Today is May 1. A day important for many reasons.
Across the globe (thought not so much in the U.S.), today is Worker's Day (Fete du Travail in French). This is a celebration of the work force of the world. Honestly, when we lived in an international settiing, I was struck at how many other countries take time to celebrate this day (however, it seems like the day is often marked less by celebration and more by protests and violence). Not sure why the U.S. does not honor this day, but I guess we have to factor in the upcoming Memorial Day and that just makes too many holidays in May (that's a total guess). Anyway, we always used it to make a small gift to those special friends who worked in our home while we lived in Africa. As you know, again much different than in the U.S., in most of the rest of the world, it is common and acceptable to have houseworkers who help with cleaning, cooking, lawncare, security, etc. We had 3 people were with us from day 1 in Africa up until our painful goodbyes last June. Sossa, Louise and Laurance were such special friends and so good at what they did. They definitely became part of our family (although they didn't live in our home like Alice on the Brady Bunch!) We love them all so much and desparately miss seeing their faces. We probably think of each one of them at least 10 times every day!
Also, today is the National Day of Prayer in the U.S. May God be the only God of this wonderful country and may He help us in our challenges, empower us to help those in and out of our country who are in need, and may we see our leadership do incredible things that bring you honor. Today, at churches and some schools across this country, many will be praying. Will you join in?
So today, I'm combining my prayers and also ask you to pray for our African friends. Notably today: Sossa, Louise and Laurance. Please pray for them. I don't really know what today's challenges are for them. But God does. Ask His blessing to pour out on each of their families.
-Randy
* Kelly is out of town, so I am returning as guest blogger!
1 comment:
I’m writing this to inform you about a project I am working on something that will help missionaries like you raise awareness and support. I am in the planning stages of launching a missionary news website (possible name is God’s World News) and I would like you to be part of it.
I’m a professional Internet marketer, SEO expert and web designer. I have been thinking for some time that there must be a way I can use my skills to further God’s kingdom. After doing some analysis, I discovered that although there are many missionary blogs and websites, there are not many that have been optimized correctly to get a lot of readership traffic. You are probably aware of this, but a couple of the most important ways to get a lot of traffic is by having a high Google (Google, because it gets the most search traffic) PageRank and by having new content – A LOT of new content.
That is were you come in, with the content. Before I launch the news website, I would like to get 150 (eventually, I hope to have even more than this number, but this would be a good start) missionaries around the world to agree to be “news journalists.” If you are interested, I would like you to be one of the 150.
If you choose to participate, I would need you to agree to provide at least 12 articles in a year’s time. The topic choice would pretty much be up to you. You could write about events in the country, challenges you are facing, tips for new missionaries, how God provided for your needs, and more. You can also submit videos and photos. I just ask that everything submitted is high quality and original. It’s fine if it’s been published in print before, but if the content is already on the internet, the news websites PageRank will be reduced. The reason I say a year is because that is the time period through which I will evaluate how well the idea is accepted and whether I should continue the project. Call it beta testing if you want But that is about the necessary time needed to make the website a success.
If successful, there would be thousands of hits a day on the website. You would benefit by having many thousands of people around the world read about how God is using you. Hopefully, some of these people would support you with prayers and/or finances.
If you are interested, please contact me by sending an e-mail to joe@josephkolb.info. Please let me know your name, the country you are working in, your missions name, your website, how many articles you would like to submit during this testing phase (12 or over), your contact information, your website, and any questions you have. Please provide as much of that information as possible as it will be hard to keep track of everyone if I have so many participants. Sometime after I get your e-mail I will contact you with more detailed article criteria.
I think that’s about it for now. Oh, yeah one more thing, I would like participants to add a link from their website (if they have one) or blog to the news website. In-links is another way that Google uses to establish PageRank.
Thanks in advance!
God Bless You!!
Joe<><
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