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You are here: Home / Archives for Missions and Outreach

Missions and Outreach

A few things you should know about Operation Christmas Child

By Pedro Leave a Comment

A few things about Operation Christmas Child

It’s that time of the year again. This is the time when people start buying school supplies, shoes, clothes, toys, and begin looking for that one Wow item for each one of their shoeboxes. Operation Christmas Child volunteers are gearing up for National Collection Week this November 13-20, 2017! This is the one week per year where millions of shoeboxes will be collected from millions of individuals all across the United States and then processed and shipped off to more than 100 countries around the world.

Last year I wrote an article called Top 10 Reasons to Pack an Operation Christmas Child Shoebox! The year before that I wrote, 3 Reasons Pastor should encourage their Churches to Volunteer with Operation Christmas Child. If you didn’t already know, I’m on staff at Samaritan’s Purse, specifically on the Operation Christmas Child team. You might say that I’m biased, you’re right.

I didn’t end up at Samaritan’s Purse by accident, I specifically wanted to work here. So although I may be biased, it doesn’t mean that what I’m saying isn’t true.

My goal here is not to answer questions like, when is National Collection Week? What can I pack in my shoebox? How much is shipping? Or where’s the nearest drop off to me? You can find the answers to all of those questions at our website, https://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/.

What I’m going to do is to talk about things at a little bit of a broader and more general level. I’m going to write some reasons why you should love Operation Christmas Child and why you should participate.

1. Operation Christmas Child is led by a volunteer in your community

Many times, when I hear someone complain about the Operation Christmas Child model, it’s really born out of a lack of understanding about how the organization works.

Although we distribute shoeboxes in over 100 countries around the world, we do not have staff in over 100 countries around the world.

This is how it really works. Highly dedicated volunteers in your local community in the United States are working all year long with churches, community organizations, Christian schools, and local media to promote Operation Christmas Child and get ready for National Collection Week.

Shoeboxes are packed by individuals, collected at churches, and then sent to warehouses we call Processing Centers where they’ll be prepped to ship internationally.

At over 100 countries around the world, local volunteers will receive these shoeboxes and then follow their predetermined plan of distribution by partnering with local pastors who have developed plans to use shoeboxes to engage their communities.

That means that local Pastors and Community leaders in the Philippines volunteer to work with churches in the Philippines to distribute shoeboxes in different communities throughout the Philippines.

The fact is that Operation Christmas Child is always led by a volunteer in his or her own community. It doesn’t matter if it’s Rochester or Rio.

2. Shoeboxes support local communities

The reality is that there is some small but vocal opposition to the impact Operation Christmas Child can have on a local community. Almost all of this opposition comes from a handful of upper middle class Americans who somehow, have a problem with children in need around the world receiving gifts.

It must be great to be in a situation where you’re wealthy enough to determine that others shouldn’t receive gifts.

Honestly, some of these individuals might mean well. They might have read a book like When Helping Hurts or Toxic Charity and now are looking for solutions to end the cycle of poverty. The problem is, Operation Christmas Child’s mission isn’t necessarily to end poverty. It’s to bring the Hope of Jesus Christ to children in need around the world.

Unfortunately, many people who read these books end up using these books as an excuse to sit back and do nothing. Sometimes these decisions are made based off of assumptions made in ignorance.

Each shoebox is used by a local Pastor or Community Leader to serve his or her community.

Do children in other countries actually need these things? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. There are children who need notebooks or shoes in order to attend school. There are others who don’t need a yoyo, but love receiving it anyway. Can a yoyo change a life? Absolutely, read Kojo’s story here.

Will it disrupt the local economy? No. The fact is that 50 or so shoeboxes going to 50 children who probably can’t afford much in a community of tens of thousands of people won’t negatively affect the local economy.

Is this an American program pushing American policies and ideals on others? No, each shoebox is a tool used by a local Pastor or Community Leader to serve his or her community. There are no Operation Christmas Child staff members living in Colombia trying to figure out how to distribute shoeboxes all year long. All that is done by an incredible team of Colombian leader volunteers who are called to bless their nation with the Gospel, and who want to do it in a practical way.

3. Samaritan’s Purse does it better

What is it that we do better? We bring the love of Jesus Christ to a hurting world in a real and practical way. We love to do things in excellence. Think about who your go-to charity is and then compare them to Samaritan’s Purse on Charity Navigator. We’ll likely have a higher star rating and a higher accountability rating. We’re able to respond to disasters in a lighting fast way. Not only does Samaritan’s Purse have the resources and expertise to respond, but we have the will. When our leadership says, “Go”, we go.

We bring the love of Jesus Christ to a hurting world in a real and practical way.

We want to represent Jesus

Samaritan’s Purse is not affiliated with a particular church, movement, political affiliation, or even a specific culture. Children who receive shoeboxes are freely invited to events where shoeboxes are handed out and are not screened by their faith or culture. We don’t promote a religion or a cause. We want to show God’s love in a tangible way and give others an opportunity to follow Jesus Christ. That’s it.

Below are all of the Samaritan’s Purse articles I’ve written over the years.

  • 3 Reasons Pastors should Encourage their Churches to Volunteer with Operation Christmas Child
  • 1 Year at Samaritan’s Purse
  • Never Leave a Man Behind
  • 3 Lessons from 3 Years at Samaritan’s Purse
  • 4 Lessons from 4 Years at Samaritan’s Purse
  • National Collection Week
  • Top 10 Reasons to Pack an Operation Christmas Child Shoebox
  • Why Franklin Graham is grossly Underpaid
  • From the US to Panama
  • Operation Christmas Child Philippines Distribution Trip

November 10, 2017Filed Under: Leadership, Missions and Outreach, Samaritan's Purse

YouTube or Vimeo and what’s Ooyala: Which is better for your Ministry?

By Pedro Leave a Comment

YouTube or Vimeo and what's Ooyala: Which is better for your Ministry?

If you’ve been in ministry in the Western world for any length of time, you’ve already asked yourself this questions. Which is better for my ministry, YouTube or Vimeo? Or, is there a third option?

The debate has raged on since Vimeo came on the scene. It seemed to provide an alternative to YouTube. The YouTube versus Vimeo debate is kind of like the debate between Mac and PC. Who wins? Macs may seem “cooler” but by sheer volume, PCs outpace Macs in every single way. As far as volume, PCs are the winner. Is that the only category, though?

When it comes to technology, volume doesn’t usually matter. I declare Macs the winner because of their reliability, durability, and resiliency. Not to mention their simplicity, which is important for ministry. Right now, I’m writing this on a 7 year old Macbook Pro. That kind of longevity is impossible on a PC.

Does volume matter when it comes to YouTube versus Vimeo?

Yes. And no.

YouTube’s volume is incredible. It reaches 1 Billion unique viewers per month, and growing. Vimeo gets 60 million.

Many ministry leaders like to use Vimeo because it’s cleaner and sleeker. However, YouTube’s reach and impact far exceeds Vimeo’s, and that gap is increasing in YouTube’s every month.

Ministry leaders are called to reach and impact people with the Gospel, so why use a platform that is much more limited? YouTube is where the people are so shouldn’t that be we ministries are at? Yes.

Staying away from YouTube is like deciding to remove your ministry website from Google because you like the Bing experience better. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?

So does that mean that you should stay away from Vimeo and stay exclusive to YouTube? Not necessarily.

Let me explain.

Vimeo provides a much better and cleaner viewer experience. Vimeo’s strength comes when it’s videos are imbedded in your website or when you drive someone there for the sole purpose of viewing a video. I know ministries that do their entire Volunteer training exclusively through Vimeo.

On the other hand, YouTube is great for people searching and finding your videos.

So what should my ministry use?

Both and.

1. YouTube beats Vimeo when it comes to volume

YouTube is the hands down winner over Vimeo when it comes to volume.

Right now Vimeo gets 60 million unique visitors per month. YouTube gets over 1 billion unique visitors. That’s 1,566% more visitors per month. YouTube is where the people are.

2. YouTube’s search capabilities beat Vimeo’s

Having a powerful search feature is what made Google the undisputed King of search engines. It’s no coincidence then, that Google owns YouTube. It also means that your website is likely to receive more visitors through Google if you have a YouTube channel pointing to it.

It also means that your videos are more likely to show up on page 1 of Google if you have a lot of videos on YouTube that point to your website and vice versa. Google likes cross contamination. I can’t think of any other way to say it. Use all Google platforms and you’re more likely to receive visitors through Google.

3. Sharing is caring – YouTube beats Vimeo again

Sharing videos you enjoy is a strength of YouTube’s. It’s also a platform that everyone knows and everyone trusts. You can send anyone a YouTube link to your favorite cat video and people will watch it. Vimeo isn’t nearly as known and therefore, not as trusted, especially outside of the United States. Because of this and its search feature, it’s possible to receive views on a video for years to come. Social sharing is also optimized on YouTube, making it easy to share across all major social media platforms.

4. Easy to use – YouTube wins again

They both have great features and both have pros and cons. However, YouTube is SO EASY to use that anyone can do it, and everyone does do it. It has a subscription feature that allows viewers to see subscribe to your channel, it allows you to promote on other people’s channels, it makes uploading and editing videos a cinch, and if you get a ton of traffic, you can even bring in some serious money from YouTube!

5. User Experience – Vimeo wins!

I admit, it depends what you mean by user experience. Assuming that since you’re leading a ministry, you don’t want your viewers to be redirected to Adult content or questionable content. Because of that, Vimeo wins.

You can embed a Vimeo video on your website and it can be a great user experience. YouTube won’t give you the same benefit.

Both YouTube and Vimeo are social networks. Both have integrated commenting systems, as well as legitimate communities. However, YouTube is much larger and a much more social, social network than Vimeo.

6. How much is YouTube and/or Vimeo? – YouTube wins

You can upload unlimited HD videos of any length or stream HD content on YouTube for free. Vimeo has a monthly or yearly membership fee that increase if you add more content than you are allowed. Therefore, many ministries choose YouTube as their main video channel.

7. Censorship? – Vimeo will NOT censor your videos (maybe)

Censorship of Christianity and/or Conservative thought is becoming more and more common. Unfortunately, both Vimeo and YouTube have been found guilty of this type of censorship.

YouTube has been known to censor videos that embrace Libertarian and Conservative points of view. YouTube has even censored videos that talk about how the US Constitution is relevant to Americans today! YouTube is currently censoring 34 PragerU videos!

Vimeo has censored videos that speak of homosexuality as being a sin, although, in Vimeo’s defense, they cited it was because of a copyright infringement.

Is there a third option? Kind of.

 

Vimeo may be great to embed on your site – and I recommend that you do that. YouTube may be great if you wish to reach people outside of your circle – and I recommend that you do that. Both of these platforms should be your go to budget solution for delivering video content.

However, for ministries who have a healthy budget and a couple tech savvy individuals on staff, start displaying your own videos using Ooyala. Ooyala was started by a couple YouTube employees. They wanted to provide a better experience for companies seeking to display videos.

Still, YouTube is a great way to reach outside of your circle and possibly grow your church or ministry. However, because of YouTube’s history of censorship, don’t upload any videos that you don’t have copies of somewhere else!

What’s your experience been with YouTube and Vimeo?

September 16, 2017Filed Under: Children's Ministry, Church Lessons, Missions and Outreach, Volunteer Management

Top 10 Most Read Posts of 2016

By Pedro Leave a Comment

2016

When you think of 2016, you may think of Harambe, Trump, exploding phones, stock market breakthroughs, or ISIS. You may laugh or cry, probably cry. But one thing is for sure, thousands of you have visited this site for one reason or another, and I thank you.

These are the Top 10 most read posts of 2016. This list takes into account all pageviews from January 1, 2016 until today, December 30, 2016. Most of these posts focus on organizational development of volunteer organizations. Some are random. Still, here they are. Number 1 is the most read post of the year, three years running, and it surprises me to see this every time.

[Read more…] about Top 10 Most Read Posts of 2016

December 30, 2016Filed Under: Children's Ministry, Church Lessons, International Affairs, Leadership, Life's Lessons, Missions and Outreach, Productivity, Samaritan's Purse, Security, Wifeless Survival

10 Ways To Make Meetings with Your Volunteers Productive (and bearable)

By Pedro 1 Comment

DDI

I have a confession, I love meetings. I love real meetings. Real meetings are when things are discussed, dissected, torn down, built up, and planned. Real meetings lead to great outcomes. I have no problem attending meetings all day long. I enjoy it, if they’re real. I’m in the minority, though. Most people don’t like meetings, even if the meetings are productive. Most people are tired of having to meet over every little thing. Therefore, the last thing one of your volunteers wants to do after being at work in pointless meetings all day is then go to a ministry meeting at your church.

These 10 ways to make meetings better are specific to your volunteers. After-hours meetings with volunteers have specific needs. People will come to your meetings at work because they’re being paid to do so. So don’t think that just because employees attend meetings all day at with you at work means you know what makes a meeting with volunteers bearable. On the contrary, I often find the opposite true. The more accustomed you are to work meetings, the more likely you are to think that everyone is accustomed to (often pointless) meetings. Still, if you have a large amount of volunteers, organized meetings are necessary.

[Read more…] about 10 Ways To Make Meetings with Your Volunteers Productive (and bearable)

December 10, 2016Filed Under: Children's Ministry, Leadership, Missions and Outreach

Why Franklin Graham is grossly UNDERpaid

By Pedro Leave a Comment

I work for Samaritan’s Purse. It’s not too long after telling someone this that they’ll comment about Franklin Graham’s supposed excessive salary, often incorrectly stating that he’s the highest paid nonprofit CEO. Never mind that the CEOs for The United Way, Goodwill, March of Dimes, American Red Cross, American Jewish Committee, American Cancer Society, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, World Vision and countless others earn more. Not to mention, or maybe I will mention that many of these organizations have considerably lower efficiency and accountability scores.

Let me step on my soapbox for a little bit….

 

samaritans-purse

[Read more…] about Why Franklin Graham is grossly UNDERpaid

June 11, 2016Filed Under: Missions and Outreach, Productivity, Samaritan's Purse

Islamic Terrorism in Burkina Faso

By Pedro Leave a Comment

January 15, 2016 was ending like so many other days in the bustling capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. In this city of more than 1.6 million inhabitants, there was nothing out of the ordinary. At around 7:30pm in the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino Cafe, business was good, as usual. Suddenly, gunfire and screams of “Allah u Akbar” erupted. A handful of Islamic Terrorists murdered dozens and temporarily paralyzed the city.

article-burkhina-11-0116

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February 22, 2016Filed Under: Missions and Outreach, Security

How the new US Government Hostage Policy affects your Missions Ministry

By Pedro Leave a Comment

white_house

Recently, a new US Government Policy dealing with hostages was put into effect. This policy may greatly impact your missions ministry. US ministries are becoming more and more involved in an increasingly dangerous world. As this happens, the US Government is often caught in the middle of having to intervene on behalf of an American Citizen in trouble abroad. Many times the US Government ensure the safe rescue of a citizen abroad. Other times they come up woefully short, even endangering those they seek to help. Throughout all of this, though, families are often given little to no communication, and can even be threatened with prosecution of they seek to take matters into their own hands.  [Read more…] about How the new US Government Hostage Policy affects your Missions Ministry

February 10, 2016Filed Under: Missions and Outreach, Security

Repost from Pastor Mike Lawrence in Jaco, Costa Rica

By Pedro 2 Comments

My good friend, Pastor Mike Lawrence, and his family just celebrated 10 years as missionaries in Costa Rica. Pastor Mike serves as the Lead Pastor of Calvary Chapel Jaco in Costa Rica. Jaco is a beautiful tourist town that just so happens to be a hub for human trafficking and is riddled with prostitution, drugs, poverty, and all kinds of debauchery. Yet this town also provides great surfing, good food, incredible views, and has some great people calling it home. I’ve had the honor of serving on their church board for a couple years and have had the privilege of visiting them many times. I hope to one day go back and visit them again.

Below is the link to his website where he shares “8 Things The Mission Field Has Taught Me Over The Past 10 Years“.

http://lawrencefamilymissions.com/8-things-mission-field-taught-me/

 

2009-12-17-IMG_1477-1

 

 

November 22, 2015Filed Under: Missions and Outreach

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