Summer has arrived and is in full swing. We have been in a rush with many exciting things happening. For starters, we released the second episode of our ReClaimed testimony mini-doc style series. It has been really exciting to see the amazing response and number of people who have been very encouraged by these videos. We have at least 2 more coming out after this one. I look forward to sharing these with you as they continue to come out. I hope they can be as encouraging to you as they have been to me.
Recently, I have been focused on intentionally investing in my team’s skill development. One particularly fun opportunity I had was to teach David, a designer working with us, how to build a computer. We had 4 Intel Nuc mini-computers that our admin office needed to set up. While my office isn’t explicitly IT, we do help with a large share of these kinds of items. These particular mini-computers come without ram or storage. Thus I took it as a perfect time to teach David how to do basic PC assembly. I did the first one before having him do the other 3 with me on standby for questions. Along the way, he learned how to install components, install a fresh operating system, and other parts of basic computer setup. I really enjoyed this as computer building is something I like quite a lot and David was very keen to learn.
My parents are also here. They came over a couple of weeks ahead of a 2-week development sprint the team my father volunteers on is having. It has been so wonderful to have them here. We have taken a few train day trips around the country and explored a bit more. One that was especially fun was taking them to the Matterhorn. My mother loves the mountains, and she was delighted to see the magnificent peak.
One of the other projects I have been investing a lot of time into is designing the new communications course the base will run at the start of 2023. The goal of the program is to train up people with a passion for media by giving them both practical skills and a biblical basis for communications. Once they complete the first 3 months of the course, they then can progress to a residency program. This residency would be centered around the office with the goal of integrating them into the team and giving them lots of practical experience. My former boss, Jukka will oversee the first part of the course, and I will oversee the residency. However, in order to do something like this, we have embarked on the process of designing and registering the course with YWAM’s University of the Nations. Thus, we have been working on detailed planning of the school for the past couple of months. We finally submitted everything about a week ago, and it was approved by the dean of the college of communications straight away. We are now waiting for the provost to give the final approval and then we can begin to promote the course.
We are calling this new program the Create & Communicate Course, along the same lines as our previous seminars. While the process to make this happen has been somewhat tedious, it is a big step toward multiplying both our team and the number of media-focused missionaries around the world. We call this “Do first, then teach,” basically if there is something you are good at that is wonderful, but if you can make more people good at it, that is even better. I am really looking forward to the residency and getting to have more people in the office to pour into. There is something about sitting down with someone and going step by step through something completely new for them I absolutely love. Seeing their process of discovery and the sense of achievement from doing something for the first time is one of the best parts of my job, and I hope to do much much more of that in the future because of the groundwork we are laying now.
The future is looking very bright with many exciting things on the horizon. I am incredibly thankful for the abundance of opportunities that continue to be presented as time goes on. It is amazing to see God’s hand at work, leading, guiding, and shaping our efforts to further His purposes. I look forward to reporting as more of His plan continues to unfold.
As always, thank you for coming along with me in this adventure of faith,
Ben