The Mission Hasn't Changed, But The Tools Have

Intro to Missions - Matt & Leonia🧑🏼‍🤝‍👩

Over 20 years ago now, my wife Leonia and I felt called to mission work. But we had a lot of questions: Where would God send us? Who would we serve? What role would we fill?

Maybe Japan, Europe, or China? 🌏

Then, through what could only be described as divine intervention, Leonia and I met a man named Randy Dolan at a missions conference in Cincinnati, OH. Randy was a missionary ministering to Chinese students at the University of Missouri.

In the ensuing months, we talked with him, prayed with him, and read his newsletters. We learned of the countless Bible studies Randy was leading and the numbers of International students who were giving their lives to Christ.

Randy kept telling us, "There is an AMAZING mission field right here on American campuses with International Students."

As we listened to him, we saw that God was obviously at work, and we wanted in!

On to West Lafayette, IN...🎓

Soon, we quit our jobs, sold our business in Indianapolis, and moved to West Lafayette, IN, to join the Chinese Alliance Church plant on the Purdue University campus.

Sixteen short years later we retired from our ministering at Purdue University.

In those sixteen years, we had the rare opportunity to see hundreds of Chinese and other international students give their lives to Christ.

It was nothing short of miraculous!

Three Rules of Communication 🗣️

Reflecting on our journey into missions, what Randy Dolan did to engage us was amazingly effective. He followed three basic principles of communication that everyone should follow if they want to effectively connect with others:

• Make Yourself Visible: Randy made himself visible to us by attending a conference.
• Follow-Up: After our initial meeting, Randy stayed in touch with us through phone calls and emails; answering questions, praying with us, and giving advice.
• Updates: Randy started sending us concise, engaging newsletters (Yes, in the US Mail) describing how God was working in his ministry. These updates gave us the encouragement we needed to pursue our own like-minded ministry.

Randy’s approach is a textbook example of “what” a person needs to do to communicate and connect with people effectively in 1990 or in 2026.

One Village Group - Same Elements, New Tools

Randy's three key elements of good communications - visibility, follow-up, and timely updates - are the same three elements we teach missionaries today at One Village Group.

But whereas Randy only had three tools at his disposal - a landline phone, dial-up internet, and the US Postal Service - today's missionaries have so much more:

• Visibility Today - Along with in-person attendance at Conferences and churches, missionaries now have unending opportunities to be seen through social media platforms, websites, and blogs (like the ones we build at One Village Group!)
• Follow Up Today - Along with free long-distance phone calls and emails, we can now video chat (Zoom, WeChat...) and text anywhere in the world - in real time! (Yes, we train missionaries how to do all this!)
• Updates Today - While the US Mail is still functioning, gone are the days of folding newsletters, stuffing envelopes, addressing envelopes, and paying hundreds of dollars for postage each year. With the click of a mouse, missionaries can deliver updates to anyone, anywhere in the world for FREE, multiple times a year! (Yep - Teach this too!)

A Timeless Message ✝️

For over 2,000 years, the Gospel’s message and the key elements of good communication have remained constant - they are timeless!

But the tools we use to communicate God's timeless message are always changing, always evolving.

And we at One Village Group are here to help missionaries evolve with those changes.

By embracing both the timeless message AND new technology, God is allowing missionaries to communicate and engage with supporters, churches, and people in the mission field more effectively, ensuring the message of Jesus is reaching more and more hearts and lives.

And that’s a good thing!