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Webwatch: 2007-04: On a Mission

Webwatch is a column published in the Covenant Companion Magazine every month. It is written by Heidi Griepp, manager of Covenant Internet Services and an avid web wanderer. This month, Webwatch explores the world through the blogs of Covenant missionaries.

There are quite a few Covenanters serving abroad who have blogs. Thinking they might enjoy some extra traffic and encouragement, I am featuring them in this month’s Webwatch, in hopes that Companion readers will visit their blogs, comment on their blogs, and pray for these missionaries while reading their blogs. There are many non-blogging missionaries who could use prayer as well. Check them out in the Missionary Prayer Calendar, available through your church or online at www.covenantbookstore.com. It will walk you through praying for missionaries every day.

Rotterdam2007.wordpress.com
Who: Brian Turnbow, short-term missionary
Where: The Netherlands

A blog sample: “As I sit here writing, the city is now enveloped in a blanket of fog. So much so that I can’t even see the lights of the tall office buildings or the Erasmus Bridge outside my window. It’s pitch black. I can’t help but compare the fog outside with the SEAN (pronounced ‘say-ahn’) Bible study course we started tonight at the church. By way of introduction we talked about what parts of the Bible seem ‘foggy’ to us and what parts seem more illuminated. We’ll be working through an overview of the whole Bible in ten weeks with a group of people from Nigeria, Bolivia, the Netherlands, and Scotland.”

What drew me to this blog: The nice movabletype design and Brian’s serious and sometimes artsy posts.

www.andresjourney.info/andres
Who: Andy and Carol Larsen, career missionaries
Where: Spain

A blog sample: (from March 4) “Annie Dillard affirms that the clue to full spiritual aliveness is found in the very forces of calamity that we would avoid if we had the power to choose. The 3 d’s — disillusionment, dislocation, and desert—that missionaries experience can bring us new growth or make life miserable, depending in large part how we process our stuff.

“Struggles and conflict can make us more alive, in paradoxical ways. This is counter-intuitive for most Westerners, where a Western spirituality focuses on upward mobility that has an innate fear of ‘the fall.’ But we need to embrace the dark and difficult things we experience, our suffering and our sin. Not in a way that makes Eeyore our patron saint, but in a way that is honest, truthful, and open to God’s healing touch.”

What drew me to this blog: This is a very substantial blog where Andy and Carol post long thoughtful entries, frequently with pictures. This blog includes resources, stories, inspiration, and discussion for those seeking to be heavenly minded as well as earthly good.

beljohnna.blogspot.com
Who: Johnna Hayward, short-term missionary 
Where: Belgium (working with a Congolese congregation)

A blog sample: (about saying goodbye to several children she was a nanny for) “One of the books we read was The Runaway Bunny, about a mother bunny’s unrelenting love for her baby bunny. It reminds me of how God pursues us no matter what—our entire lives.”

What drew me to this blog: Full disclosure: Johnna is a friend of mine. She has long, very descriptive posts, and reflects on what she’s been reading and the people she meets. 

www.johnsonsinafrica.blogspot.com
Who: Brian and Betsy Johnson, short-term missionaries
Where: Cameroon, at the Rain Forest
International School in Yaoundé

A blog sample: “I can honestly say that after six months I would trade anybody’s 25 below wind chill for our 85 degrees and 90 percent humidity for a day. Another teacher here calls his forehead the ‘permasweat.’ It hasn’t rained here since Thanksgiving and all the roads are pure dust.”

What drew me to this blog: The first post I read was about the adventure of going to a dentist. The Johnsons share a lot about everyday life in Cameroon that causes me to feel grateful for the overabundance of resources I have. It’s good to have a little perspective change even if it is comes through a blog.

rachelledafrique.blogspot.com
Who: Rachel Ekstrand, short-term missionary
Where: Cameroon, at the Rain Forest International School in Yaoundé

A blog sample: (a conversation with a student) “Me: ‘There’s one other reason why we can trust that the Bible is the true Word of God.’ Silence for a while...a couple students flip through their notes...and then one student, who’s usually very shy in class discussion, raises his hand.

“Student: ‘We can know it’s the Word of God because it transforms people’s lives.’

“Me: ‘Amen. The Bible is the living Word of God, not just some stuff written by a bunch of guys a long time ago.’”

What drew me to this blog: The conversation with her student. 

tbiggs.blogspot.com
Who: Tammi Biggs, short-term missionary
Where: Dominican Republic

A blog sample: “Random things I learned today: 1) You never know how valuable a plunger is until you don’t own one. 2) ‘Yes, of course’ to me means ‘Yes, of course,’ but in Jamaica it means ‘It is possible, but maybe not.’ 3) You experience conflicting emotions of laughing and frustration when a cute little Dominican girl tells you she only understands English in order to not have to do what I tell her in Spanish!”

What drew me to this blog: It’s fun and educational.

boydston.blogspot.com
Who: Brad and Cheryl Boydston, project missionaries
Where: Guam

A blog sample: “Critical thinking skills are more and more essential as we prepare people to serve in contexts where a more globalized culture is rapidly encroaching on their isolated worlds.”

What drew me to this blog: This blog feels like a conversation with the Covenant and with the other missionaries who blog.