The Value of Blogs and Other Cyber-News

I try to write an article every day.  It's a little difficult as I am not even in the Philippines yet -- but I still try to write something!  Let's face it  . . . we live in a cyber news age.  Even my 90-something mother-in-law looks for information on the internet.   Any internet website ranking guru will tell you to add new content consistently.  If you're writing a blog, then you need to write daily in order to get the highest ranking. Well I'm not too concerned about where I rank compared to other bloggers, but I do have a pet peeve about keeping websites up to date.  Let me explain.

In my communications with Brother Jul from the Philippines, I learned that there is another church near one of "our" churches in one of the rural areas of Bohol.  That "other" church has started to provide school supplies to the children of its members.  The result is that people from our church are now going to the other church.  I don't fault the other church . . . I don't believe they are intentionally stealing members.  In fact, what they are doing is something that I feel our churches should be doing as well, and that I hope to find the means to do that.

I did some research and found a website for the US church that is sponsoring the work that the "other" church is doing.  The latest report posted was from 2010!  From the casual outsider's perspective, I would think that their missionary in the Philippines wasn't doing much lately, and so why continue to support them?  I know better because I've had some additional information provided to me.  Perhaps there is some internal communication happening between the church and their missionary, but they aren't sharing it with the outside world.  If I was running-the-show, I would insist on having current, up-to-date information posted on the website.  I would want to brag about the things that are happening on the mission field.  Not brag because of pride, but because it's important to show that our mission efforts and expenditures are being used responsibly.  We also need to show how God is working throughout the world.  At least to me, I find the information interesting -- a good read, if you will.

I've offered to build a website for Brother Jul  for the work that he's doing in the central region of the Philippines.  From the letters I've received from him, I'm sure I could post daily updates regarding the work he is doing there.  I'm not a website designer, but with some of the design programs out there now you really don't need to be a designer in order to produce an acceptable website.  I just need to be certain that the site is well maintained and that the content is fresh and relevant.   He and I will discuss what the website will look like while we are stacking cement block and mixing mortar at the project in Sierra Bullones.

Are you up to date?  If you have anything to do with a website,  you do yourself a disservice by not keeping things current.  And if you're responsible for a missionary's website or blog, I feel it is even more critical to post current and insightful reports of what is happening out in the field.  I know that there is some "sensitive" work happening in dangerous regions of the world -- I understand that maybe those missionaries are keeping mum on their accomplishments, especially in places like China, North Korea and Vietnam, as well as anywhere in the Middle East, India and Nepal.  In many of those places, you can end up in prison or dead very quickly.  I respect their decisions to not be too vocal about their activities.  For the rest of us, however, keep the posts coming!