here. We used it in more ways than one during our deputation.

Cross-cultural stress

The grocery store I visit most frequently
in Japan.

Here is an article "I prepared earlier"! Published today by Thrive in their online Connection magazine. It's about the cross-cultural stress experienced by cross-cultural workers and how they can manage that stress. 

Because Thrive is an organisation committed to supporting Global Women, the article is aimed at these women, but I'm sure anyone who knows someone living and working overseas will find something in this helpful.

Published writer, yes I am

Available from au.books@omfmail.com
forA$15, from us or another OMF centre.

Yes, I AM a writer! I've discovered yesterday that I've had a second story published in a compilation, God's Faithfulness.

Project Story is the other book that has a story of mine in it, it was published last year and is a compilation of stories mostly set in East Asia,and put together by OMF Australia. Most of the authors are Australian.

Available for A$10 from here or us,
plus postage

Another books that has two very short stories by me is Growing up Among Worlds, but I am not credited as OMF wished to keep the identity of all the children confidential.

Available for A$4 from us, or from here,
plus postage.

Very satisfying and definitely spurring me on to further writing.

Lonely missionaries?

Several years before I became a cross-cultural worker in Japan, I went on a short-term trip as a single person. Before I left, a young man I was interested in told me he could never consider dating someone who was interested in cross-cultural ministry. I was not even close to being a cross-cultural worker, yet I could already feel the bite of loneliness that comes with the calling. 

(The rest of my article can be found here on the Thrive website, published Sept 9, 2014.) 

Excited about this project

The cover of the 32-page booklet.

I've been working on a publishing project for OMF Japan for nearly 12 months now. 31 Days of Prayer for Japan is in the final stages of production, we'll be going to print within the week. So exciting!

It contains short articles from various missionaries on the field about topics pertinent to OMF's ministry in Japan. We hope it will be an excellent tool for mobilising prayer, as well as mobilising people to come to Japan as missionaries.

It will be on sale through OMF offices around the world, probably in August. I'll let you know when it is available.

I can't believe how good the timing is for us personally, however. To be able to hold this booklet up when we're visiting churches and other groups who support us and be able to say, "This is one thing I did in my ministry in Japan," is going to be pretty useful!

Encouraging writing news

Lots of news on the writing front for me in the last week.

1. I found out that a story of mine about our early days in Tokyo in the midst of a typhoon will be included in a compilation book about God's faithfulness being published by our mission next year to celebrate our 150th anniversary. This will be the first book I've ever been published in! Yay.
2. They also asked me for another story. Bad timing, but I'm seeing what I can do.
3. Another article of mine is being published by OMF Australia in a training manual for home side support teams. You might have seen an earlier version of it here on my blog, it is about missionaries and loneliness.
4. Another publication (Thrive) is also interested in publishing a version of that article about loneliness. I'm waiting to hear back from them.
5. I've received a "we're considering publishing your meditation" email from The Upper Room (this is a paying market that is published in 100 countries in 35 languages). That's definitely hopeful!
6. I've also signed up to go to a Christian Writer's Conference in Australia in October. My first ever face-to-face Writer's Conference. 

So while I haven't been doing much writing of my own recently, it seems as though some things I've written a while ago are still moving forward towards publication. Wonderful!

Plus we're moving closer to getting the 31 Days of Prayer for Japan publication out. A few more details to sort, but it should be out in August. Keep an eye here and I'll tell you how you can get a copy.

Exciting! To have all this information come to my attention within a few days is just plain encouraging. God knows!

My "baby"

One page in this small calendar. I love
the green theme of this page!

One of the great things about being an editor and writer is that you get to hold the product of your work in your hand. This week I got to take this calendar home, with the satisfaction that "I did it!"

It is an annual project that I put together for OMF missionaries in Japan, especially for their use as gifts for supporters back home. It's a little project, but very satisfying.

Strangely enough I wrote a post on the same topic this same day (15th Nov.) last year!

On the other hand, what is strange as an editor or writer is seeing people looking at or reading "your baby" without them realising that it is "yours".

Is this something you've experienced? Someone enjoying your "baby" without realising your relationship to it?

Thriving

Yesterday I discovered two photos I took while in Hokkaido have been published online (aside from here).








Here:
http://thriveconnection.com/2013/08/28/blessed/
and
http://thriveconnection.com/2013/08/14/splendor/

I shouldn't be too surprised, because I submitted them myself, and wrote the blurbs associated with them. The group that published them is called Thrive, it used to be called Women of the Harvest. They are a North American based group committed to encouraging and empowering Global Women (women ministering overseas).

They've published me before, both articles, and in what they call "Picture Praise", which is what the above two photos are. Photos with a story, including a Bible verse.

If you're a Global Woman (especially if you're American), I recommend you check out their website: http://thriveministry.org/.