Category: Resource Reviews

Source: SkyPass Entertainment

In rural India in the late 1990s, journalist Manav Banerjee moves with his pregnant wife to Orissa. When speculation mounts that local Australian missionary Graham Staines is illegally proselytizing patients, Manav agrees to investigate undercover.

Coming to theaters across the US on February 1 with a special sneak peek on January 31, The Least of These tells the story of Graham Staines and aims to beautifully illustrate the power of love, hope, and forgiveness to overcome hate.

» Watch the trailer below. Learn more or find a theater.

Source: Sixteen:Fifteen

Students who sense God is calling them to be missionaries may feel scared or uncertain about what to do next. Join Sixteen:Fifteen and David P. Jacob for a one-hour webinar designed to equip pastors and youth leaders to help young people keep their passion for ministry alive.

Jacob is the author of the related ebook It’s Your Call, recently published by William Carey Library. Looks like it might be a good resource to distribute broadly; take a look and let us know what you think.

The webinar will take place Wednesday, February 6, 2-3pm EST.

» Register for the webinar. You can also watch recordings of past webinars from Sixteen:Fifteen.

» See also Afterglow or Transformation? on how churches are maximizing the long-term fruit of student mission conferences (Catalyst Services).

Source: Faith Based Musicals

What if, instead of a film or speaker at your next mission event, your church, school, or ministry presented a drama with a mission theme? Such a choice would also immerse participants in the story for weeks or months as they learned their parts and put the show together.

Faith Based Musicals has developed a simple, one-hour musical production that shares the story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and three other missionaries killed in Ecuador in 1956. Based on Elizabeth Elliot’s book Through Gates of Splendor, the production includes singing, basic acting, and a combination of movie clips and still images and can be presented by any group with at least five (male) singers.

» Learn about At Any Cost. They also have a musical production based on the life of Corrie Ten Boom, inspired by the book The Hiding Place.

» See also dozens of mission-related scripts listed at the Christian resource website DramaShare and let us know if there’s one you’ve used (or created) that might interest Missions Catalyst readers.

Source: XPCulture

Need help organizing and equipping a short-term mission team? XP Culture has lots of content you can use along with a variety of online trip management tools to help you serve your team better and improve the impact of the trip on them and their hosts.

Some of the resources are free; any STM participant can create a free account to go through 90 minutes of video content before or after the trip. The basic level of service is US$30 a person, and for a bit more you can customize materials and create your own training courses.

XPCulture is certified as a resource provider by the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission (SOE).

» Visit the XPCulture website or watch a two-minute overview video.

» Read about other tools and services designed to help you manage mission trips (ShortTermMissions.com).

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

February 1-2, Santa Barbara Mission Conference (Santa Barbara, CA, USA). An annual event.

February 1-3, Missionfest Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB, Canada). Free, annual, community-based mission festival for all ages.

February 3-8, ABIDE (Joplin, MO, USA). Re-entry debriefing for global workers from TRAIN International.

February 4 to June 9, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New classes begin throughout the year.

February 6, Nurturing the Missions Call (online). Webinar from Sixteen:Fifteen.

February 10-22, Second Language Acquisition Course (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by the Center for Intercultural Training.

February 11-15, Emerging Leaders: Developing Critical Skills (Orlando, FL, USA). Training event from Missio Nexus.

February 12-13, Support Raising Bootcamp (Austin, TX, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions. Events in various locations throughout the year.

February 14, Building Missionaries: Fostering Souls for Success on the Field (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

February 14 to March 14, Foundations of Media Strategy (online). Training course from Mission Media U.

February 15-16, Midwest Conference on Missionary Care (New Hope, MN, USA). An annual event.

February 18-21, Thrive Retreat (Tuscany, Italy). For North American women serving cross-culturally. Retreats in different locations each year.

February 20 to March 20, Story in Ministry (online). Mentored course by Mission Media U on applying elements of story to your outreach.

February 21, Creating an Annual Fundraising Plan (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

February 21-22, Standards Introductory Workshop (Clackamas, OR, USA). Training in the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission.

February 22-23, Short-term Mission ConneXion (Clackamas, OR, USA). An annual event.

February 22-24, Missions Fest Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada). Free, annual, community-based mission festival for all ages.

February 25 to March 23, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition provided by Mission Training International.

February 28 to March 2, IMPACT Gathering (Dallas, TX, USA). Annual event for those desiring CPM among UPGs of SE Asia.

» View the complete calendar, which includes some interesting listings for March, April, and beyond. Want to know more about a specific event? Contact the event organizers.

In this edition:

1. VIDEO: 2018 Year in Review
2. BOOKS: The Year’s Best Mission Books
3. VIDEOS: Animated Shorts from the Bible Project
4. WEBSITE: Go.Serve.Love
5. EVENTS: January Training and Conferences

Source: Prayercast

Think back over the world’s headlines from the last year. How much do you remember? As you watch The Year in Review video from Prayercast, ask God to break through global events to touch and transform people’s hearts and lives.

» Want to change the world in 2019? Consider choosing one or more of the Prayercast prayer plans. Make it part of your personal devotions or use with your family or group.

» See also Praying for the World, now available as a free, weekly church bulletin insert from Operation World and the Lausanne Movement.

Source: Catalyst Services

Readers of Postings, a publication of Catalyst Services for church and mission leaders, recommend books published (or read) in 2018. Many of them I loved, found quite helpful, and also mentioned here, but others were new to me. Maybe new to you, too.

» Read Best Mission Books of 2018.

Source: The Bible Project

Meg, in Phoenix, brought to our attention a visual storytelling ministry I don’t think we’ve featured here. The Bible Project is a non-profit animation studio that produces short-form, fully animated videos to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere, through videos, podcasts, and study guides that explore the Bible’s unified story.

Use these free, high-quality materials to bring your own reading of scripture to life or to help others engage with the Bible. Materials are currently available in English, Spanish, German, Indonesian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Russian.

» Explore the Bible through videos from The Bible Project.

» Moving Works is another ministry that makes and gives away short films to tell the world about Jesus. They recently released the first three of six films to use in share Jesus with the Japanese (English subtitles).

Source: Go.Serve.Love

Have you seen this site? It’s the latest web-based service from the ministry that brought us ShortTermMissions.com and AskaMissionary.com. It launched about a year ago and has a fresh, new feel.

One of the things they are highlighting right now is a series of preparedness surveys helping individuals identify gaps and areas of growth as they pursue heading out to serve overseas.

These are great tools for those who feel lead to go but aren’t quite sure what all is involved or what steps they can take now, where they live, to begin preparing themselves emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and culturally.

» See Self Assessments for Global Work and other resources from Go.Serve.Love.